From Mount Cook, it was off to our final destination, Christchurch. Bob and Glen had discovered the University of Canterbury Observatory during their planning and wanted to visit it. It wasn’t part of the main tour even though it was right on the main route so the others didn’t stop. They missed some magnificent views as you can see in the photo gallery.
The four of us stopped for lunch at a cool little place in the middle of nowhere. Food was good and the atmosphere was family friendly. Kids were everywhere and they had a pool table outside.
Our final route took us across Summit Road and into Christchurch. It was a fabulous end to a truly great tour. The road was one of the twistiest we had been on. Our leader, Glen couldn’t resist and radioed his partner Bob that he would meet him at the bottom of the hill. We took off for the ride of our lives. While the road was narrow, we didn’t see much traffic. We had a good view of approaching traffic. The camber on the turns was perfect and allowed for some quite brisk riding. What a great way to end the trip! I didn’t have time to look down at the view so I had to pull some pictures off Google images. What quick glazes I was able to get on the short straights looked very special. Glen had his GoPro on and promised he would send me the file. I’ll post it when it comes.
We pulled into the garage for a post inspection of the bikes. The four of us all passed inspection with no damage. While we rode pretty hard at times, we maintained a safety margin at all times and didn’t do anything “stupid”. After inspection we were on our way for our final group dinner.
At our farewell dinner, our tour guide declared that this was the best tour group he had ever had in the 18 years he has done them. I believe he really meant it because he said it multiples times during the week and some of the other employees of the company confirmed it. Several of us got together and secretly decided on awards for each rider. We had best navigator, fastest rider, oldest rider, best crasher, best story teller, etc., etc. You get the picture. I’ll let you guess what they came up for me.
We gathered one last time for breakfast the next morning and then dispersed to areas around the world. I think I’ll do one last post with my final thoughts after a bit more reflection. See you soon.