Bucket List - check!

Are you allowed to add things to your bucket list, do them and then check them off? Riding a motorcycle for miles on an NZ beach just wasn't on my bucket list radar, but I have to say it was a pretty memorable experience.

Wayne and I set off yesterday morning in order to hit low tide on a west coast beach outside of Auckland. We got stuck in the soft (deep!) sand on our way to the beach, had to offload the bikes and have someone tow us to the hard-packed sand 100m in front of us. Waves are very big and the sand is black in this part of NZ-beachland. The Piano was filmed just south of where we were. Beachgoers unload their 'toys' at the access point, and we saw surfers, dune buggies, 4x4s, kite surfers, "blow-carts" (an NZ invention), horseback riders and dirt bikes like ours. After what seemed like WAY too short a lesson, I was tentatively teetering down the beach in first gear. I got the hang of shifting pretty quickly but Wayne told me that "bikes aren't meant to go in a straight line" so then I had a whole new set of skills to worry about! Despite the weaving practice, I preferred going really fast in a straight line, with nothing to worry about but the odd piece of driftwood or a speedbump jellyfish. This beach is actually classified as an NZ highway and speeds are posted (60 km).

When we got back to the car, Wayne drove it through and I muscled my way on my bike through the deep sand alleyway to the parking area - the beer waiting in the cooler never tasted so good!