Ka Pai Kiwis

Thought we would run a little competition. Chocolate fish to the person who gets closest to what this reading will be when we return to Palmy. Please only add your guesstimate to this Blog not Facebook so we keep them all in one place and announce the winner of this fantastic prize in 2020. Please hit the Subscribe button before entering then we know who to award the prize to. Or else just add your name to the comment. Ta

For those of you who are finding the map hard to read these are the countries we are planing on visiting, I have included the islands we will visit as well. We will collect our bike at Gravesend and from there head to France, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy, Albania, Greece, Santorini, Kos, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, India (part1), Nepal, India (part2), Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Australia and of course back to Palmy. Shouldn't take too long! Because of the situation in Iran where they are not allowing entry of motorcycles with capacity greater than 250 we are going to try to enter from Armenia with the help of a local fixer. And because Turkey and Armenia aren’t talking to each other, to get into Armenia we have to travel through Georgia. So two more countries added to the list. 

Today we had a final trial run to see if everything would fit on the bike. Mostly it was to see if  what I thought I could take would fit into my allocated bag. It was a tight squeeze but I was pretty much on track. The bike is looking pretty sharp, Mark has spent a lot of time cleaning it and making sure everything is ready to go.  We take the bike to Auckland in three weeks for shipping to the UK. Things are getting really real now.  Sadly Clive isn't going to be travelling far with us. We are lucky that he will be starting our journey with us and then heading off on his own adventure. We are looking forward to reading about his travels. 

Welcome to Ka Pai Kiwi’s After many months of researching it is beginning to feel real. There have been a couple of false starts. The genesis of this trip began with an idea of riding motorcycles to the UK to watch the rugby World Cup there. For various reasons the time just wasn’t right and the trip was canned. The 2nd idea came from Shane O’Brien who suggested we buy new bikes from the Europe factories and then ride them home. Sadly this trip ended up in the rubbish bin also but the research from these two aborted efforts provide the base for this trip. Currently there are 3 of us, Robyn (the brave) is coming on the back of my bike and Clive Martis an old high school acquaintance, who we met again a couple of years ago along with his lovely (and long suffering) wife Ruth. We immediately clicked like opposite poles of magnets, which I think bodes well for the adventure to follow. The bikes leave NZ in March next year and we will leave sometime in May.   This is ou...

Here is the trusty steed that will power me back home overland to NZ from the UK in time for Christmas 2019.  I'll be travelling with good and getting even better friends Robyn and Mark Tootill. Together we'll be known as the "Ka Pai Kiwis". I'm hoping to do the entire trip recording and communication including this blog, my phone and indestructible Lumix camera.  Hoping also to have people join as a pillion on the Yamaha Super Tenere to share and enrich this trip of a lifetime - Ruth and Annie have already signed up for a few weeks each.  I know if Mum was still alive she would be getting fitted out for helmet and riding gear as I write. If you're keen to take a seat for a stage of the journey (or even to join in on your own bike) let me know, but please think "less is more", when planning your wardrobe 🤔.   Well that's enough for starters. Hope you will be able to follow all the preparation as well as the trip itself. Can't ...