I walked into the hotel room in Franz Joseph and realized it didn’t have any HVAC. I was soaking wet. This was rainforest living at its finest. I did my best laying out all my damp gear and turning on the heat with the bathroom fan, hopefully pulling out moist air from my gear. I was hoping I could be dry by morning. One thing is for sure: I am sleeping well on this trip. Hard days (but good days) make for great sleep at night.

The rain gods laughed as I looked out the window, hoping for a drier Thursday. Slow and steady wins the rain race as well. My suit and jeans dried out reasonably well with a slight dampness. When I put on the helmet, I could feel the squishy wetness and drips throughout the fabric. Well, I at least don’t have to go from dry to wet.

Pulling out of Franz Joseph, Highway 6 wandered north through a sparsely populated rainforest coast. New Zealand is about the size of California, with 5 million people rather than California‘s nearly 40,000,000 people. That leaves a lot of empty space and a lot of empty roads. It’s easy to pass, but there aren’t many cars to pass anyway. It is a lovely motorcycle ride – even in wet weather.

About 50 km into the ride, the road squiggled up a steep mountainside, and the heavens just opened, pouring down rain in volumes I’ve never seen in California. As I made the tight switchbacks, I could see rivers of water funneling down the pavement. Somewhere between a mix of resignation and wonder, I just took in the moment. I am on some mountainside on the other side of the world, riding a motorcycle up a river of water. It is so different from being back home and lovely at the same moment. I’m thankful to have long stretches of wet weather riding when it’s not cold so that I can focus on learning and building confidence in riding in the rain. I appreciate learning this skill when I’m relatively warm. I even got to wave to Noah as his arc sailed by.

And honestly, it’s one of the things that I appreciate about motorcycle riding – it is a craft that you continually refine. When driving a car in the rain, maybe an hour or two in the driver‘s head tells you to slow down and give more stopping distance. Motorcycling is way more nuanced than that. Riders have to consider conditions, pavement, lean angle, traction, wind, and type of raindrops, to name a few.

I’m not doing necessarily well in finding good restaurants throughout New Zealand. I wanted to get a good chunk of miles behind me before stopping for lunch – and all eyes were on Greymouth. It was far enough up the coast to warrant an extended break, and hopefully, the turn inland would generate a shift away from the wet weather. I asked the GPS twice where I should go for lunch. The first option was to stay in a hotel (nope), and I couldn’t find the second restaurant. I caught Subway out of the corner of my eye and thought sometimes it’s OK to be an American.

In the States, the subway has 6-inch and foot-long sandwiches. Since New Zealand uses the metric system, did Subway use small and large? 12 and 24 cm sandwiches? New Zealanders (or the people in front of me) used the same monitor as we do in the States – 6 inches.

As I started eating, I got a text message from Daniel saying he saw my bike in town and wanted to meet up to ride to the next town. I was excited to have some company – for sure. This is about the time in the trip when someone’s loneliness sets in. You’re here long enough to miss home but not long enough to build connections. That’s where I think group touring makes much more sense– even if you’re giving up quite a bit of autonomy. 

Daniel and I agreed to meet at the beach since he needed more time for lunch, and I wanted to make one more stop at the coast. This beach is yet again different. It is almost entirely river rock, This place is a physical therapist‘s dream, as there have to be so many sprained ankles with all the bodies of water with deep river rock shorelines. 

Daniel and I rode our bikes up to Reefton, about 50 km to the north. For almost 2000 km, I’ve been riding alone – and there is freedom in that. I appreciate the margin that riding with somebody provides should something happen. However, being a rider in the lead does have its drawbacks. Am I riding fast enough? Are my lines good enough, and are all that related jazz. Dan, get out of your own head. Sometimes, it’s nice to be a follower.

When we got to Reefton, we encountered another rider on a Yamaha MT 3, a ~300 cc bike. David was a lovely fellow and was certainly up for a gas station chat about motorcycles. Daniel and I were on big bore BMWs – and his 300 couldn’t have been more different. He was doing a rally, riding 2000 km over a 48 hour and stopping at specific stops to collect points to increase his chances of winning. Most people here thought my ride was too many miles a day, and I had seven days. I can’t imagine doing the same ride on that small of a bike in just 48 hours! He even let Daniel and I take the bike for a spin! Want to know what was super cool? I can flatfoot that bike! I may find another smaller bike to bring home into the garage.

From here, we all headed our separate ways. Daniel was headed to Nelson to catch the ferry to Wellington. David was headed to Greymouth to continue his adventure. I was heading up and over Lewis Pass for a night in Hamner Springs. I enjoyed the relative sunshine between Greymouth and Reefton, but storm clouds were brewing again as I looked towards the pass. At this point, I was like whatever, I’m ready to cross the pass from the West Coast into Canterbury to return to the drier east side.

The climb up Luis pass was quite beautiful – but a pity there was nowhere to stop. I hoped there might be a turnout with a view, but the New Zealanders don’t flash their treasures like the Americans do. A simple sign was at the top of the pass, noting the elevation. 

At this point, it was time to do business, land the bike in Hamner Springs, and make my way to a hot tub—who are we kidding? It’s already 7 o’clock. I need to check in and get dinner, and by then, the hot tubs will be closed. A soak will be on the docket first thing tomorrow!

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