About — Moto Journeys

A collection of like minded motorcyclists inspired by the likes of Gareth Morgans trips, Twisting throttles, Mike Hyde from Canterbury, and numerous other authors, we decided to get together and have some fun seeing other parts of the World besides good old Kiwi land.

Having had a taste of Alaska and Canada and some of the rockies on one of ken O’Leary’s trips in 2012, we decided to put together a trip specific to our love of adventure bikes. This has resulted in trips to Australia on a number of occasions, USA, Europe and some gravel excursions in the North and South Island of NZ.

Our current group consists of Taranaki and Canterbury riders.

Due to the success of our 2016 “Best of the Rockies” trip to the states which saw us to 13,000 kms, 13 states over 42 days seeing absolutely the best of the rockies, we are putting together an 85 day 22,000 km trip starting late June 2019. This trip starts in New York after sea freighting the bikes to Mainfreight, New Jersey with Mainfreight/Kiwi shipping, a great organisation we have used in the past. User friendly and easy to deal with.

There will be a shorter option for those that cannot get the time off for an 85 day trip. Ride options include sea freight your own bike, hire in the states or buy in the States and bring it home.

The 2019 trip will start with a few days in New York for sight seeing before we head up to Boston, Coastal Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and up into Quebec. Down through Vermont and Up state New York we hit Pennsylvania and start some real cool rides down the Spine of the Appalachians taking in Skyline drive and the Blue Ridge parkway as well as numerous other loop rides as we make our way down through this part of the US.

The Team

The team that have been involved in our Journeys to date are all like minded adventure bike riders from Taranaki and Canterbury.

New Plymouth residents Keith Coulton and Marie Hunter, members of the BMW owners register, have ridden over 100,000 kms in NZ, The US/Alaska/ Canada, Austria, Italy and Australia over the last 10 years, all on BMW’s of course, currently on an R1200 GSA waterhead.

The team of intrepid adventurers includes Mark Batty and partner Tracey Boot from Ohoka, Canterbury, another BMW rider on an R1200GS, Mark (Horse) and Janelle Dowman from New Plymouth on a Triumph Tiger 800 Adventure, Dave and Wendy Barber, Oakura riding a KTM 1190, Robert (Red) Edmunds and Corina Henderson on a Triumph Tiger 800 Adventure, Dean and Sue Paterson, (owners of MTF Finance, New Plymouth, happy to assist with your financing needs) on a KTM 1190, Trev and Barb Woodward, New Plymouth on a KTM 1190, and Grant Stewart, Oakura, Roofing Taranaki Limited, (always happy to assist with your roofing requirements) also riding a KTM 1190.

Associations:

Needless to say we have associations with numerous providers that have assisted us in our journeys.

Jeff Larsen at Mainfreight's Wellington depot is an absolute legend when it comes to making life easy regarding the paperwork to ship the bikes to the US, Aussie or Europe and back, this is always way more economic than hiring bikes in the US for instance if the trip is likely to exceed 30 days. Likewise with the Kiwi’s resident in Los Angeles running Kiwi Shipping, Mainfreight's LA partner.

John Goss and the team at Motomart Lower Hutt look after the team in terms of servicing prior to the big US rides, we normally head over with a new set of tyres. (There is no truth in the rumour tyres are cheaper in the US!!!). Motomart now sell Touratech products so that range is great for tacking on a few accessories to make the big trips easier , i.e. luggage requirements.

Motomart sell and service BMW, Ducati, Honda and Harley Davidson, are Great to deal with and can now assist with motorcycle rentals in NZ with motorent.co.nz