Auckland - Goodbye to our motorcycles!

Monday morning Wayne drove us to the warehouse after his bus shift, about half an hour from the city towards the airport. The employee there knew right away and led us into the warehouse. There our crates stood unharmed with customs seals on the shelf. With the pallet jack quickly lowered to the ground, we could start unpacking. The employee said we could spread out however we wanted and if we needed help, we should let them know. It was all very relaxed there. Just like it usually is in New Zealand.

Now first we unscrewed the lid of both crates and took a look inside! We wanted to see if everything was there and in good shape. First relief: everything looks good. The only thing that stood out was the open packsack with the tent, obviously the organic customs took a closer look at it.

The biggest challenge was unscrewing the many Spax screws. Wayne's cordless screwdriver was already a bit old, the two batteries didn't last very long, and some screws were also very tight, so we had to do a lot with the manual screwdriver. That took some time... and my hands hurt for another 3 days.

Eventually the walls were dismantled. And indeed, not a scratch found anywhere. We must have packed it pretty well. Now just attach the handlebars, thread a tension belt through and lift the bikes with the pallet jack to install the front wheels. Inserting the brake discs into the brake calipers was a pretty fiddly business. We're not experienced mechanics. But somehow this also worked out.

Now just reconnect the batteries, and then the exciting moment. Will these things start up after 9 weeks in the crate? But all worries were unnecessary: even the KTM roared to life as if it had been running just yesterday, and the Triumph as well.

So now just attach the luggage system and put on the packsacks. After about 6 hours we drove off the yard. What a feeling, our bikes are now riding in New Zealand, 18,000 km away from home!

The first stop was the gas station. 19.6 liters fit into the 19-liter tank of my KTM, that was cutting it close. When we returned to Wayne's place, we first cleared the trash bins from the mini courtyard so we could park our bikes behind the locked gate. We initially wanted to just park them on the street, but that was out of the question for our host.

The next day we went to the AA station for registration and WoF (Warrant of Fitness, a type of inspection). Everything was very easy, the staff was completely relaxed and the technical inspection was very lax. They probably don't see motorcycles from overseas that often, we had small talk with almost all of the inspectors who appeared one after the other and were interested in checking out our bikes.

So everything went smoothly, now it's time to go on tour!