TRAVEL FEATURE I NEW ZEALAND ADVENTURE: SUMMIT TO SEA
P96
town of Castle Point. We en-
joyed more beach riding and
photo
stops along the way
until we made it down to the
big town of Wellington to take
the 7 p.m. ferry to the South
Island. We met up with Birch
and now our group consisted
of seven riders: myself, Randy
Commans, Liam, Charlie, Chris
and two other NZ buddies,
Hadley Brown and Matt True-
bridge.
It turns out our ferry was de-
layed until 3 a.m., and after a
long
day on the bikes already
added to a healthy dose of jet
lag, I was cooked. We took a
nap before boarding the ship
for the three-hour crossing,
and tried to get some more
shut eye on board.
>DAY 3:
At 6:30 a.m. we disembarked
the ferry at scenic Picton, had
some breakfast and started
>DAY 1:
After a long flight to Palmer-
ston North, via Auckland, we
met up
with our hosts Liam El-
lis and Charlie Brown (not that
Charlie Brown).
We installed
some of our own parts on the
KTM 690 machines and did
an "easy" half-day shakedown
ride into the beautiful velvet-
green farmland about an hour
from Liam's AFC Motorcycle
dealership.
Traction was hard to find on
the grass-covered trails as we
traversed side hills and single-
track before heading to the
coastline for a rip down the
pristine beach.
>DAY 2:
Our first real day of our trip
south, we got an early start
at the shop meeting up with
Charlie and Liam before
traversing across roads and
farmland out to the east-coast
