A brief departure from bikes......

Bikes aren't mentioned in this post but hope you don't mind as we are very proud parents.  We just got back from Christchurch in the south island where yesterday, our daughter Victoria was capped Master of Psychology.  A grand affair by the University of Canterbury held at City Hall followed by a superb congratulatory dinner at a French restaurant!


Victoria completed her thesis whilst working full time on violent offender rehabilitation within the NZ Justice system so it was a fantastic effort. I'll freely confess that my views on crime are to the right of Genghis Khan where offenders should have their heads displayed on long poles in city centres at the very least.  However, since I've found out about some of the significant long-term success stories in rehabilitating offenders with a troubled past, I must admit that my black and white views are softening a little.  In any event, I have nothing but admiration for people like Victoria who have an unwavering commitment to trying to help those who want to improve their lot.

For those who have already expressed their views on my lucky red fishing shorts in a previous post, you will be delighted to see that they don't feature in the photo below as I wanted to live past sunset.  Mind you, permission had to be gained from both Jennie and Victoria for the silk tie.  Guys apparently know nothing about fashion according to close female sources.  Or at least, there is ONE male according to the same female sources who is barely capable of dressing himself!!!

As an aside, we flew to Christchurch in absolutely stunning weather and the following 2 photos taken through the cabin window are of Mt Egmont, a dormant volcano in the north island and a portion of the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the south island - a mecca for water sports and fishing.

Touring NZ's South Island...

One of my Blackbird-owning mates, John Pritchard, suggested a 2 week tour of the South Island in 2007 and was just about flattened in the rush! John's partner Karen also wanted to come as did Jennie but not on the back of the bikes. This was happily resolved by Karen and Jennie sharing the driving of J&K's people-mover loaded up with luggage whilst John, Martin Blandford, Dave Easey and me were free to misbehave on our Blackbirds, meeting the girls at various locations for lunch and in the evenings!

Overseas riders who visit the south island say that it's the best riding in the world with challenging roads and stunning scenery. Don't think there would be many Kiwis who disagree either! As well as riding through all the fantastic mountain passes, we covered a few touristy things too - whale and dolphin watching at Kaikoura, Jet-boating and helicopter glacier flights near Wanaka and the famous Milford sound to name just a few. I had an alternator failure part-way through the holiday but charging up 2 batteries overnight and running total loss ignition was a great way of getting round the problem.

There are far too many great pictures to post so here's a very small selection. Also, here are to links to YouTube videos of parts of our tour: (best watched in the High Quality option).



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It was a breathtaking holiday and we'd all do it again tomorrow. We were fortunate to get back to our homes in the northern half of the north island when we did as the following day, State Highway 1 was closed for much of the day as a precaution when the active volcano, Mt Ruapehu, finally discharged millions of cubic metres of lahar from its crater. What an exciting place we live in!!!