Day 1 - Christchurch to Dunedin

There's something a bit fishy about this photo!
We picked up the bike from Gary in Christchurch this afternoon
and after a quick de-brief we hit the road.
Very warm in the City of Churches and we headed south in excellent conditions.
We stopped at Rakaia to take a few snaps of the bike while it was still in pristine condition and grabbed a bite to eat at the Salmon Farm Cafe.
No fish on the menu surprisingly, but the chicken salad was nice - just don't stop there if you are in a hurry - 45min for a salad!
After the break we pushed on to the south.
Beyond Ashburton the wind started to pick up and it was quite hot. The big bodywork on the bike coped pretty well with a strong Westerly cross-wind. It does pick it up a little bit, but it was blowing pretty hard in parts of the ride, most of which was across the Canterbury Plans. The Plains might be 'The Breadbasket of the Pacific' because of the rich agriculture, but they are pretty boring to ride across. However it did give me a new appreciation of the benefits of cruise control. Mounted on the RH switchblock are the same controls as in a luxury sedan and it worked great.
To be able to sit back in the lounge chair and watch the world go by is ideal in conditions like todays.
At Timaru we caught up to a few showers and conditions cooled off.

I was wearing leather jeans and kept thinking to myself ‘next opportunity I'll pull over and put on my wet weather pants’, but I never did.

The bodywork and screens did such a good job keeping the weather off that I stayed quite dry all the way to Dunedin.

Where we're currently hunkered down at the Mercure and are looking at a windy and occasionally showery trip to Invercargill Tomorrow. It was great to catch up with some of the KB crew tonight in Dunedin too. Thanks for coming out to say g’day guys.

A big day beckons tomorrow, we’re off to the Hill Climb at Bluff via the Catlins.

Will try and get some good grabs on the day.

The bike has been fantastic.
Marvellously comfortable and a real delight to ride – and talk about turning heads – so far I’ve had to given at least a dozen people the run-down on the machine – so taken with it are they.

There are only 200 Ness Visions worldwide and it really is a talking point.
More reports next time we stop. Right now I’m re-enjoying a lovely Italian meal from downtown Dunedin and studying the map for tomorrow.

BD