Good Bye to New Zealand

My time is up here in New Zealand. In the morning I head over to Sydney Australia. I am sorry to be leaving. I did not finish my goals of riding here. Just ran out of time mostly due to weather slowing me down. I seriously enjoyed every minute here. No amount of rain or wind can detract from the beautiful country that New Zealand is. The mountains and valleys were all good. The people were always friendly and helpful. Well, except for the bike hating drivers who were the exception.

I still do not understand that animosity between bikes and cars here. The country needs to take the time to settle this dispute before more people are killed from it. I understand both the bike riders side and the car drivers side. The bike riders want to take up the entire lane when it is too dangerous to pass for their own safety. However, they push that past the reasonable level and block cars on purpose just because they are able to. That pisses off the drivers and they take it out on all future bikes they encounter on the narrow roads. Please, New Zealand start some discussions to stop this nonsensical fight between cars and bikes.

I have already boxed up my bike and packed my bags. My flight leaves at the crack of dawn for Sydney. I have four nights booked and paid for in a nice hotel in downtown Sydney. I hope to enjoy the city a bit before I ride south along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne and take a ferry over to Tasmania.

Tasmania has been a must visit place for me since I was a kid reading National Geographic magazines. I am not sure why but the place attracts me to it. I hope the real life experience stands up to my imaginary vision of the place. Everyone I have talked to about it have told me they liked the place. I think I will too.

I also want to get out to Western Australia and ride the West coast for a while. I have already done the East coast from Darwin to Canberra. Perth beckons to me almost as strongly as Tasmania does.

So for now, Good-bye to New Zealand and Hello to Australia. Sorry no pics today.