Nev & Jo NZ2018 South Island

nev

Super Térrarist
Some highlights included a Britten V1000, 1 of only 10 ever built. If you wanted one, you’d probably need at least a million dollars, and then you’d need to wait about a million years until one of the current owners finally decided to sell.

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Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, for anyone who doesn't remember the excitement around the time in the early 90s when Britten launched this bike, just for sake of comparison.

Suzuki RGV250 - 60HP - 138KG (DRY)
Britten V1000 - 166HP - 138KG (WET)
 

robbieb

Tassie Daddy
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, for anyone who doesn't remember the excitement around the time in the early 90s when Britten launched this bike, just for sake of comparison.

Suzuki RGV250 - 60HP - 138KG (DRY)
Britten V1000 - 166HP - 138KG (WET)

Great pics as always, Nev. :clap:

Goes to show how much weight can be save by doing away with a conventional frame and approaching materials and design differently

Why is Jo sitting down in almost all your photos? W-)
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Day 8 Queenstown

We spent a day in Queenstown as tourists.

Queenstown is very touristy. Everything revolves around the tourism industry. I’d hate to be a local, because everything costs tourist prices here.

We went for a ride up in the Gondola to the Queenstown Skyline. From here you can do paragliding, bungee jumping or ride on the luge. All of these at extravagant prices. We just had morning tea in the cafe and enjoyed the free vistas across the lake.

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Mural made out of jelly beans

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At the bottom of the gondola we visited the Kiwi wildlife park.
It’s almost impossible to see a kiwi in the wild in NZ and even in a couple of places we’ve visited which have kiwi enclosures and birds in captivity it’s almost impossible to view them up close, but this establishment did have an enclosure which encouraged the kiwis to make themselves be seen without feeling vulnerable.

The wildlife here was very friendly

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The SS Earnslaw makes it’s way to Walter Peak Station

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nev

Super Térrarist
Day 9 Queenstown to Lake Hawea.

We got off to a fairly early start, and headed straight up to Coronet Peak. Near the top we took the Skippers Canyon turnoff. The road was very slippery. There was grading in progress and it looked like some sections had been visited by the grader just before our arrival.

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When we got to the bottom of the canyon, the location of the Welcome Home Hotel (or at least the location of the chimney which remains) Jo let me know she wasn’t having much fun on this road, so we turned back and headed back up the hill. It was good timing really, because near the top we hit the first few 4wd of the morning heading down into the canyon, and after we reached the top there was a steady stream of minibusses and 4wds full of tourists heading down.

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Looking back over Queenstown

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Then we continued up the mountain to the Coronet Peak skifields. There was no skiing going on, but the adventure sports were in full swing. We were there for about 15 minutes and watched 2 hang gliders and 1 parasailer (each being tandem units with a paying customer strapped in) launch off the side of the mountain.

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Back down the mountian and we turned left towards Arrowtown. We stopped for morning tea at a cafe set up in the paddock where the paragliders and hang gliders and tandem skydivers land.

On both of my previous riding trips through this area I’ve headed north over Crown Range to Wanaka, so today we continued east and south to Cromwell, through Cromwell Gorge and down to Alexandra where we lunched before taking the return trip up through Cromwell Gorge to Cromwell again.

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Farm Sculpture

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nev

Super Térrarist
Past Lake Dunstan and further north to Lake Hawea where were spent a relaxing afternoon in the shade of the trees by the lake in the caravan park.

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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
:clap::clap:

Some exceptional aerials there from the Skippers road, woww!
Stunning shots!!

I bet it wasn't much fun running the Skippers road just after the grader has left all the soft crap everywhere. Not the best road to goof around on at any time...
more stunning stuff from Lake Hawea.
There's a great spot along the northern shore of the lake. (camp, shade, water, toilets etc)
Kidds Bush https://goo.gl/oYisoX
Info: https://goo.gl/4fQJto
 

nev

Super Térrarist
more stunning stuff from Lake Hawea.

It was just magical there. There lake was like a mirror when we arrived, and it was only after I took those photos that a boat went past and started a string of ripples which didn't subside for probably half an hour, then it was knockoff time, and lots of locals were taking their boats out for a bit of an after work fish.
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Day 10 Lake Hawea to Franz Josef

Another sunny day with clear skies. Boy New Zealand is Monotonous !

Headed north past Lake Wanaka.

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A stop at Ship Creek. This place interestingly got its name because part of the wooden hull of a shipwreck was found washed ashore in the area at various times between the 1870s and 1920s. The pieces of hull was discovered to have been from a ship which had been shipwrecked in 1855 on the “Shipwreck Coast”.. the rocky coast of western Victoria, and those parts of hull had then floated over 2000km in ocean currents to this place.

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Lots of roadworks along the coast here. This part of NZ received a deluge of rain on Day 4 of our trip when we were in Dunedin. Some parts of the coast here received over 100mm of rain in a few hours. This caused quite a bit of road damage and landslides, so there were a few slow spots where we had to wait for traffic signals. These hightech signals were great, with a countdown timer to give you an idea how much longer you will be waiting before the light turns green.

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We found our accommodation in a motel room at a backpacker lodge in Franz Josef. We had booked to go on a helicopter flight up to the glacier, and it was a lovely sunny day, but at the exact wrong time, low level clouds formed in the valley leading up to the glaciers, and the helicopters were grounded, so, we had to console ourselves over a chicken parmagiana and an IPA :)
 

nev

Super Térrarist
Day 11 Franz Josef to Reefton

First stop this morning is down to the carpark from where it is possible to hike up to the Franz Josef glacier. We hike the shortest distance necessary to get the obligatory photo.

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Next stop this morning is at HariHari. In a small building on the roadside is housed a replica of the biplane flown here by Guy Menzies. In 1931, at the age of 21, Guy Menzies flew solo across the tasman in terrible weather, leaving Mascot airfield in NSW in the early hours and crash-landing in a swamp near HariHari on the west coast of NZ.

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It was the first solo crossing of the Tasman Sea. He feared his request to fly would be declined if he went through official channels, so instead he told his family and friends he was planning a non-stop flight to Perth instead, only informing them of his real destination once he had landed. He was a minor celebrity in the region for a few days before returning to Sydney. Fewer than 10 years later he was killed when his plane was shot down during WW2 near Italy.

Just south of Greymouth, at Kumara Junction, we headed east towards Christchurch, then took a left turn at Inchbonnie and followed the road through lovely countryside to Lake Brunner, and had lunch at the pub in Moana, overlooking the lake. From there it was a quick trip through Blackball

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And then we stopped for the night in Reefton.

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Many of the shops in the main street of town are surviving weatherboard shops which were established in the 1860s during a gold rush here. .

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Hytram

<-- now went that way
Many of the shops in the main street of town are surviving weatherboard shops which were established in the 1860s during a gold rush here. .

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you actually forgot to take photos of Reefton and just put in photos of Queenstown Tasmania from your last trip down there...
 
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