bouncing through a few of Malbor-
ough’s wineries enjoying the many
grape delights of the area, taking silly
photos before continuing to a camp-
ground for continued testing of our
purchased products.
Miraculously not feeling under the
weather, the next day I took off to-
wards Abel Tasman … with one of my
favorite detours on the island; back
and forth from French Pass. The drive
out and back starts out as a country
road, decent pavement slowly winding
through the countryside before you
meet the base of a hill where the real
leaning begins. After zipping up the
slope flipping Robin back and forth
regularly dragging pegs and clunking
boots, the road continues the epic ar-
ray of curves before flattening out and
changing into a gravel road.
Slowly riding while dodging the
local livestock, my eyes were regu-
larly drawn out to the left where the
multi-faceted blue ocean lay littered
with lush green islands. And almost
as quickly as the view appeared, it
was gone as the road turned back to
pavement and wound down off the
plateau into French harbour. Given
another chance, I would love to take
the ferry from there and head out to
TRAVERSE 95
d’Urville Island where I have been
told there are an invigorating set of
offroad trails to explore, and fantastic
seafood restaurants to finish off the
days. Best part of the ride was after a
snack break and a U-turn at the dead
end, I got to experience it all again!
After a couple days exploring the
eastern end of Abel Tasman Park I
braved the lineups to cross the fre-
quently closed highway over the hill
to Golden Bay and Farewell Spit.
Waiting in line for the highway to
open I had the most incredibly for-
tuitous meeting as there were two
well-travelled BMW F650’s sitting in