Motomice Book Review

Dec 07 2018

When I was a kid I remember reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. I had no idea that future me would love riding motorcycles, or that one day my own kids would also be riding bikes. Now as an adult I have had the chance to travel in multiple countries and ride a lot of miles with my kids in a sidecar as we adventure around. So, I was more than excited to get a copy of MotoMice by Paul Owen Lewis. It was great to see another book about motorcycling. I love the art work and[…]

Jan 10 2018

Today was going to be another ambitious day of high miles and lots of activities. While sitting over breakfast we were contemplating what was on our wish list of things to see and do, and the topic of penguins came up. When I had been researching the trip and where to stay, I discovered that New Zealand had penguins! At breakfast Catherine got on her phone and found a penguin tour that we could take that night out of Dunedin. It was going to be an action packed day. For most of the morning we enjoyed more green rolling hills[…]

Jan 07 2018

Today would be on of the most beautiful days of our trip. The night before we had checked the weather and it looked like it was safe to head to Milford Sound. We had a lot of miles to cover, and we would also be heading into some areas that were used in the filming of The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t really do too much research, but I can assure you that even without having the exact points plotted out, the areas we would go through today were stunning and more than worthy of a movie location. For[…]

Jan 05 2018

Today would be another short day as we would only be heading to Cromwell. I had recently met someone who had just been to New Zealand, and she gave me some advice on her favorite things to see here. We would stop by the Blue Pools today and go through the Remarkables Mountain Range. The sun was out, and the sky was clear, so I was happy. If you have followed along on any of my past trips, you know that I hate being cold. We stopped at Thunder Creek Falls, which have a little pool at the bottom. This[…]

Jan 05 2018

It rained all night at Franz Josef Glacier. We checked out the weather forecast and it was going to be heavy rain all day. We decided to just hang out and try to wait it out. The normal checkout time was 10am, so we asked the manager if we could stay till 11 or 12, and he gave us the OK. He said as long as we left before his cleaning staff at 2pm, because he did not want to clean the room himself! We took advantage of the the hotel having a laundry room, and after I bothered the[…]

Jan 01 2018

Don, our B&B host, was already awake and had the breakfast table set with beautiful china, ready to serve us cereal, toast, coffee and tea. He had a container of what he called rata honey. He gave us a quick lesson about New Zealand honey and the difference between Manuka and Rata honey. We learned that they can test honey to tell what flower the bees collected from, and if it is 80% of that type of flower, than that is the type of honey it is. The Rata honey has a higher sugar content and is more white in[…]

Dec 30 2017

At the farm B&B in Tasma, we had a room and bathroom with a small fridge and sink in the corner. The host provided hot and cold cereal, fruit, bagels, toast and jam. So our breakfast today was an improvement. Our host also gifted us a bottle of her homemade organic olive oil from their own trees. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and the forecast was sunny and warmer than yesterday. We headed north out of Tasman on The Coastal Hwy, before turning onto the Motuka Valley Highway. We took this south to Hwy 6 where[…]

Dec 29 2017

We stayed at what I loosely call a Bed and Breakfast last night. I think their kids are all gone, and they rent out rooms. The owners were very nice, but leave for work at 7 am, so we were instructed on where to find the bowls and cereal. I was a bit surprised because every B&B I have stayed at before, the owner made you a hot breakfast. There was also another couple staying in the room next to us, but they left early. I know this because for some reason I woke up at 6am and could not[…]

Dec 28 2017

I have to admit that I am pretty bummed that we are only doing the South Island of New Zealand because I really wanted to go to Hobbiton, which is on the North Island. But that just means I will have to come back for another trip! I wanted to come to NZ even before the epic trilogy was made, but seeing all the amazing scenery in the movie just added fuel to the fire. Our first day yesterday was filled with rain, and last night we stayed in Kaikoura. We walked into town (in the rain) and ate dinner[…]

Dec 27 2017

About 20 years ago, Frank and I almost went to New Zealand. He was in Australia for work and I joined him for vacation. Our plan was to do 2 weeks in Australia, then go to NZ. However, it was winter there at the time, so we decided to go to Fiji instead. Not a bad substitute at all, but we have talked about going to NZ ever since. Well we had finally accumulated a lot of frequent flier miles and decided that we could use them on a big trip, and we bit the bullet and made the reservations[…]