Reuthers
Paradise / New Zealand
Self Drive Motorcycle Tour

Kia Ora to Auckland, the City of Sails.

After breakfast you will pick up your Harley-Davidson motorcycle at the rental station and then you will start off for the 3 day trip to the Northlands. Through Whangarei you will reach Paihia at the beloved Bay of Islands.

You will start the day with a visit to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, the birth location of New Zealand. Today's destination is Kaitaia, the perfect starting point for tomorrow.

Today you will head for New Zealands northest spot. Even if fame is more due to the Surville Cliffs in the east, you will visit the Cape Reinga with the small post office station, a guide to the great wide world world and the solitary lighthouse. It is a spiritual spot. Here the spirit of the dead glide into the underworld to their homeland Hawaiki, so say the Maori. After this detour to the far north, you will cruise south on the Twin Coast Discovery Highway. There you will cross from Kohukohu with the ferry to Rawene. Your route takes you to the Waipoua Kauri Forest where you will find amongst others the most impressing tree of New Zealand, Tane Mahuta, the God of the Forest. It has a width of 4,5 m, a height of 51 m and is over 2000 years old. You will spend the night after this exciting day in Dargaville.

You will travel again along the Twin Coast Discovery Highway and will arrive sometime in the afternoon in Auckland.

On the Pacific Coast Highway you will cruise through the beautiful Coromandel area to Whitianga. You will spend the night right near the beach, where once Captain Cook raised the British flag.

After a hearty breakfast By Nina and a wonderful stroll you will reach the Cathedral Cove with it's natural rock cathedral. Afterwards you will cruise along the coast to Rotorua. Right before the city the smell of sulfur and blubbering and roaring geysers await you. Pure New Zealand culture is what you have in the evening in the Tamaki Village in the form of Maori dances and songs as well as the following Hangi Dinner.

What the story is all about concerning the geysers and the rare Kiwis, you will learn in Te Puia. Overwhelmed by these nature events, you continue your trip to Taupo where you will stop at the Lake Taupo, the largest inland water of New Zealand, and enjoy the lovely view of Mount Ruapehu and its height of 2797 m. Your destination today is Napier, after the great earthquake in 1931, it is a newly built city in the Art-Deco style. You will spend the night near the beach promenade, the Marine Parade.

With all the time in the world you will travel today to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.

Before you leave the northern island to head south, you will visit New Zealands National Museum Te Papa. In the early afternoon you will then take the Interislander for the short transfer to Picton. From Picton you will travel along Tasman Bay directly to Nelson, New Zealands first city ever. By the way the area around Nelson has the highest amount of sunshine hours in New Zealand - ideal for motorcyclists, of whom around Nelson there should be way over 400 (!)...

As a day tour, you will today undertake an excursion into the Abel Tasman National Park where you will be dropped off per water taxi at the beach and after a walk in the free wilderness simply be picked up again.

Your motorcycle tour leads you southwest along the famous Buller Gorge Road to Cape Foulwind and south to the Pancake Rocks. Here you will get a close up view of the blowholes with the spraying seawater. You will spend the night in the coastal city Greymouth.

You will pass the old goldmining city Ross and enjoy the all uniting landscape with imposing mountains, green rain forest and the Tasman Sea to the right. In Franz Josef you will set up your sleeping quarters below the Franz Josef Glacier. Depending on the weather, there is the possibility for a helicopter flight with a landing on the famous glacier or weather independent to take a breathtaking quad tour in the rain forest.

Passing the Fox Glacier you will leave the Tasman Sea and cross the Haast Pass and reach Wanaka. A lonely mountain road leads you to the most exciting city of New Zealand, to Queenstown. After a breathtaking passage on the Lake Wakatipu you will have dinner in the Colonel's Homestead restaurant of the Walter Peak High Country Sheep farm and with a farm tour get a picture of the work on a New Zealand farm. The TSS Earnslaw, the oldest coal fueled steam ship of New Zealand, brings you afterwards back again to Queenstown.

In the morning there is action and sights to see: Starting with the popular bungee jumping off the historic Kawarau Bridge, up to para sailing and jet boat riding. Of course you can also spend your time with an abundant shopping tour in Queenstown, as your trip to Te Anau continues on in the early afternoon.

Today a world wonder is on the program, one of the most famous symbols of New Zealand: the Milford Sound in the rain-laden zone of New Zealand. Here you will take a cruise on the 16 kilometer long fjord to the Tasmanian Sea and at the same time observe penguins, sea lions, dolphins, sometimes even whales, as well as the most spectacular waterfalls in New Zealand.

Bright and early the next morning you will continue your New Zealand trip to the nature island Stewart Island in the far south of New Zealand. Here you can observe in untouched nature i.e. rare bird species and take a scooter tour. We have booked your overnight stay in Invercargill.

Surely you have heard of the cult film "The World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins. You will have a close up view of Burt Monro's original motorcycle today. Afterwards you head through the Catlins on to Dunedin, where you go for a stroll around town and have dinner.

On your last day you head toward Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and return your Harley-Davidson motorcycle to the rental station.