Motorcycle Trip around New Zealand

Eddie was in euphoria with his four children who gathered with him for Christmas. Look at him in the picture - the happiest man in the world, surrounded by his lovely daughters on a coach in his huge living room. Just before my visit to New Zealand, they moved to this big house. The area of his land is 16,000m² with an area of 370m² for the building. The price of his territory is "only" NZ$750,000 (47,000,000 Yen). After Christmas, I went on a motorcycle trip. I went down south from Auckland to Rotorua to see Thomas, the son of the man, who took care of me after last year's accident, Mr. Morgan. (The readers might remember the picture of Mr. Morgan shown in my "Christmas Presents from New Zealand" of the "La Voc^o", March, 1992.) Later Thomas visited me in Nara in April last year for a month. Rotorua is one of the most thermal-active areas of the world. The city has hot spring pools and, in its vicinity, a geothermal power station. I rode along the west coast of the North Island, made a half circle around the foot of Mt. Egmont, and headed straight for Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. As soon as I arrived at this southernmost tip of the North Island, I phoned a ferry boat company and made a reservation for the voyage across Cook Strait. This strait divides the country into two major islands. Fortunately I was able to make a reservation for my motorcycle, even though it was the busiest season of the year. Two weeks later, on the way back to the North Island, the boat was booked up, so I had to buy a stand-by ticket and wait for three hours. Wellington is a town of wind. The strong wind blew over the houses clinging to the mountain slope. The sudden gale shoved my bike aside and nearly hit it against a car in the next lane. My bike was just like a tiny boat floating and swaying in a sea of capricious wind. I carefully drove out of town, yet the wind didn't ease. On the contrary, it became stronger in the mountains. On top of the mountain, the raging wind wanted to make my bike fall down. I kicked hard onto the surface of the road. I was almost blown away, down into the deep valley.

On the way to Kaikoura I met two Japanese riders, whom I had seen at the motorcycle shop in Auckland two weeks before. One of them had already had a traffic accident. The other complained that he had already had a flat tire. Both of them were afraid of riding in New Zealand. I met another rider from Germany, whose machine had already suffered a crash. Motorcycle trips are never safe. You always face death on the road.

Fortunately or unfortunately, my motorbike didn't go faster than 80-90 km/h, while other vehicles were driving at the speed of 120-150. Luckily this time, I didn't have any accidents. However, every second I had to pay attention to the cars behind me, which passed by me like bullets. I was the slowest driver in New Zealand.

Kaikora is a tiny fishing town. Tourists visit this place for whale-watching.

The snow on this roof of New Zealand condenses itself to ice, forming an "ice river" which flows down to the sea, sculpting the rocks of the valley. As a general trend this glacier has been receding towards the inland since the last ice age. During the last 200 years the mouth of the ice river had retreated several kilometers, yet suddenly in 1965, its motion reversed. As a result, the glacier has been moving towards the sea and has advanced more than 1,000 meters in the last 30years. Not less than 20 years ago, we had a serious discussion on the temperature of the earth - becoming colder or hotter. There were two opposite premises; the cold earth due to air pollutants that block the sunshine like a "parasol", or the hot earth due to the "green house effect" caused by a "blanket of CO2" from the combustion of fossil fuels. The advance of the glacier of Franz Josef gave one of the scientific explanations of the coming of another ice age and gave birth to the book "ICE!". I imagine the Japanese film "Fukkatsu No Hi" was taken from this book. This middle-aged rider headed further up north to Blackball, spurring his dying metal horse, "Yamaha XT 200". But... What had happened to the weather of New Zealand? On the previous trip, New Zealand had a cold summer, yet there was still a lot of sunshine. This year it seemed that the sun had taken a long vacation to another galaxy. The clouds covered the sky and wept every day. Rain is the worst enemy for a motorcycle rider. Is our planet as sick as human beings?

Blackball is not on my map of the South Island. It is now a small deserted town north of the glaciers. The town, or rather the village, was once prosperous by yielding coal. Most residents were, of course, miners. Their life was supposedly as hard as those, for example, at Miike mine in Japan. They naturally founded their laborers' union. It was the first union in New Zealand and the town used to have the headquarters of the communist party of New Zealand. There is a hotel named "Blackball Hilton" on the other side of the former headquarters. I saw an "educational tour" bus parked in front of the hotel. I met school teachers from Auckland. I hope our "respectable" Japanese teachers also make this kind of self-educational trip.

On a rural road back to Picton I saw a herd of cows blocking the way.

I heard karaoke bars were becoming popular not only in Asian countries but also in Western countries. Actually I saw a lot of karaoke bars in Taiwan. However, I had never seen them in New Zealand before. It was a local bar without any Japanese tourists except for me, and it was not at all similar to any in Japan. It was one of the usual bars of New Zealand with only one exception - the bar had an audio-visual system. The guests didn't want to sing. So the bar had a seemingly professional singer. Only a few of them sang together with the singer, while drinking beer. Karaoke means literally a background orchestra in this country. Some people say karaoke is the only Japanese popular culture exported to the world. Kiyoshi Oka, a mathematician, wrote in his book that three S's make people dull - Sports, Sex and Screen. Observing the stupidity of the drinkers singing at the recent bars in Japan, I would like to add the fourth S of Song. However I think that's OK. At least music doesn't make people fight each other. I believe dullness is much better than strife. Three-hour sailing on a ferry boat carried my bike through Cook Strait back to the North Island. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon I rode on the bike and started the engine, heading north along the east coast. It was 9 o'clock at night when I arrived Napier, 320 km north of Wellington.Napier is a beautiful city with Art Deco buildings. In 1931 an earthquake of 7.9 on the Richter scale destroyed most of the brick buildings. The city was rebuilt by a 2-year reconstruction program. As a result Napier was reborn a city of Art Deco. Napier is also known for its paper mill which produces the "Nepia" tissue paper. On the wharf of the Napier harbor piles of lumber can be seen. New Zealand cut trees to raise sheep, and now as a consequence more trees are disappearing from its land. A Japanese trading company bought a huge plot of land for planting trees around Ninety Mile Beach. In addition Japanese and Korean fishing boats have taken all the fish in the sea of Ninety Mile Beach. This beautiful country is gradually becoming sicker by the greed of human beings.

I drove further up north towards Tokomaru Bay.

This is New Zealand's most eastern part and the International Date Line is on the sea off the coast. The weather of that day was fine after a long time. There was no worry about rain and I decided to sleep in a tent for the first time during the trip. There were full stars and absolute tranquillity. If there had been any sound in the world at that time, it would have been the subtle sound of the wind tickling the leaves of the trees and that of a tide of the sea softly washing the dark beach. The Milky Way divided the dark sky into halves. "We were born on a small planet that rotates around a rural fixed star of the Galaxy. We live an ephemeral life there. Yet we have had incessant strifes since the ancient days. Leave them to do it. Tonight I talk to nature with a glass of beer, under a chandelier of stars. It's more peaceful at least. I want to live a beautiful life." The camping fee for the place was 450 Yen. The camping sites in New Zealand are well- equipped, and very inexpensive to stay in. Everything is available - clean toilets, hot showers, TV room, washing and drying facilities, telephones, and electricity. In Japan, we pay for a sleeping space, however, here in New Zealand people pay for the facility. New Zealanders spend their lives being caressed by nature. So their faces are shining with joy. For them the purpose of life is to enjoy it. I was nearly finishing my trip around New Zealand. On the way back to Auckland I visited Rotorua again to see Thomas and to pick up my things I had left three weeks before. Thomas was not at home. He was visiting Auckland on business. I opened the door with the key he had given me and stayed in his place that night. The next day I drove back to the east coast and headed north for Hot Water Beach. As you can guess by its name, you can get hot water if you dig in the sand on the beach. You can lie in the tub of sand, enjoying the beautiful sight of the blue sea and the young girls in the hot spring.

On the 14th of January, the last day of my motorcycle trip, I came to Thames and saw lots of black birds with long red beaks walking on the beach. They were oyster catchers. A large number of the birds dyed the white beach into black. That reminded me of a scene when a large flock of unknown birds once covered the sky over a small town at dusk in Mexico. Although it is written that oyster catchers can be found also on beaches of Japan, I have never seen them before. When I was a little kid, we had white beaches even along the Osaka Bay and I remember that the beautiful white birds were walking on the beaches. I also remember I used to catch dragon flies, swallows and bats with a fishing net on the beach in the dusk of the summer evenings. Where have all the flying creatures gone? We were busy playing with nature.

The indulgence of present children into computer games must be the by-product of the disruption of our eco-system. I went back to the bike, which was parked in front of a house full of flowers in different colors. An old man found me watching the beautiful garden and came out of the house. He invited me to join him on the porch for tea. We talked about New Zealand, Japan and the world for a couple of hours. Somehow I had opportunities to see only old people in the country. After selling the bike back to the motorcycle shop in Auckland, I visited Ray in Whangarei. I could hardly recognize him when I saw him again after only one year, because he had shaved his face. He looked much younger than before without his whiskers. Ray is in retirement and he spends his time rebuilding a classic car in his workshop. It's my dream to live in a place like his house. I really want a workshop or at least a garage for my bikes. The next day on the way back to Auckland, I met an old gentleman of 94 years. He reads philosophical books and is a very refined person. He works on a book alone in his big house everyday. I want to spend my retirement life as they do. New Zealanders are both mentally and materially much richer than the Japanese. They laugh a lot and have good faces. Their faces doubtlessly reflect the happy life they live in beautiful nature. I think I have to gaze into my own face in the mirror.