Friday May 3rd 2013, one year ago we left home amidst excitement and tears, a very special thank you to our great mates Richard and Margaret in Wanaka for kicking us outa the country.
First the recognition needed to those who have made our trip possible .... that is YOU our readers, supporters and sponsors!
Our Sponsors helped get Two Moto Kiwis off the ground proving Kiwis can fly thus deserve a good mention as they play a huge part in our everyday life,
Klim Adventure Riding gear
Scala Rider communications
Arai Helmets
Kevin and Keiko from Te Anau NZ for making our logo
Bro Paul from Delis Tools
Icebreaker
Alaska Leather
Barkbuster
Sargent Seats
Mike and Mei from Linguis International and Stay at NZ Immigration Service
Screens For Bikes Australia
Sidewinder chains and sprockets.
Sara and Roger from New Zealand.
These guys have given us tremendous support and enabled our trip to be better by providing outstanding gear and equipment so please if you are considering buying products give them the support they gave us and many other RTW (and normal:huh) bikers.
The people, gezz hundreds, if your name is not on here it is because my head forgot so nothing personal (at least don’t look into it too deep 8-) :rofl
Barb and Victor Smart, owners of Alaska Leather gave us access to their (heated floor) home workshop to assemble the bikes and start our trip.:clap
All you mad Alaskans that made us feel so welcome.
Canadians .... well.
Grif and Lisa,.Micheal and Jing you guys rock
Pierre, unreal dude.
Mel in Fort St James
Richard in Dunster
David Barrett unwittingly climbed in to help without hesitation when Chiwi blew her seal.
David & Kandi for Vancouver Island, took us out and led us astray ... WOH HOH.
Americans .... hmmmm
Shann Florer long time mate in Fresno, had my 46th birthday with him which was great
Doug Holck from Lodi (Holckster on ADV)
Edward Wilkinson (Questor on ADV) you have my drinking problem.:freaky
Bevan and Clare Walsh ex ozzies from Phoenix AZ, helped pick up the pieces, gave us support and a place to gather and recoup after Ellens crash and a sale for the two bikes. :clap
Spencer from Phoenix in AZ, took the time to help us sort Maya after being ripped off by Alfred Lamarre the previous owner.
The rest of the AZ contingent who also helped us out and Dillon from Zen Motorcycle who got Maya back in shape.
Craig and Sharon (although Ozzies :evil) who we met under a wet tree, good buggas and currently RTWing too.
Mexico
Norbert, life saver supreme, mate your blood is worth bottling.
Our non petrolhead Canadian family that supported us after Ellens big biff.
Spencer Harris ... great info and had us stay for a few days in La Manzanillo.
Gary and Ivonne Dymond in Mexico city and their daughter Leslie in Playa Del Carmen, the model family and very welcoming, we look forward to having you guys in New Zealand.
Guatemala
Julio otherwise known as Guaterider taking delivery of parts for us after Maya did more poos in her pants, hopefully these new nappies will stop more 8-)
Taz from Motomundo saving a front tire for us and giving us workshop space :clap
Finally, everyone from ADV rider, Kiwibiker, The Hubb who have all contributed to our trip with advice, support, giving us shit, giving us props and even being nice.:huh
Also a special thanks to ADV Grifter a for being a dick on our Ride Report and Alfred Lamare for ripping us off blind plus Lawnman who happens to be ADV Grifter and a couple of other lowlifes who tried to bring us down, all you guys have made us much stronger in life and we realize that your pathetic attempts to bring us down are feeble
uke1, just because you are miserable you don’t have to try and make ours that low, the great thing is we have learnt from this to step up and carry on ... you lose.
clap
The Heart Speaks One Year Anniversary
This year has undoubtedly been the hardest year yet the best year of my life (from what I can remember) :evil
Fulfilling a dream of travel by motorcycle has bought freedom, tears, extreme anger, extreme love, outstanding friendships new and old, total devastation and unreal accomplishments.
To say it has all been fun would be a complete lie, some RTWers seem to want to paint perfect pictures so as the readers don’t feel bad but envious.
Being Kiwi our heritage is tell it how it is, no sugar coatings just reality, this has its good and bads and to be fair across the board our trip thus far comes us with a huge tick.
The People and Places
Starting in Alaska was seriously cool as Alaskans are just like Kiwis but on the top side, we were welcomed in and helped tremendously with the likes of Bezzer cutting our side stand and welding a decent footprint on them.
Charlie in Homer took delivery of us in Homer and took us around, the place is simply stunning and you Charlie are great company.
Dicon and Leslie also helped us out and Gary and Debs were great company and continue to be (noting new friendships).
Memories of our first ride out
Coming down through Canada from Inuvik down .... gezzz, we must have been the luckiest travelers alive with mostly great weather and surviving a coupla bears outside our tent Lake Kitwanga.
The Columbia Icefields ...... u n r e a l, we believe that coming from New Zealand and specifically Wanaka we are qualified in what is beautiful thus when we say it is stunning it comes from heartfelt views, grandeur and beauty that can only be had from being there and photos don’t really cut it, many locations have bought a tear of appreciation to my eyes realizing how lucky we are.
Then the USA, again some of the most stunning scenery and beauty, we have not seen enough of the mid and east so we will be back to torment you lot on that side.
We were wowed many times and to be honest it is hard to pick one place that we would say that is it!!
One of my favs
Mexico, is it safe?, the straight answer is NO as you will love it and NOT want to leave thus causing concern and grave fears from anyone who has not been there, unfortunately a lot of US Americans will never experience Mexico due to their govt machine and homeland security handbrake leading them astray.
Cuba, cool place but that box is ticked, we enjoyed it having spent 3 weeks looking around and taking it in, there are aspects that smack you in the head as insane tho, these being two currencies - one for the whiteyfoos and one at 1/24th of the cost to locals, also the Revolucion ..... next time they have a "great idea" the people should become better off, this coupled with the US embargo leaves Cuba in a huge whole to which they will never recover, these two combined see the locals line up daily for bread, banks and basics while the wealthy few run (ruin) the country so a crime in my eyes.
Bonus, we did buy a painting that did make it home so we do have a wee slice of Cuba
Belize, the people there were really cool, a huge influence of african american black people, some of the most beautiful woman I have seen (apart from Ellen :evil), we were told the place was mighty expensive, this is quite the opposite and not much more if any than other CA countries give or take one or two exceptions.
We will go back there for a better look down the track.
Guatemala .... bloody awful, couldn’t see myself living here for more than 50 years.
What a cool place (except havin ta go ta skool agin:deal), to be fair the place has incredible scenery and diverse areas from chilly mountain tops to extreme hot and humid beaches.
The Motorcycles
Ok, we didn’t really have an ideal run with Chiwi and Hobbit with engine casing replacements etc so losing 6 weeks out of 6 months was a huge pissoff as we missed Colorado etc because of this, Suzuki said the would compensate us but we have seen nothing from them and to be honest I don’t think we will, shame on you for bad production and promising to make good then not coming forth.:cry
Maya, the story of my life, trusting a “stand up” guy on ADV rider, maybe we should have gone to look at it but it is all money and again we were completely misrepresented from the pictures we (and everyone on ADV Rider) were shown.
The PO has been permabanned from ADV but we are still out of pocket big time to the tune of an extra $2500 USD to fix all the **** ups, we will never see anything from the lying arsehole but we will go back to the US and will visit him, the game will be evened out make no mistake.:norton
We have a pile of parts to put on when we get to Antigua and we are hopeful this is the last of the major fails.
Andi & Ellen
The interesting part, Ellen starting with little “technical” riding experience made very hard work for me, her riding is smooth and good but her U turns etc tormented me on a daily basis.
As you know this came to a head on the Denali highway with serious words being said, serious enough to have everlasting consequences.
We continued our trip and made the best of it, in Moab Ellen wanted to do the white rim trail as a learning platform and I was dead against it but we did it and she had her big off.
Fast forward to Mexico and her final unexplained off on a straight road was the finish as I said I was not prepared to ride any further having to ride my mirrors all day.
On the way back to the USA stress levels exceeded safe levels and we had an epic scrap and I wanted to go my own way.
Things were going very wrong, Ellen was injured, her bike was damaged, the tow truck drivers tried stealing from us, the bank gave us the run around with Mayas payment and it was all too much, my reaction was “**** it” and walk away.
With Ellen going to her sisters in Montreal it gave us time apart which was essential.
We held it together, got Maya fixed and fixed Ellens bike and sold the two of them and continued two up, this has its own set of quirks too as I had NOT planned to ride two up whatsoever.
Good advice I will give to anyone contemplating riding around the world with your partner, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, alien or whatever is make sure you have you own time and plenty of it as you will be together 24/7.
Also make sure your riding partner is within a bulls roar of your own ability as this caused grief even in traffic let alone back country roads or off road.
Although I would prefer to be riding one up I would prefer more that Ellen is alive and well, that is not to say we won't get injured or even killed two up but with my riding experience I would like to think that will pay dividends for our safety.
Conclusion
You have to be overly and very accepting of different cultures and ways or you will fail so when in Mexico drive like a Mexican, don’t get pissed off!!! ... join in.
When an oil pipe blows off as you enter a town think how lucky you were that it shat itself there and not in the middle of nowhere, there is ALWAYS an upside.:clap
When it is raining extremely heavily and you are freezing your balls off think what it would be like at work on a bad day ... rain isn’t that bad ... see how fast you can corner without binning it :rofl.
Go play in the rain to fend it off :clap
When you drop your bike cos you are so tired, dehydrated and stuffed and you look straight down a 10 metre drop less that 300 mm away and the dirt is crumbling away under your feet think how lucky you were not to go down the drop.
Little things mean a lot on the road and simple seems to go out of the equation some times.
Logistically you have to be a better manager, we pretty much wing it each day but my engineering head is thinking tires, chains, sprockets, oil changes not to mention “what happens if Maya shits herself right here” :eek1
Some days quite simply you will have to be superman and wonderwoman and other days you just say hell yeah with a grin so wide you could not measure it with a speedo!!!
With triumphs of having Ellens writing published in China this has been a huge thing for us knowing that others are living vicariously through us, hopefully others will find inspiration in this too :clap
So one year on the road, stresses greater than work at times, 40 deg plus days, -2 snowing days, rain and sun, arseholes cutting you off, great food from side of the road vendors, listening to bears outside your tent, side of the road repairs, barking dogs everywhere 24/7, meeting new people, going new places, mosquitos, beautiful beaches, mountain vistas not to mention riding ... my passion in life ..... I would not swap it for the world.
We are still in love hardships and all, we have been tested to within an inch of insanity or maybe 1/4 inch at times, just stand up to it and say "**** it" this IS all about us and we WILL make it happen.... which we are doing and looking forward to carrying on doing .... besides you guys need our reports on your desk as promised :clap
Luv to all
Andi & Ellen
Two Moto kiwis :clap
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Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere
s ... good times all round. 
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