Autumn has come ...
Driving around the South Island, where autumn has its pages. It is very beautiful but the weather can be fickle and sometimes sunny and nice, or so it strikes on a few hours and becomes cloudy, cold and wet.

But of course we knew this before so you have to dress so that you can manage to run in the mountains when there are only seven degrees and raining. When you come out to the coast tend to be better and then you have to stop and take the place of rain, wind jacket and a thick coat that you had to survive.

Welcome to Shanty Town ...

We drove up in a historical little village called Shanty Town (S42 32 100 E171 10 952) A nice little break with the steam train journey, visit sawmills and gold panning. Sometimes you need a little rest from the motorcycling.

Gold Panning Spirit of Japanese people with own guide and all ...

It was a nice museum where you could see what it looked like a typical small town in NZ in the early 1900's.

The main road in Shanty Town ...

Rails in the jungle ...

Rail passengers ...

We drove across the island and over the Arthur Pass It rained on us almost all the time but through the rain drops could see how beautiful this can be a nice day.

When the weather that we took pictures it was such a beautiful ...

Arthur Pass ...

The roads over the pass is so fine ...

Can you park the better ...

A little further up the weather got a bit better but then we ran into a dimmoln and then dropped the temperature down to 7 degrees. Brrr ...

We made our way through this call and to thaw our frozen stiff cells, we took in to a hostel in Springfield (S43 20 283 E171 55 835). Here it was warm and good when we entered the dining room and burned it a go bonfire as we stopped at for a while. We cooked some grub and then we slept well in warm beds goa ...

Kjell O YHA owner in the kitchen before we went on ...

The following day we drove down to and through the Church Crist. We ran out on the coast and out to Lyttelton where we käkad lunch at a typical tavern. Then we drove on dead straight roads all the way to the Rangitata, where we again drove into the mountains towards Mt Cook. But even today, it was so cold in Fairlie (5853 S44 49 989 E170), we decided to stay at a campsite in a small house that had heat ....

Not much to the elements, but it was hot after a while ....

He is standing on a high rock and blues music flowing slowly out of his guitar. He is tall and big and his long, ruddy, krylliga hair is like a halo around his head in the wind. In his face you can see the joy of play and he grimaces and looks very focused when he creates his music.

Now he is not on the mountain longer, but he is at a large parking lot. Trucks and cars driving past him and so obscure that I can not see him anymore. I hear the wind as wines from the hills and his blues music still echoing among the peaks ...

Music and dream makaren ...

I open my eyes and through the dirty little window on the Downtown Backpackers Hotel in Wellington, I can see that the first morning light finds its way between the tall buildings. Such a strange dream. But ... was it a dream? I can still hear the music. But now, the echoes between the houses in Wellington and flows in through the small window for me.

I have to get up and look out the window but could not see anything but the music in it from the bottom somewhere. Kjell dress and go down to see where the music comes from.

There is a guy sitting outside the station in Wellington and played for the first visitors to the station, early in the morning. All that is passing him smile and throw him a dollar or two, some places to which the notes. Then he was forced to stop playing for a moment, toss a few dollars over the notes so that they do not blow away, then he smiles and thanks and continue to play. A lady passing smile with your face and says to Kjell when she passes. -Every time he plays he makes my day, and so do she has a $ 5 bill in his drawer and disappears into the station building.

Good start on a nice day.

We arrived in Wellington in the nick of time yesterday. When we drove around and looked for somewhere to live began to breathe heavily. We decided to stay at the Downtown Backpackers Hotel, located directly opposite Bluebrige ferry that goes to the South Island. It blew so strong as when we were inside at the front desk to inquire if they had room, blew my (Karin) motorcycle overturned in the street. When we loaded the last of the bags from the motorcycles began to storm and rain so we had to hurry up at the hotel reception.

We got a room and installed ourselves there. We had some dinner at six o'clock and it had stopped raining and we we went for a walk in the center, in the wind. Everything was closed. Wellington is not so big but it is New Zealand's capital city, but it did not help, turn it down all the shops and cafés and everything else around 17:30. we went back to the hotel and stayed there and watched some rugby on TV.

Now we leave Wellington

You have to strap the bikes is thoroughly ...

After waking to the amazing music in the morning. We drove a little round and looked at Wellington and then we went down to the ferry terminal and waiting to come on board the ferry.

We had a nice trip between islands and bays.

Picton from the best place ...

When we added in Picton on South Island, we decided that we would only drive a short distance and then set up camp. We drove along the northern coast and ended up in Havelock, which is grönmusslans capital. (S41 16 831 E173 46 064) Here we stayed at a charming little backpacker hostels.

The owner of the dining room at the hotel in Havelock ...

The port of Havelock ...

South Island Day 2
After having slept well in Havelock, we drove further out towards the west coast. We drove all day, stopping only to shop in Westport.

Beautiful waterside ...
We drove to a campsite a bit south of Westport in which we stayed with some Germans who emigrated here 20 years ago and drove it asks. They had a small restaurant and pub and you could pitch the tent, where for $ 5 per person. In the evening it started to rain and then it rained and the whole night. But we have a great tent so we slept well in our warm bed ...

Rain ...
First, puncture, and then rain. When we drove in the days we had rain the first few hours. It is fortunate that we have proper rain gear now. We bought new rain gear when we were at Brian and Jocelyn at Papamoa and we had these really benefit from today.

Though it rains, it is fine ...

But when we drove through Te Kuiti where Rob lives, who we visited and where we looked at all the cows. Then we were glad for his sake that it rained for they had been so dry so that they hardly had to feed the cows. So we hope that this cut was good.

A and other road works must be reviewed at times ...

Deciding that it was rainy and wet, we had nice run today with lots of wonderful mil along the incredibly beautiful roads.

Mil after mil ...

We drove south out now. Right now we are just north of Wellington on a camping in Levin (S40 37 822 E175 17 494)

We have been thinking that we are going to Wellington tomorrow and see if we can find to the Australian Embassy. We must organize so that we can stay there for a while and that we do not have the same trouble again that when we would come to NZ. Then, we were forced to buy a return ticket out of the country again at the airport. And so we look up the best and cheapest travel to South Island.

Out on the road again ...

A freshly painted and nice boat ...
Now we have been up with Bo and Vivi in Whangarei and saluted. They stay in a marina with boat and has painted it so it is fresh in the now when they so slow to sail home via Australia. Vivi spoiled us with incredibly good homemade food.

The reason we drove up there was that we needed to service our bikes. Kjell changed oil, filters and pins on his bike and it became my oil change and filter change and brake pads front. I took the opportunity to 'cross mending our protective vests with velcro in. and some stitches were needed to be reviewed in them.
We had two nice days and evenings together and we are lucky maybe we can be seen in Australia again.

Newly serviced ...
We are currently in Otorohanga. O We have been showered and will soon go to bed. We have been busy all night, I cooked some food for us and Kjell have cooked our first puncture. Pretty amazing that we have managed for over seven months without punctures, but today it was time. Kjell felt that his motorcycle was a bit wobbly in the rear, so we drove to a gas station and checked the pressure. He pumped it up to almost 3 kg and then drove us to this camp.

Once there, he observed with the help of water and shampoo that there was a small hole in the deck. We have tubeless tires and had before we left Sweden bought a kit to repair plugs, an awl / drill and another thing that looks like a DARNING NEEDLE with a handle that you must insert the plug into the tire with.

Nypumpat ...
The whole procedure was over in five minutes and then we pumped up the tire again with the help of our little Biltema compressor.

Now it seems tight again ...
Kjell checked with water and shampoo again and it seems that it has become tight. We can see in tomorrow ...

Right now we are sitting on the YHA in Auckland again and today is Anna o Jeppe go home in. Where did these 10 days go?? Kjell O Jeppe is and returns to their motorcycle and we should pack them in some of our stuff that we have decided that we can be without. One of the cameras and one of our stoves can go home now because we almost never use it.

Brian fillets our dinner ...

During these last few days we have been around in the middle of the North Island. We were out fishing with Brian and Jocelyn and had a really nice day at sea. We got a lot of fish and also some of them we ate for dinner at the home of Jocelyn and Brian.
We drove up and camped on Mt Ruapehu is an active volcano. It was at this volcano, which they recorded "Mordor" the lord of the rings movies. That night was probably not more than a few degrees but we had plenty of clothes for us so we did not feel cold even though we camped.

A dormant volcano ....

Tranquil kiwi ...
We have run through several kiwi bird areas but we have not managed to see a wild kiwi bird ever so finally we went to a park where we could see some Kiwis in a large room where the simulated night for them. Kiwi Birds are most active at night so that's why you do not see them so often in the wild.

Kokarusellen ...
We spent one night at the home of Rob and Elaine, in which Emil Jeppe boy was in a whole year and worked. They are dairy farmers and has about 900 dairy cows. It was fun to see how the cows went into something like a big carousel with a capacity of 60 cows to be milked. Then they went for a walk in the carousel while the milk is lost in a large tank. When they were finished they were backing out of milking carousel, and then they could go out to pasture again.

Here we are outside information centert at Mt Egmont ...

The North Island west coast, there is still a volcano, Mt Egmont as we drove around and up on. We were not supposed to run well on all volcanoes and mountains but here we were at, we have visited to where we drove past on our round.

Small winding roads spread out before us where we are running.

The vegetation is different. As Ann-Luoise said it looks like a "forest dinosaurios'. There are a lot of different trees, some similar Crassulaceae, some similar-sized ferns of the stock and some are so old that moss grows up in the crown of them.

A small break ....
Traffic is sparse and most are running nicely.

We were forced to run down on "90 Mile Beach" where Kjell tested a motorcycle ...

When we drive past a small bay smell the fish and salt water and in the small harbor, we see a fishing boat that has just been received. It is pretty adorable and it's just the right warm, around 23 degrees. Happiness is ...

On the ferry ...
We drove by the northern tip down to Russell. When ridden the ferry between Paiahia Okiato and has only a few miles to Russell as the 1830's was a real nest of robbers. In Paiahia can say that New Zealand was formed it was here that British and Maoris agreed that the British had set up a kolloni. Okiato was the capital between 1839 and 1840, when the capital was moved to Auckland.
Russell, who today is a real little idyll, but in the 1830s called it "The Hell Hole of the Pacific" This lawless and whalers partied all night long. Once started until a war here. The war was called a "girls 'war' because it all started with the two Maori girls began arguing about a sea captain named Brind. The row escalated on the beach in the engelskmän, whalers and Marorikrigare fought against each other. The row lasted for about 14 days and hundreds of men died, but finally managed to get missionaries to bring peace and tranquility turned up again.

All quiet in the evening ... russel

When we walked among the small streets and the promenade in Russell, we could not see any traces of all the disturbances that had taken place here. We stayed at a campground in named Russell Russell Camp (S35 15 600 E174 7568), a beautiful camp with everything you could possibly need.

Now it has happened again ...

Brian and Jocelyn joking at the bit ...
Once again we have seen for bikers who turned out to be the world's nicest people. During the run up to the Coromandel, we met them first at a rest stop and then in the city where we sat together and ate lunch. They said they were on their way to their summer home and we were welcome there in the jaw a bit and stay if we wanted. Of course we wanted ...

All single off Brian and Jocelyn summer ...
We went there and we had a great night with Brian and Jocelyn Shadbolt. We were out shopping so that we could grill was a good steak and salad and potatoes for this. Yum ...

We are among the flowers ....

The day after we were invited home to them again in their second house in Papamoa. So we decided that we would go out there in the evening. First we would go to Camilla, a girl who lives here in New Zealand for 20 years.

Stay Camilla and her family.

and here we have Camilla with her son Jake ...

When we started talking about where she lived in Sweden revealed that she lived in Vejby Easy. Once again the world turns out to be less than you think.

We had a really nice day together with Camilla. We were bathed in the sea off Kati Kati where she lives. It was cold in the water but we could swim course. After a nice day and I drove Kjell further, Jeppe and Anna stayed over at Camilla.
We drove to Papamoa and had another enjoyable evening with Brian and Jocelyn and a friend to them.

Patio in Papamoa.
Right now we are sitting in a bubbelpol with warm water. The smell of newly washed clothes because I have just hung our laundry on the migration. The hot water steaming in the bit chilly night and it is clearly the star. Dreamy looks up at a starry sky that are not really similar to the one we are accustomed to at home, in the northern hemisphere. If we are lucky and the weather keeps us on the trip tomorrow with Brian and Jocelyn. Just think how nice people are ...

Here we have the bridge in Russell in the evening light, we stayed here the day before we met Brian and Jocelyn ...

The roads here in NZ are quite fine. It is a delight for the senses to drive around here. Anna o Jeppe also think it's fun to run around on the roads here.

Roads in the north of NZ ...
When we had packed up our stuff in Parakai, we drove further north. We had decided that we would run for the northernmost tip of NZ so that is where we sat GPS.en.

The ferry trip cost 3:50 / dollar motorcycle ...
On these winding roads, it is not always as fast as we only got to Waipua Forest (S35 39 148 33 113 e173), where we found a campsite with one camping cabin which was vacant so that we laid hands on quickly and easily. One night camping in a cabin costs around 20 NZ $ per person and one night camping costs between $ 10 and $ 16 per person per night.

On the way up we stopped in the woods o checked, we found a genuine hug trees ....

A little more cost. A hamburger on a camping restaurant costs about $ 10. A small pizza restaurant in the same cost $ 15. A hearty steak with fried egg, and fries to cost $ 25, so the food is not just cheap. A liter of petrol costs about seven or eight crowns as it is cheap.

90 miles beach ... on the way up to the northern tip ...
Right now, we just returned from a little excursion to the northernmost tip of NZ. The road out is incredibly beautiful. There is a lighthouse out at Cape Reinga (S34 25 803 E172 40 925) and head off on two oceans meet is to say, the South Pacific and Tasman Sea. It was 25 degrees when we drove out there and now this evening when the sun has gone to o, it is still about 19 or 20 degrees outside. On the slopes of the many hills hike both cows and sheep and cattle, and the smell of sea and nature. The whole time during the trip out there blew a fairly strong wind from the seas that meet outside, but there are no cold winds, so it feels fresh.

like these bays there are plenty of ...