Winter 2019 - NZ 23 Last Day of Riding – Back to Christchurch

NZ 23   Last Day of Riding – Back to Christchurch

Spectacular Mt. Cook

I kept turning my head when we left Mt. Cook. This is a beautiful spot; I could spend a week here, just wandering around. 

But we have to turn in our bikes today, and we have to get to the offices of the rental company Te Waipounamu, someplace in Christchurch.

So while we had a good ride, and we followed most of the suggested roads in

Hard to Ride Without Turning Around to See This

the brochure; once we came close to Christchurch I somehow got lost. No biggy, we had the address in our GPS but I cannot recall the exact route we took. We followed at one point just the GPS instructions and voila, we arrived at the rental office. We arrived around noon, and when we were ready to turn our bikes back in we were told to come back a bit later, they were not ready yet to accept our bikes. Hmmm. 

Returning the Bikes to Te Waipounamu Tours

So we went to a nearby McDonald's for lunch and Wi-Fi, tanked up our gas and then around 1.30 PM or so, rode back to their office. Yes, they walked around the bike, gave it a perfunctory look over, we handed in the keys and that was it. And like their brochure spells out: “well folks, that’s it.”

Now how do we get to the Hotel? 

We were told to wait a bit, Ellis would take us, and yes, after a bit Ellis showed

Cobweb With Me For Whole Trip, Hidden Behind the GPS

up and we, Carol and I, sat in the Van, squished together on the front seat and were delivered to the final hotel for this trip. Some other rider(s?) sat on the suitcases in the cargo hold with us but I don’t know who sat there. The end of the trip was a bit anti-climactic. The hotel we were in had a restaurant and we had our farewell dinner later that night.

All were relieved to learn that the whole trip expired without a major incident.

Nobody was hurt, nobody got irretrievably lost. All is well that ends well.

Will He Pull It Out? At the Hotel Cotswold

The 2 bikes that had some damages from a bump collision (Glen bumped Fred at a stop before a one-way bridge crossing) were inspected but the rental office said only that they would send invoices to the participants. The damages were not extensive enough to retire the bikes, but repairs had to be made to the panniers, the muffler and some other small stuff. Again, nobody got hurt and that is the main thing.

Some email addresses were exchanged, promises of a later in the year meeting were procured and really folks, that’s it.

Goodbye to Hans' Bike

While most of our group had to leave early the next day, we, Carol and I would just take a trip to the airport and then rent another car. We are not done with NZ yet, we have another week, but on our own, with a rental car, going south, all the way south. 

Goodbye to Carol's Bike

Keep on reading, but…. good bye motorcycles.