Leaving Auckland we wanted to steer clear of the tourist sites, we will save them for when Sarah, Richard and Ella join us for Christmas. We did however still want to see something of the sights and not just ride down to the South Island, so using our Motorcycle Atlas of New Zealand we managed to set a route down the west coast to New Plymouth, then head east a bit then south to Wanganui before heading east again, then south to Masterton before catching the ferry in Wellington. Our run down the west coast was interesting with great roads to ride, but we soon became board with the farming land, cows and sheep. In New Plymouth we went to their magnificent Pukekura Park where we found beautiful gardens and even a zoo, all free. We then went around Mount Taranaki which had only received a fresh coating of snow two days earlier. Mt Taranaki is said to look like Mt Fuji in Japan, and it does. We went up Mt Taranaki to Dawson Falls, here we walked through forest that looked like it was out of Lord Of The Rings, gnarly old trees with moss and ferns growing on them, moss and lichens growing on the ground, it was wonderful, it was just a pity the entire area is surrounded by farms. We then travelled the Forgotten World Highway east, it unfortunately didn't really live up to its name, but it was a great road in places and there was some nice bush. We stopped at a DOC campground and met a homeless man that had been sleeping in his car for eight years, but it died recently so now he was walking, he had been sleeping under his tarp here for a week, he appeared quite well educated and had some very interesting ideas on how to fix the world. Down to Wanganui was more farmland and a nice road, Wanganui itself was another nice town. We had some rain leaving Feilding which was the first real rain we had had while riding, which was a surprise. The rain cleared as we went south towards Wellington and gave way to some of the strongest winds we have ridden in, as we came over the mountains into Upper Hutt they were that strong that at times I was changing down a gear to ride down this steep hill into the wind. We spent the night in Wellington and caught the early ferry to Picton, a wonderful tiny town with friendly people, we stayed not too far out of Blenheim for a day before continuing down the coast to Christchurch. In Christchurch we have gone out on the Banks Peninsula to Arkaroa, another lovely town on a beautiful harbour. There were lots of people in the old French town, it was an early French settlement from the 1800s. While we are here we will be visiting a cousin I haven't seen in fifty years and we will visit the city to see what an earthquake can do. The locals have been telling us all their stories about what they were doing when the quake hit. We are so looking forward to getting away from all the farming land and into the mountains, everyone we meet tells us how wonderful they are.