We're still in New Zealand, enjoying the riding. After a rainy and cold New Year's, the weather is gradually improving.

We spent New Year's eve and the following night in a warm hotel room and afterward were blessed with a couple of days of nice weather which we used to explore the east shore of the north island between Napier and Wellington.

Castlepoint Beach, North Island

Cape Paliser was beautiful - turquoise blue ocean, windswept hills that meet the ocean and mostly uninhabited. Since there is no natural harbor, the boats are launched by bulldozers backing the trailers across the sand and into the ocean. We decided to set our tent up on the beach in front of a small village. The camping was free and there were a few others doing the same. A fellow camper, a local Moari, befriended us and gave us a shellfish to try called 'paua' which we think is abalone. He cooked it for us with a sauce of milk, garlic and butter and it was delicious. In terms of the camping, we pretty much got what we paid for. At night the wind became very strong, and our tent made very loud snapping sounds from beating in the wind. We thought about removing the fly but didn't think the mesh inner tent would be much protection against the objects flying around such as bait buckets and 'chilly bins' (coolers). Our new friend Rob, had to move to a new location in the middle of night because he was almost blown away. Our little tent survived quite nicely.

Cape Paliser, North Island

Fur seal, Cape Paliser

After leaving Cape Paliser, we drove through the Rimutaka Gorge. Normally, it would have been a beautiful ride but this was the weekend after the holiday and traffic was very heavy in addition to horrendous wind gusts. At times we had to fight to keep our bikes out of the lane with the oncoming traffic. It turned out to be too much work to enjoy the scenery. As soon as we left the gorge, we found a campsite and visited the filming location for Rivendel from the Lord of the Rings. It didn't look like anything other than a clearing in the trees, but next time we see the movie we'll see if we recognize it.

We spent a few days camping in Wellington. It has a terrific museum and we spent almost an entire day there. Dave spent a day riding with Lance, whom he met through the Horizons Unlimited website. Lance gave him some great tips for rides to take on the south island as well as showing pictures of his motorcycle trip through South America.

It was time to head to the South Island. We had a nice calm day for the ferry crossing which reminded us of the ferry to Vancouver Island in Canada. It took three hours to make the crossing. We rode to Kaikoura the first day and then on to Christchurch the following day. Dave's mom flew in from Canada so we parked our bikes for two weeks and travelled in a rental car. We stored our bikes at Rob's house, a member of the Horizon's Unlimited Christchurch community.

While mum was here, we did a lap around the island, hitting most of the highlights. It was all so beautiful. In the evenings we would watch the Australian Open tennis matches on tv in the comfort of a motel room. Deb was thrilled to not have to camp for two whole weeks.

Mum on one of many swinging bridges

Yellow-eyed penguin, Dunedin

Beautiful Milford Sound in Fiordlands National Park

Morekai Boulders

Christchurch during the buskers festival

Even though the car trip was nice, there is no comparison to travelling by motorcycle. In the car we were isolated from the weather so wind, rain and cold weren't an issue but the glorious days weren't as glorious. We also found that we met alot more people travelling by motorcycle. In the car, we were just ordinary tourists.

Mum has made it safely back to Ontario and we are once again living in the tent.