One thing on my bucket list was to travel to New Zealand and discover the country the best way you could do so: on two wheels. In a car, you have that window that interferes with a lot of the beauty of traveling. The smells, the 360 degree views, the sounds, the bugs in the face...
Me and my friend rented two VStroms and we packed enough clothes to last 2 weeks… i.e 4 tshirts, 2 pairs of jeans and a couple of socks and undies. I was so thrilled to do that trip, I barely looked at the forecast and I just left with my leather jacket and my cheap aldo boots. The first week was beautiful, we were riding between 400 and 600 kilometers per day and nothing happened but a flat tire. We saw the impressive meeting point of the Pacific ocean and Tasman sea from Cape Reiga, rode on 90 miles beach for an amazing freedom experience, ate the best mussels I ever had in Coromandel and experienced more than one outstanding natural phenomen.
One of them was by Hahei, on the north island… there is a beach where at one specific spot, when the tide is low, you can see (and feel) the hot water source coming from underneath the sand… You can then dig a hole of the size you want and enjoy a hot natural jacuzzi. Go there at night, bring a joint, a bottle of wine and your favorite human(s) and enjoy the stars and the sound of the ocean at that magical spot. Can’t get fucking better than that.
Another amazing experience was to go see the glowing worms in the caves of Waicomo. The tour allows you to ride a small boat in complete darkness where you get to see hundreds of blue-green tiny lights illuminate the caves, making it looks like a breathtaking sky full of stars. No picture ever will do justice to the real beauty of this sight. Those worms can be found only in Australia and New Zealand, so get on it!
Something else you have to see if you go there is Waiotapu's thermal wonderland. The site is an active geothermal area close a volcanic centre that gives a bunch of hot springs different crazy colours. You will feel like it's unreal but it is! Vivid Orange and green pools, boiling mud and geysers... It's truly fascinating seeing such an amazing natural phenomena.
Both north and south islands are absolutely stunning from top to bottom and exploring it by motorcycle gives you that proximity, that feeling that nothing is in between you and nature, you feel connected to your sourrounding and therefor appreciate even more its beauty. But enough sweet talking, let’s get to the goddamn nightmare. As soon as we hit the west coast of the south island, the drizzle tried to signal us that worst was yet to come, but we had to pass by there no matter what so we basically didnt give much of a fuck about a baby rain…. holy. fucking. shit. Excuse my french, but these are the words that I was repeatly saying in my head for the next hour… (I’m lying, I was saying much worst). The drake drizzle quickely turn into a rick ross torrent…. We stopped as soon as we hit the next village, but by that time, we were soaking wet and didn’t really want to get going. I was freezing… we stayed at the pub for 2 hours, sitting by the fire place, our socks and boots drying up by our side.
When it finally stopped rainning outside, we got back on our bikes and hit the road. I didn’t think possible to get harder rain after that, but sometimes, life just wants to surprise you with a big “haha fuck you”. I rarely have seen pouring that much… with no rain gear, nothing was enjoyable anymore…the rain drops were hurting my skin through all my layers of clothes and the wind was just so cold, I was hating my life… I was trying to think about happy moments, beach, sun, sweaty sex… nothing was working. We got to the next accomodation about 50 minutes later and by then, nothing on me was dry, except the only thing that should be wet usually. ahem.
After a long hot shower, we headed to the pub, which was also our motel reception. We got drunk with some local dudes and a young ginger boy begged me for a kiss in a telephone booth…. I mean, I was so confused that I just looked at him like you look at a Hasselhoff music video….I just survived a goddamn storm kid, on a motorcycle… go be ginger somewhere else*.
*No ginger were harmed in any moment of this trip or ever.
