Friday May 3rd 2013, one year ago we left home amidst excitement and tears, a very special thank you to our great mates Richard and Margaret in Wanaka for kicking us outa the country.

First the recognition needed to those who have made our trip possible .... that is YOU our readers, supporters and sponsors!

Our Sponsors helped get Two Moto Kiwis off the ground proving Kiwis can fly thus deserve a good mention as they play a huge part in our everyday life,
Klim Adventure Riding gear
Scala Rider communications
Arai Helmets
Kevin and Keiko from Te Anau NZ for making our logo
Bro Paul from Delis Tools
Icebreaker
Alaska Leather
Barkbuster
Sargent Seats
Mike and Mei from Linguis International and Stay at NZ Immigration Service
Screens For Bikes Australia
Sidewinder chains and sprockets.
Sara and Roger from New Zealand.

These guys have given us tremendous support and enabled our trip to be better by providing outstanding gear and equipment so please if you are considering buying products give them the support they gave us and many other RTW (and normal:huh) bikers.

The people, gezz hundreds, if your name is not on here it is because my head forgot so nothing personal (at least don’t look into it too deep 8-) :rofl

Barb and Victor Smart, owners of Alaska Leather gave us access to their (heated floor) home workshop to assemble the bikes and start our trip.:clap

All you mad Alaskans that made us feel so welcome.

Canadians .... well.
Grif and Lisa,.Micheal and Jing you guys rock
Pierre, unreal dude.
Mel in Fort St James
Richard in Dunster
David Barrett unwittingly climbed in to help without hesitation when Chiwi blew her seal.
David & Kandi for Vancouver Island, took us out and led us astray ... WOH HOH.

Americans .... hmmmm
Shann Florer long time mate in Fresno, had my 46th birthday with him which was great
Doug Holck from Lodi (Holckster on ADV)
Edward Wilkinson (Questor on ADV) you have my drinking problem.:freaky
Bevan and Clare Walsh ex ozzies from Phoenix AZ, helped pick up the pieces, gave us support and a place to gather and recoup after Ellens crash and a sale for the two bikes. :clap
Spencer from Phoenix in AZ, took the time to help us sort Maya after being ripped off by Alfred Lamarre the previous owner.
The rest of the AZ contingent who also helped us out and Dillon from Zen Motorcycle who got Maya back in shape.
Craig and Sharon (although Ozzies :evil) who we met under a wet tree, good buggas and currently RTWing too.

Mexico
Norbert, life saver supreme, mate your blood is worth bottling.
Our non petrolhead Canadian family that supported us after Ellens big biff.
Spencer Harris ... great info and had us stay for a few days in La Manzanillo.
Gary and Ivonne Dymond in Mexico city and their daughter Leslie in Playa Del Carmen, the model family and very welcoming, we look forward to having you guys in New Zealand.

Guatemala
Julio otherwise known as Guaterider taking delivery of parts for us after Maya did more poos in her pants, hopefully these new nappies will stop more 8-)
Taz from Motomundo saving a front tire for us and giving us workshop space :clap

Finally, everyone from ADV rider, Kiwibiker, The Hubb who have all contributed to our trip with advice, support, giving us shit, giving us props and even being nice.:huh

Also a special thanks to ADV Grifter a for being a dick on our Ride Report and Alfred Lamare for ripping us off blind plus Lawnman who happens to be ADV Grifter and a couple of other lowlifes who tried to bring us down, all you guys have made us much stronger in life and we realize that your pathetic attempts to bring us down are feeble uke1, just because you are miserable you don’t have to try and make ours that low, the great thing is we have learnt from this to step up and carry on ... you lose.clap

The Heart Speaks One Year Anniversary

This year has undoubtedly been the hardest year yet the best year of my life (from what I can remember) :evil

Fulfilling a dream of travel by motorcycle has bought freedom, tears, extreme anger, extreme love, outstanding friendships new and old, total devastation and unreal accomplishments.

To say it has all been fun would be a complete lie, some RTWers seem to want to paint perfect pictures so as the readers don’t feel bad but envious.

Being Kiwi our heritage is tell it how it is, no sugar coatings just reality, this has its good and bads and to be fair across the board our trip thus far comes us with a huge tick.

The People and Places

Starting in Alaska was seriously cool as Alaskans are just like Kiwis but on the top side, we were welcomed in and helped tremendously with the likes of Bezzer cutting our side stand and welding a decent footprint on them.
Charlie in Homer took delivery of us in Homer and took us around, the place is simply stunning and you Charlie are great company.

Dicon and Leslie also helped us out and Gary and Debs were great company and continue to be (noting new friendships).

Memories of our first ride out







Coming down through Canada from Inuvik down .... gezzz, we must have been the luckiest travelers alive with mostly great weather and surviving a coupla bears outside our tent Lake Kitwanga.

The Columbia Icefields ...... u n r e a l, we believe that coming from New Zealand and specifically Wanaka we are qualified in what is beautiful thus when we say it is stunning it comes from heartfelt views, grandeur and beauty that can only be had from being there and photos don’t really cut it, many locations have bought a tear of appreciation to my eyes realizing how lucky we are.

Then the USA, again some of the most stunning scenery and beauty, we have not seen enough of the mid and east so we will be back to torment you lot on that side.

We were wowed many times and to be honest it is hard to pick one place that we would say that is it!!

One of my favs



Mexico, is it safe?, the straight answer is NO as you will love it and NOT want to leave thus causing concern and grave fears from anyone who has not been there, unfortunately a lot of US Americans will never experience Mexico due to their govt machine and homeland security handbrake leading them astray.

Cuba, cool place but that box is ticked, we enjoyed it having spent 3 weeks looking around and taking it in, there are aspects that smack you in the head as insane tho, these being two currencies - one for the whiteyfoos and one at 1/24th of the cost to locals, also the Revolucion ..... next time they have a "great idea" the people should become better off, this coupled with the US embargo leaves Cuba in a huge whole to which they will never recover, these two combined see the locals line up daily for bread, banks and basics while the wealthy few run (ruin) the country so a crime in my eyes.

Bonus, we did buy a painting that did make it home so we do have a wee slice of Cuba



Belize, the people there were really cool, a huge influence of african american black people, some of the most beautiful woman I have seen (apart from Ellen :evil), we were told the place was mighty expensive, this is quite the opposite and not much more if any than other CA countries give or take one or two exceptions.

We will go back there for a better look down the track.

Guatemala .... bloody awful, couldn’t see myself living here for more than 50 years.

What a cool place (except havin ta go ta skool agin:deal), to be fair the place has incredible scenery and diverse areas from chilly mountain tops to extreme hot and humid beaches.

The Motorcycles

Ok, we didn’t really have an ideal run with Chiwi and Hobbit with engine casing replacements etc so losing 6 weeks out of 6 months was a huge pissoff as we missed Colorado etc because of this, Suzuki said the would compensate us but we have seen nothing from them and to be honest I don’t think we will, shame on you for bad production and promising to make good then not coming forth.:cry

Maya, the story of my life, trusting a “stand up” guy on ADV rider, maybe we should have gone to look at it but it is all money and again we were completely misrepresented from the pictures we (and everyone on ADV Rider) were shown.

The PO has been permabanned from ADV but we are still out of pocket big time to the tune of an extra $2500 USD to fix all the **** ups, we will never see anything from the lying arsehole but we will go back to the US and will visit him, the game will be evened out make no mistake.:norton

We have a pile of parts to put on when we get to Antigua and we are hopeful this is the last of the major fails.

Andi & Ellen

The interesting part, Ellen starting with little “technical” riding experience made very hard work for me, her riding is smooth and good but her U turns etc tormented me on a daily basis.

As you know this came to a head on the Denali highway with serious words being said, serious enough to have everlasting consequences.

We continued our trip and made the best of it, in Moab Ellen wanted to do the white rim trail as a learning platform and I was dead against it but we did it and she had her big off.

Fast forward to Mexico and her final unexplained off on a straight road was the finish as I said I was not prepared to ride any further having to ride my mirrors all day.

On the way back to the USA stress levels exceeded safe levels and we had an epic scrap and I wanted to go my own way.

Things were going very wrong, Ellen was injured, her bike was damaged, the tow truck drivers tried stealing from us, the bank gave us the run around with Mayas payment and it was all too much, my reaction was “**** it” and walk away.

With Ellen going to her sisters in Montreal it gave us time apart which was essential.

We held it together, got Maya fixed and fixed Ellens bike and sold the two of them and continued two up, this has its own set of quirks too as I had NOT planned to ride two up whatsoever.

Good advice I will give to anyone contemplating riding around the world with your partner, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, alien or whatever is make sure you have you own time and plenty of it as you will be together 24/7.

Also make sure your riding partner is within a bulls roar of your own ability as this caused grief even in traffic let alone back country roads or off road.

Although I would prefer to be riding one up I would prefer more that Ellen is alive and well, that is not to say we won't get injured or even killed two up but with my riding experience I would like to think that will pay dividends for our safety.

Conclusion

You have to be overly and very accepting of different cultures and ways or you will fail so when in Mexico drive like a Mexican, don’t get pissed off!!! ... join in.

When an oil pipe blows off as you enter a town think how lucky you were that it shat itself there and not in the middle of nowhere, there is ALWAYS an upside.:clap



When it is raining extremely heavily and you are freezing your balls off think what it would be like at work on a bad day ... rain isn’t that bad ... see how fast you can corner without binning it :rofl.



Go play in the rain to fend it off :clap



When you drop your bike cos you are so tired, dehydrated and stuffed and you look straight down a 10 metre drop less that 300 mm away and the dirt is crumbling away under your feet think how lucky you were not to go down the drop.





Little things mean a lot on the road and simple seems to go out of the equation some times.

Logistically you have to be a better manager, we pretty much wing it each day but my engineering head is thinking tires, chains, sprockets, oil changes not to mention “what happens if Maya shits herself right here” :eek1

Some days quite simply you will have to be superman and wonderwoman and other days you just say hell yeah with a grin so wide you could not measure it with a speedo!!!

With triumphs of having Ellens writing published in China this has been a huge thing for us knowing that others are living vicariously through us, hopefully others will find inspiration in this too :clap



So one year on the road, stresses greater than work at times, 40 deg plus days, -2 snowing days, rain and sun, arseholes cutting you off, great food from side of the road vendors, listening to bears outside your tent, side of the road repairs, barking dogs everywhere 24/7, meeting new people, going new places, mosquitos, beautiful beaches, mountain vistas not to mention riding ... my passion in life ..... I would not swap it for the world.

We are still in love hardships and all, we have been tested to within an inch of insanity or maybe 1/4 inch at times, just stand up to it and say "**** it" this IS all about us and we WILL make it happen.... which we are doing and looking forward to carrying on doing .... besides you guys need our reports on your desk as promised :clap

Luv to all

Andi & Ellen
Two Moto kiwis :clap

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Congratulations! Great writing! Great story!
I see myself in many things you wrote, hard to explain, you have to experience it yourself, right?
Did not know that you went through so much, especially when it comes to your relationship hard core tests! Very well done and inspiring that you should not throw the towel too early!
I WILL see you (again?) and if it has to be on the steelrat ; )!
Safe and fun rides to the both of you and good luck with the orange beast!

There was lots happening in our last week in Xela.

First was my birthday on the 7th May, we went out for tea with Juan and you all saw the pictures.

Second was the “Mother’s day.” Although it is 10th May, people celebrate all week long here. On my birthday morning I went to the gym, they are giving out roses to the mothers, they didn’t give it to me because I’m not a mother, but it was my birthday too. Never mind, I won’t compete with mothers on their day.

My teacher Dayma has two young children at school and they have school performance for the mothers. To attend the celebration, she has to change my morning class to the afternoon. It allowed Andi and I have free time together so we decided to go to Laguna Chicabel for a quick visit.

Laguna Chicabel is a crater lake which is about 20ks from Xela. We locked it into our GPS as close as we could and off we went on a beautiful Thursday Morning. We turned off the main road as the GPS pointed but we couldn’t find the sign as Juan told us to follow.

We stopped and asked three local woman, they pointed a road ahead to us and said it for “carminar” means walk, we asked if we can take our “moto” up, they smiled, laughed and then said “si”. So we went.





It was REALLY soft from the previous nights heavy rains



Andi wouldn’t want the hill any more steeper or longer as we were two up and I had to hop off the bike, not that I don’t trust him, I just don’t feel being on the bike was helping. Lucky we only stuck once near the top of the hill, and it took us both to push Maya out off the ditch.



I tired backing off to stop digging but the Mayan earth mover dug very quickly and within half a second was on her belly :eek1



We carried on that road not very long and it took us back to the main road into the park.That was a little adventure detour for this trip.



The first week of May is very significant for the local Mayans. They all went to Laguna Chicabel to have their ceremony before the winter. When we got there, there were people everywhere, they were letting off fire crackers, having BBQs, drinking and putting flowers and crosses in the water. It wasn’t as quiet as we thought, but we were very pleased to see all the ceremonies.











On the way back we tried to find the “Mirador” - the look out, we had to walk around the hill and finally found it. The view from the top was very nice, definitely worth the mucking around. It turned out if we came back from the lake took the steps it would lead us there straight there.



On the way up there was some mountain bikers making the most of it :clap



We could not have had a better day so someone above was on our side





Back at the normally quiet carpark it was like a toyota hilux convention



Then is the real celebration for Mothers day. The church started 3am in the morning, we heard the music, the singing then the fireworks.... BOOM and they went up, then it woke up the dogs, the chickens and everything else that was breathing including us.

I’m sure real mothers would like to get on with their sleep-ins but not in Guatemala. Anyway, the celebration carried on the whole day. We should really get into selling fire works business here, Guatemalans seems to love to blow up shit all the time... and they are BIG bangs .

It’s also our last day in Xela, we had our last tea in Utatlan. They bought a cake for me and another student who has his birthday on Saturday, so I have a birthday cake in Xela. That was very nice. Thank you Utatlan, you make our time in Xela very memorable, we had six students in our home that day, time to leave.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Heya mate

Yeah I think RTW traveller appreciate it a little more eh,

We will definately catch up no worries there.

Now go fix ya scoota !!!

Cheers Andi

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Hi Andy just think Bro, ya get home and soon ya plan for the next one
and do it all over again, catch you and Ellen on the road some day,
cheers. Roger.

great photo's ,always enjoy.

Heya Roger

Already planning the next one ... will definitely catch you somewhere ... maybe in OZ?

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Thanks for following Noel, nice to know it is appreciated.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Xela to Antigua, The Weekend No Four

Sabado (Saturday)....a cruzy start and pack up Maya for a trip to Antigua.

Juan took us out of town to make sure we didn’t nic anything on the way out, we rode together until his turning point that waved goodbyes from there.





Stopping along the way we took in the sights, this was one stop on a tall bridge, looking straight down at the river.





We continued on our merry way and turned off to the road that Julio (Guaterider) had recommended, it started off loaded with potholes and washouts, the road then improved very quickly into world class motogp circuit roading then just as quick dropped off onto shingle with rolly rocks.





Road race quality road



Then straight onto rocky stuff



We continued along the road through a few villages getting up to great heights within fog, it was a beautiful road and so much better than the main road fitting chicken buses and trucks for space.

A few wee interesting features carved into the lime walls



Banos (toilet) stop and drink of water at the top



We eventually made our way down a small rutted shingle road/track toward Antigua making good time, so good we arrived nearly two hours earlier in fact.



We waited for Julio and Luisa to arrive back from Guatemala City and we had made plans to meet outside the cathedral ..... well with celebrations on we could not get near it so plan B was hatched.

Maya was creating a bit of interest with some locals



After some toing and froing (and Julio having a comfort stop) we all met up and followed Julio and Luisa back to Guatecasa where Maya was allowed to sleep under cover with a BMW R1200GSA.

Julio is a cook and a half so treated us to some home cooking, this was very very nice indeed.

The is Julios "I hate frijoles" (black beans) look



The following morning Julio and I went for a local hoon taking in views around Antigua before meeting the girls for breakfast. (no frijoles :wink

The two other girls playing well together.





On returning from breakfast we stripped down Maya and started replacing all the bits and pieces that had failed, Julio had kindly taken delivery of a large box of stuff for us which was simply outstanding and a huge help.



On completion of the repairs we had another Julio home-cooked tea, this time we were armed with two bottles of Chilean red wine we bought earlier in the day to complement the chefs cooking.



Larfs and chats were had .... good times.

Next morning Julio took us to the Macadamia farm for breakfast for panqueque (pancakes), this was also outstanding and extremely nice.

The macadamia desheller



Macadamias in shell



The result :clap



Ellen and I then spent the afternoon in town getting stuff sorted and enjoyed a superb Antiguan sunny day with the Volcano not only peeking from behind the cloud but preforming a full frontal !!!!



Next day was organised with Richard Chang picking us up from Julios and leading us astray to Guatemala City, I really wanted to see the Guatemalan sinkhole but they had filled it in.:huh

With our final night we yet again had red wine, chats and Julios famous home cooking, A very nice way to finish.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Due to peer pressure ... here it is

Well it started off as a normal day with Richard coming to pick us up at Julios to take the scenic way to Guatemala City rather than the main drag.

Right on time for a 9.00 am start Richard arrived at 9.45 am ...thats cool it set the mood for the day which was cruzy.

Setting off we climbed straight out of Antigua through Santa Maria de Jesus on a nice road, the road turned to gravel on the other side of the town, we did catch some roadworks for a short while which made for interesting riding but other than that was plain sailing with great views.

Following Richard



Locals busy at work



Small patch of roadworks which made things interesting



Getting into Palin Richard took us into a restaurant in centro, we had pork with tortillas which was very nice indeed and Maya was creating a bit of interest on the street.





Leaving Palin we headed toward Pacaya Volcan taking in spectacular views with a perfect weather day and the mountain top in full glory.



Not long into the trip we found a patch of volcanic sand/dust on a tight corner, with gravity against us and the front tyre loosing traction Maya started to go down.

We were just about to a stand still when I could not hold her up any longer and off we went, Ellen and Maya were fine but I landed just a bit wrong on the road and managed to clean break two ribs and fracture two others which turned out to be less than ideal.

I could not ride Maya now so I had a ride in an ambo to Guatemala city, Maya had to be put onto a deck truck and bought to the city.

Arriving at hospital I was not a happy camper as any of you who have broken ribs will know about.

This is my happy hospital look :eek1



They took the X rays which confirmed the breaks/fractures however medically they can’t do anything more than give me some hard drugs and tell me to take a cement pill and harden the fook up...easier said than done on the HTFU front.



So I was all taped up for support and drugged up to take away the pain and start the slow recovery.

I did have a few sneezes in the first days which bought tears to my eyes and some blood curdling screams of pain so it certainly was not a highlight of my life, not sure I will list this as one of life accomplishments on my resume.

Fast forward two weeks now things are starting to improve but I still have one really bad spot and on rechecking the X rays it appears I have one rib that has completely come apart and gone down a notch so I will be back in tomorrow for hopefully a better X ray to see what is happening, we are now back in Antigua and I am recovering slowly still strapped up and on drugs...

Maya is still in Guatemala City and will return on a fine day when Julio or Gene can bring her back .

So being here in Antigua things are easier to get too being a smaller town, also Gene and Neda (Lightcycle on ADV) rocked into town and are doing Spanish for a month so last night we were all invited to Casa Guaterider (Julios) for TEA ... dinner for you foreign fellas, we also met Richard Harwood who hit a cow in El Salvador, unfortunately his good lady took the hit and needed surgery, best to her to come right too.

So we had a gathering, Julio cooked a fine lot of Thai curry which we scoffed with Red wine and s ... good times all round.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

I had a car pull out in front of me ,ran up it's arse,broke 4 ribs punctured a lung,all round not fun.every visitor wants to tell you a joke,one that comes to mind,why do scuba divers always go into the water backwards?,well if they went forwards they'd be in the boat!Any how i remember just how uncomfortable it was ,so i hope you recover well from it.Great bunch of photo's once more.Noel

Heya Noel, cheers for you words and the joke ... yeah it is like that eh ... you get punished for being cheerful

Mate you had it far worse than me as my lungs lucky got away unscathed so for that I am very grateful.

It appears I do have one misplaced rib but I am not sure if they can even do anything for that.

Off for another X ray today to see

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Get well soon. There are worse places to be... like at work. Say hi to Gene and Neda and of course Julio.

Heya Garry, thanks mate, really appreciate that.

Yeah that is why we came back to Antigua cos we like it and it is easier to get around than GC and Julio has been a great help and support.

Meeting with Gene and Neda tonight along with Phil and Jane so will be a small gathering of travelling hoods

Hi to the team from us too!

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Hope you feel better soon.

-Michael and Terumi

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Samurai-Rider
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