Ka Pai Kiwis

The guys at the carwash have been super helpful. I have stripped  it down quite a bit and they’ve done the hard yards. Funny watching the different layers of dirt come off, I remember  riding through that colour..,, Even Kiwi got a scrub.    It has taken nearly two days to complete, we have all done our bit with Robyn getting stuck in. The men were a bit concerned, so they got her a chair. So a big thanks to George and Sally and the team at White Bear Car Wash and Spa.  Robyn has also made use of the laundromat and all our kit is now clean and tidy.  I rang the air freight people and the bike needs to be delivered on the 8th and it flies on the 10th. Too easy.  So another big thanks to the Maskargo team It is great to have all the logistics in place now, we can relax a bit.  We have both been shopping for some new clothes, 6 months with a couple of t shirts and a pair of travel pants gets a wee bit tedious. Robyn has found it more difficult t...

I agonised for months about which bike to bring on this trip and then spent more months preparing it for the journey.  It hasn’t missed a beat.  3 oil changes 3 tyre changes 1 set of front brake pads.  The 14T front sprocket is badly worn and will end its days on display in my workshop.  Punctures 0 😄 It has been used and abused, dropped, and ridden on many many roads and trails it was never designed to be on.  This kind of trip is all about compromise, sometimes I wished for a bigger bike, sometimes I was glad it wasn’t bigger.  It has handled everything we have dished out to it and not once let us down.  It is a miracle it hasn’t shaken itself to bits.  It has been a great servant and we couldn’t have asked for more. 

It was funny packing the bike today knowing that it was for the last time.  The descent from the Cameron Highlands was a delight, narrow winding roads with beautiful bush scenery in cool mountain air.  Before we knew it we were on the motorway and heading for the megatropolis of Kuala Lumpur.  What a massive city.  We entered from the north and are staying in the south closer to the airport.  We navigated the labyrinth of the motorways and found our hotel ok Our hotel is quite large with apartments as well as hotel rooms.  There is a large shopping complex nearby so we should be ok here for a few days. Also the carpark has a carwash with very obliging man so things are falling into place.  The next few days we will be busy organising the shipping for the bike and cleaning it thoroughly for NZ customs.  Suddenly  our journey comes to an end.  It hasn’t sunk in yet.  So this is the last daily post. Thank you all for reading it.  ...

It is such a treat to have a lie in, not like teenagers but to get up at 7;45 and not have to pack is so nice. We cherish these days.  After breakfast we set off on the bike about 10kms to the BOH tea plantation. The day was sunny with cool air. We are over 1500m asl  so very pleasant. The tea plantation is very picturesque, set into the surrounding hills and valleys.  It was quite busy with tourists as Diwali holidays are big in this area.  We rode along the very narrow road towards the tea factory. We passed by a row of pickers cottages and little shops, it’s a little village on its own. As most of the tea pickers come from India there is a little Hindu temple as well.  The factory itself dates from the 1950’s with most of the machinery original. It is quite a simple process to make tea, the leaves are crushed then dried and finally sorted through a series of sieves. The smallest particles (dust) goes into teabags.  Unfortunately the factory wasn’t operat...

It is wonderful that even at day 164 the road can surprise and delight us.  The road out of Georgetown was brilliant, light traffic and I scored every green light.  The weather was overcast and cool as we navigated these brilliant roads.  If we thought the bridge coming into Penang was impressive, we hadn’t seen anything. Google Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’Adzam Shah bridge. Woah, 24km of engineering excellence.  Dual carriageway plus a dedicated motorcycle lane.  It was so long you couldn’t see the end.  We then had around 120km of motorway before turning off and winding steadily upward into the Cameron Highlands. Just like NZ it is a long weekend here and the road was busy but we still managed a bit of fun in the twisties.  As we neared our destination it got very busy but we managed to avoid the traffic jam by using the shoulder. Just as well as it was beginning to rain and just after we got here it bucketed down.  An amazing, the hills are covered i...

We have had a very nice day today. We also learnt a new skill. GRAB.  First up we walked to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, a fantastic old house that once belonged to a wealthy local Penanakan family. That name is given to the original Chinese settlers and their descendants in these parts.  It now houses an amazing collection of artifacts from this period. Porcelain, stunning mother of pearl inlaid furniture, artworks and photographs . A truly world class  exhibition which is listed as a world heritage site.  Attached to the house was a chapel. We then wandered to a local art and craft market for a wander through the stalls. Some local artists hard at work. By now it was pretty hot so we decided to try out our new skill. Call a cab using the app GRAB. It was reasonably  straightforward but we didn’t check the details properly. A car pulled up right in front of us, we thought that was quick, we opened the door but there were passengers already in it. Doh.  Ou...