The Mount

stayed in Maunganui for a few days. Good surf and good vibes. We relaxed on the beaches all day and just wandered around aimlessly.

Slept on Motuniki Island.. Nothing better than waking up with a view.

Went to a grocery store to change the oil in Stella in the parking lot. When Bubba was inside looking for a drain pan, he randomly ran into the lady that I sat next to on the flight to NZ. She invited us to meet up with her and her daughter for dinner at her daughters house in Papamoa Beach. Played music on the beach and slept in her back yard. Funny to have them offer up spare bedrooms and couches, and the thought of sleeping inside was un-appealing and we slept under the moon. Thank you Nancy and Mikaela for the kindness and hospitality.

Nancy, Bubba, Stella, and I

On our own to Mt. Maunganui

Had plans to ride the trails known as Summer Hill. But rain shut it down in the morning so Bubba and I decided to part ways with the comfort of our friends and local tour guides, and set our sights south bound. We drove to Mt. Maunganui. A town that we knew nothing about, other than they have a wave we might be able to surf..

And surf we did...Along with a shit  load of other people.

Turns out that New Zealand has propane hot plates all over the country.. They are everywhere and we cooked a bunch of our meals on different ones throughout the time we spent down there. Maunganui was our first experience with them. had no idea we would be searching for them and finding them in almost every town..

Slept under a picnic table in the rain. Slept like kings.

Whanga Beach Camp

Robs gone. The whole crew decided to drive out East to have a camp session on Calebs beach. Packed up a bunch of stuff into the WAZ mans truck and took it coastline.

Beach Adventures

An awesome time with a bunch of awesome dudes. A great way to spend our last night with everyone before Bubba and I set off on our own journey of the unknown.

Robs Last days in NZ

Robs 2 weeks in NZ were coming to halt. We were able to cram so much in while he was here. Seemed to be a perfect trip, but couldn't fit it all in in 3 months, never mind 2 weeks.. He will be back down there seeing all the rest someday. The last few days he was in town we got to ride the alien looking skate thingy at sunset...

And Rob shut it down at another place..

Big thanks to the almighty WAZ for taking us to the obscure spots.. If you need a roll up ladder to get to it...I'm in.

looking down a wet full pipe...

NZ North of Auckland

A short stint in Auckland again for a few days.. Rode the jumps, so much had changed since we were there a week before.. things stacked higher/steeper. Place is awesome and its so good to kick back and watch all the dudes rip. Bubba cased a big jump and flew to the bottom of the landing..a huge landing. George, Caleb, Lola.

Went and rode a pretty crazy ditch..

Then took the drive North of Auckland for a few hours to spend a few  days somewhere exotic before  Rob has to fly home to a snow covered Philadelphia. Weather was cloudy and drizzly. Stopped at a weird bowl. G Byrnes tried to 180 disaster it and gets stuck and flips over the bars in the "get what you get" T-1 video. Funny to recognize it after watching that video a bunch of times since it came out. Planned to go back and ride it the next day, But the pouring rain shut us down...next time.



Kept rolling North to the Waipoua Forest; Home to New Zealands largest tree, "Tane Mahuta". A Giant Kauri tree like no tree i've ever seen. It was hard to get a picture that did it any justice, just like redwoods. Funny to drive way out into the middle of no where and just sit and stare at a giant tree.

Double Rainbow shining down on Stella on our way outta there, en route to the Kai Iwi Lakes.

Slept at the lakes, hoping it wasn't going to rain. Cloudy and ratty weather didn't affect another one of our home cooked meals on fire.. Top of a hill with a view. The clods cleared up that night and the stars really opened up. Played some banjo while we sat there and enjoyed the view. Rob took a picture of us, that ended up being the cover photo to the Dig article.

The Slow roll back to Auckland

 From Mt. Tongariro we started our drive north to Raglan. My first lesson in New Zealand road map reading.. secondary road in NZ may very well be a dirt road.... And we were on it for a while. Decided to pull over on the side of the dirt road in the middle of no where and sleep.. Poured rain all night and we slept perfectly right thorough it.. Packed up everything soaked and finished out the drive to Raglan...home of "the worlds longest left hand surf break", or so they say in "The Endless Summer"

Mt. Tongariro.

Woke up, Rob got another solo session in the hot spring and then we took a few more runs at the skatepark.. got a sesh for maybe a half hour before all the babies started showing up on their scooters from every direction... Soo many damn scooter kids in NZ. the skateparks seem to be for them. We got out of there and headed for the Mountain.

Scooters and Hot Water

Taupo Rules.

 Lake Taupo is fed by hot springs. Its huge and the temperature stays the same all year. We got some food and cruised all over town for the whole day. Found the local skatepark and tried to take some runs, as soon as we started cruising, the scooter kids started showing up in packs.

Whangamata

Stopped back in Whangamata to hang out with Caleb on our way through town. He showed us his local spot and we hung out with this funny local scooter kid for a bit before the rain blew in. Cool old school snake run style park, a small taste of all the crazy transitions we would see while in New Zealand.

The Coromandel Peninsula

We Drove up to the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula and did a day hike on the Coromandel Walkway.. I guess its just another place to eat lunch... But eating our lunch and dinners and breakfasts  in all these places just gives me an appetite for more.

Bonus swim hole on our way out of town..

And a pit stop at midnight for the hot tub beach..no pics just memory. woah

Hitting the road while on the road...

After being in New Zealand for a few days, we bought a car..Went to a car fair in Auckland, Saw it, loved it, bought it. 1500 bucks and we are mobile.. Loaded up all of our gear, had a nice little session in the woods, and

NZ Classic Concrete

New Zealand is full of unique concrete skateparks. They seem to be in every town. I think i heard George saying there was over 50 skateparks just in Auckland. Old and new; all different. The same day as the 40 ft concrete snake run, we checked out an old park in one of the Auckland suburbs, Lynnfield.

Caleb style

I remember seeing pictures of the New Lynn skatepark, always looked gnarly and weird.. I remember a point where I saw the picture, and thinking i'd never end up there.. And although they had just got done cleaning the whole place up and fixing some of the sketchy spots, and we didn't get to see it in its sketchy prime, the place was awesome.

G-Boltz always kills the spots

The Gathering......of concrete tranny.

It's always about the journey, the mission, the adventure. If living isn't an adventure, you might not be living at all. BMX has always been a consistent resource for adventures, no matter where you are in the world. I'm thankful for that adventurous attitude being such a big part of BMX. It's not uncommon to be somewhere foreign and have someone ask you if you want to take a few hour drive to the hills to ride a full pipe or dam spillway or skatepark or anything else... just an outlet/excuse to do something awesome.

George Bolter - Spillway Life

Thank you to Waz and Bolts for this unique gem of a session.

RI Pre NZ

All the many phases of the bus mods back bed/bench

A winter weather hike a few days before the trip started..classic Purgatory tight squeeze

Sexy...

New Zealand Welcoming

From the airport to the woods. 24 hours of flying and boom. were standing in a paradise of hand sculpted dirt.. Bikes together in the parking lot, Runs, crazy grocery store.. Tent city, I spray painted my tent. Dolecki used the hammock, welcome  to the other side of the globe

Caleb getting rad on our first morning in NZ at Victoria park..our first experience with too many scooters.

Cool to see the different places or ways trail riders get their water... This spot had a long cool trail down to this jungle puddle

New Zealand

 2 Doobs for a 10 hour layover in Los Angeles. a guy in full body long johns gave me a set of finger picks in exchange for me paying his bus fare... those will come in handy.  a fun bus ride from the airport to the beach, a sun set, a bunch of so cal zombies, a surprisingly easy bus ride back to the airport.. airport blah blah blah and then a long flight from Los Angeles to Fiji....

expecting a short layover in Fiji, get in and get a nice surprise.. the flight is delayed and the airline is putting us up in a resort for the day.. The life of some poor kings..













New Zealand

OffLine

Got off line and it blew my mind... heres a vid of those NZ guys... as seen on can you dig it..

PEEEMPEE from erichennessey on Vimeo.