We hired our bike from John and Ian Fitzwater at GoTourNZ again. We had a really good time last time and the bike - Suzuki 650 V-STROM - was a really good all-round choice for ALL the roads! Some of the larger and more elegant touring bikes would have had great difficulty on some of the roads/corners we travelled.

The Suzuki 650 V-STROM is an extremely versatile and popular mid-sized Adventure/ Dual Purpose bike. You don't really need a bigger bike for the NZ roads, and as the NZ police are quite hot on speeding, you don't particularly need a faster bike either. The Suzuki 650 V-STROM has plenty of low end grunt - perfect for the hills and mountains - is easy to handle, comfortable to ride and big enough to encourage the average Kiwi car driver to think twice before taking you on!

As neither of us fancied a top box or panniers hampering the handling, we decided to go without those options.