NEW ZEALAND 6
90 Mile Beach is at the very top of New Zealand. It is actually only around 56 miles long. We understood that you could join at the south end and ride to the north end and get off there, coming back by road. Er, no. When we got to the end we found a few fellas in their camper van who
confirmed that the only way was back the way we came - there was access off at this end but only for pedestrians, unless we could ride our bikes up steps. There was one other way - about 1km back down the beach was a river which, so long as we did not stop (as we would surely sink), we coud ride up. Er, no thanks. So we actually did just over 90 miles on the beach.

Stopping for photo's was also a problem - after a few minutes the bikes would start to sink. Who said it was fun doing this ??
Pedestrian exit only
Photo stop
Back to Auckland to arrange shipping the bikes to Australia. Again we had a free bed - never to be missed on the road and great company with old friends from back home.

We had decided that we would send the bikes by airfreight to save wasted time. Packing proved simple again and once again different. The bikes we simply strapped down to a metal sheet which was loaded directly into the plane.
No need to even take the luggage off - let alone take wheels out etc.
With the bikes packed we were stranded. Bruce and Jackie our new hosts lived outside of Auckland City itself and public transport was not an option so we hire our first car. Jenny hated it - it all seemed so strange after so long.
Home Next-Australia......... Back