22 Mar - 4 April Cape Reinga to Christchurch

The problem with being busy doing really great things is this blog gets a bit behind, then it becomes harder to write because I forget most of the little details! It’s been a common problem in New Zealand and continues to be that way!

So picking up from Auckland, somewhat shamefully, over a month ago I left to head up to the northernmost point of the North Island, Cape Reinga. The weather still hadn’t calmed down and the riding was cold and not as enjoyable as it should have been through another lovely part of the country, so a few days stay in Whangarei, the last decent sized town on the way north was called for.

Letting the weather pass, which it does pleasingly quickly here, on the 26^th I set off to Ahipara, a little beach village with a YHA hostel, and the perfect departure point to the long ride alongside 90 mile beach to the north point. On the way across two awesome things happened. Firstly, I passed along the first toll road in New Zealand, which happily is run automatically by cameras registering your number plate, then you go onto their internet site and pay the toll electronically. Fortunately number plates here only have six digits, and mine is seven long which boggles their computer’s mind and lets me travel toll free! It works, I called to ask about it, bonus!

Secondly, as people all say the good motorbikin’ is on the South Island, I was surprised to find the most enjoyable and downright fun road you could imagine passing over a small mountain in the middle of nowhere. Not particularly steep, but very twisty, the road engineers decided to elaborately bank a series of several hundred corners that gives you the sensation of being on a rollercoaster dipping and rising around bends for about 50kms. It’s awesome and I actually felt motion sickness at the end of it. It was even worse an hour later after I’d turned round and rode back and forth along it again just to check it was as good as it seemed the first time round.

The awesome banked road

Twisting and turning on the road north

The following day with perfect weather and bike running like a dream, I set off up to Cape Reinga. As with many parts of New Zealand, there’s only one road there and it’s the same road back. That said, apparently parts of the beach are used a highway which you can ride/drive up when the tides out. Sadly at that time, it would have meant leaving so early in the morning it wouldn’t have been worth it, so I stuck to the road which was more than perfectly pleasant.

The road to Cape Reinga

Nice scenery along the coast

Riding down a track to the dunes

Being New Zealand, they do dune surfing!

following the beach north

Almost there, above a bay looking south

Cape Reinga in comparison to Bluff down south is a delight to ride to, a long narrow spit of land stretches through green fields with huge yellow sand dunes poking up along the west coast making an odd looking scenery of rolling green hills with the odd yellow one thrown in perfectly in place. The north point is marked by a small lighthouse and the ubiquitous yellow sign pointing to various places. Notably busier than Bluff, people mill around asking each other to take photos and read all about the Maori history of the area which is known as the  place where souls travel to after the person dies.

The path to Cape Reinga lighthouse

The very north point of new Zealand

The yellow sign

Cape Reinga was another little milestone of my time in New Zealand and was soon to give way to the next and final one, my friends Allen and Kate visiting from England for a few weeks. This meant a long ride down to Christchurch that was best done in a few long days with some time off to relax on arrival. I picked a spot in New Brighton on the coast called strangely the Purple Der, a purple painted home in an area badly damaged by the earthquakes but was itself fine. The motel as such was someone’s home to which they’d added three guest rooms in an annex off one side which were both cheap and incredibly comfortable.

Catching a ferry on way south

Crossing a river on the North Island

It was a delight to stay somewhere that was within my budget but was basically my own small apartment with private bathroom, kitchen and a huge TV. The long beach at Brighton was just a few minutes away with a little town centre and library, it was the perfect place to relax for a few days before my final big ride back up to Auckland from where my bike will head home by ferry and a few days later I’ll be overtaking it on a plane.