December 10, 2013 - January 15, 2014. The trip the started it all. Five weeks on motorbikes, riding through the countryside, camping all over, and experiencing the pristine and beautiful country that is New Zealand.

Nick had to leave early for his flight so I was surprised when he woke me up wearing all his gear. "Dude, someone broke into the bikes." I jolted awake thinking he said someone stole them. I hastily got dressed and walked down to see the damage.

The action continued the next day as we headed West towards Waitomo to check out the otherwordly Glowworm Caves. We decided to splurge and buy the deluxe caving package that included a 50ft repel down an entry shaft, a pitch black zipline over a crevice, tubing in the underground river lit up by the spectacularly blue glow of the worms, and then a 20ft rock climb up through a waterfall.

I knew that I was pressed for time since we missed the early shuttle so I began the descent back down. Going up scree totally sucks but going down scree is a ton of fun. You can quite literally ski down it, each step is a glide downward of five to eight feet. I kept a fast pace across the rest of the lava field, past the Red Crater, and along the Emerald Lakes.

January 5th was perhaps the most fun packed day of the trip. Mount Maunganui is a tall (761ft) conical, adventure mountain that sits on its own peninsula on the north end of town. On the trip we climbed on some rocks on the beach of Moturiki Island before walking up to the base of the hill. There were, of course, some sheep grazing in a pasture below where the trail begins it’s rapid ascent.

We were amazed, disappointed, and disgusted with how much trash was left behind. If we had more storage we would’ve have packed out a few of the dozens of tents left behind and sold or donated them. But we only had our motorbikes and nowhere to be so we hung out with whoever else was delaying the return to real life.

It felt like being in a biker gang as a dozen or so of us got to unload first, inch down a gangplank, and cruise in single file as we snaked through the docks and dispersed throughout Wellington

Around midday we took off and as Nelson faded away behind us and we went deeper into the countryside, we barely caught a glimpse of some cliff jumping going on when we rumbled across a bridge. We did a quick stop and U-turn to check out the location.

The sun finally returned and provided warm rays as we finished our route up the west coast. Highway 6 had lots of curves and views of the Pacific Ocean meeting the sandy beaches

Dreary weather continued as we began the ride north along the coast. Fox Glacier and Pancake Rocks were both still quite impressive despite being shrouded by fog. Finding food on Christmas Day was a fiasco, unlike the US, absolutely everything in New Zealand is closed on this holiday.

One final day to relax in Queenstown before beginning our northward journey along the West Coast. We spent a day at Lake Wanaka and then barely made it over Haast Pass before it was closed due to flooding. At one point a waterfall materialized and poured onto the road so we just had to ride right under it.

Milford Sound. No further explanation needed.

We had quite an eventful ride along a gravel road from the shores of Lake Wakatipu to Highway 94, then up and over the Danner Mountain range, and finally down to infamous Milford Sound.

Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand and it vortexed us in for a couple of days. This is also the part of the journey when our gang grew to five as Nick arrived to join us on motorbikes and Brian and Ann arrived to rent a car for the rest of the trip and meet up with us every few days.

Sam and I continued riding some amazing back roads but then his bike died. We decided to split up so he could work on his bike at a local garage and I would continue on to meet our friend Nick in Queenstown.

This was hands down the toughest, remotest, most dangerous, tiring and wild day of the trip. We hit many obstacles but were rewarded with unparalleled views.

Sam and I hit the ground running and rode some remote, desolate, unmaintained, and sketchy back roads. The beauty of the country was immediately noticed, appreciated, and photographed!

An introduction to the trip. Why? Who? How? When? Find the answers inside.