Time for an update….600 days after leaving Vancouver, it’s time for me to push the “pause” button on the motorcycle journey.  For how long?  Who knows.  After stretching my budget far beyond what was sensible, a return to ‘reality’ was on the cards.  So, after 6 weeks of job-hunting I am now settled in Auckland, living in the ‘burbs and re-experiencing the 9-5 lifestyle.  My faithful moto is now under a cover…waiting for some TLC in advance of some inter-island exploration.

In a whirlwind 3-day trip from Auckland I rode up to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga, at the northern tip of the north island.  On the way back I saw remnants of large Kauri forests that used to dominate the subtropical north of New Zealand.

Nice beaches on the Tasman sea, east of Auckland.

The ‘stone store’ in Kerikeri, New Zealand.  This is one of New Zealand’s oldest standing buildings.

If my motorcycle could fly, this is what it would see along the north eastern coast between Auckland and the Bay of Islands.