Its been done

I am a proud owner of a Class 1 and Class 6 learner license. This allows me to ride one of these.

So not to waste any time I just got back from a dealer and put my deposit on a brand new one. Delivery expected on the 20th of August.
Just about the only people who don't know about this are my parents. Lets keep it this way until they are back from their holiday in Europe. I will surprise them when they are back, probably by riding the bike to their house and parking it outside :)

This week I'll be doing some more practice riding on rental bikes (free from the dealer) as this is quite a big step from a tiny little 100cc bike I did my learners test on. Yeah ok its only a 250cc but it has a full size body (similar to a 600cc) and its almost as heavy (about 160kg dry).

Overall the motorcycle dealer (TSS Motorcycles in Lower Hutt) have the best sales people I have ever talked to in any industry almost to the point where I thought they are crazy to offer me all the stuff they did.

This is how it went. I showed to the dealership in the morning, 24 hours after getting my learners, so thats the total of 4 hours riding experience, none of which was on public roads. First thing i was offered a coffee. After showing me the range of their 250cc bikes (250 is the limit on learners and restricted) the guy asked me if I wanted to test ride any of them. I was like, err no thanks I dont think I will get far on one of them for now. So he offered me to take any of their older rentals for a test ride. I dont think a car dealer would ever offer a learner test drive of their brand spanking new cars.

Once we started talking about the price it was even better. These guys already have the cheapest price in wellington, on top of that you get a nice discount on all the gear. This is pretty standard. Whats not standard is that the gear discount if for life. Once I get the bike from them I will always get a discount on all gear from them and all service done to the bike. If there is something wrong with the bike and it needs work done, they will come to you, pick up the bike and give you a free rental while your bike is being fixed, again free.

On top of all that I get to use their rentals until I get my bike for practice so I feel a little more confident riding away on a brand new bike when I get it.

Now I don't know anyone who bought a brand new car from a dealership, but somehow I doubt you get same kind of deals.

So yeah, for the last couple of weeks thats pretty much all I've been thinking about. This scary thing is I would have to take the bike on the motorway on the first ride to get it to Wellington. Should be fun!!

In a few weeks...

... I am about to do something that will dramatically increase my insurance fees and decrease my life expectancy. I will be a big danger to myself and everyone around me :) Who can guess what I'm doing?

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Enough said

T-Shirt Photoshoot

Last Sunday Ksenia asked me to do a small photo shoot for her company, so I guess this is my first "Professional" photo shoot :). Actually the pictures were supposed to look amature. Amature is my specialty :). The T-Shirt designs are the reason for the photos by the way.

It was tons of fun. I had four models at my disposal: two Swedes, a Russian and a Brit. Not bad eh?

Well 2 hours and 500 shots later I thought I had some decent looking shots. Check them out on Flickr

Photos from holiday in Nelson

Finally, I got some photos uploaded. This was probably the best holiday I've had in my life.


The first order of business was to get a pair of kayaks and dress up in skirts :)


After that we had about 30 minutes of basic training on how to control a kayak. Pretty straight forward. They are a lot more stable then people think. At one stage I was leaning as far sideways as I could and the kayak didnt tip over. The only time we would be in danger or tipping would be if a wave hit us broadside.






Abel Tazman has some of the most beautiful beaches I've seen in New Zealand. They are also pretty empty because you cant get to them by car, only on foot or by sea.


I've had more fun with my wide angle lens. Kim grew at least 20cm :)


This is what the weather was like for the whole trip. What can I say - Perfect



These shots were taken close to midnight. The light is actually from the moon. Southern Cross and Orion - the only constellations I can recognize in southern hemisphere.


What a view, no clue why I ever left that place :)


On the way back to Nelson we stopped by this place. There was a small track around it. Walking didn't sound that bad after 2 days of sitting on your ass in a kayak.



Next we were on our way to get PG1 Paragliding license. Kim and Rickard had a head start on their previous trip so I had to catch up on the first day. Its not as fun doing it on a flat field, so much more work :)


The instructors were very nice people. They always invited us over to their place for a drink after a day of flying. They also gave us a ride everywhere, including the beach during the day (we would normally fly mornings and evenings).

Tui ad?



Later we did some more flying of a steeper hill.

I'll see if I can get more photos uploaded to Flickr. Check back here to see more photos.