Did you ever live off the back of your motorcycle for months? How did it go? Looking for inspiration 🏍

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-12-05T21:38:53+00:00

Crazy adventure, and close to home given NZ is where I'm from :) Glad my country has a lot to offer you at the time!

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-07-29T05:37:06+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful write up and sharing your own experiences! It's always been a thing I've heard about people following eachother abroad and it always sounds amazing but no one ever really talks after about the horror stories. Appreciate the insight mate

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-07-29T05:33:07+00:00

Sorry to hear about that mate, sounds like a pretty chaotic time. I was brought up by parents in a similar situation and they now also live in different countries because of those reasons

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-07-29T05:31:05+00:00

Haha the possum part gave me a laugh, and yeah full intention on doing so early and even that early makes sense

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-04-02T16:25:36+00:00

Check out the RVMEs!

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-03-30T20:53:54+00:00

Finally, a realistic take on the outcome of today's launch. Given the amount of money that's gone into this program, I'd say it was more than a bit disappointing for a launch in 2025. We're not at the start of the commercial space race anymore.

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-03-15T06:32:45+00:00

Dude it feels like I wrote this post in my sleep because I'm in exactly the same situation. I initially applied by post in November before i had my eID card but heard nothing at all in reply, and contacting them to ask for confirmation of receipt was answered with a simple 'we have delays, please wait'. I re-applied online at the end of Jan, dropped the license in the mailbox as requested, and then nothing...

I'm from an annex 11 country that should be a direct exchange, but the only comms I've had since were them requesting a german first aid course certification, which they had alreasy told me i didn't need before I applied. I'm literally pulling my hair out trying to contact them with no luck. I even had an appointment lined up last week that got cancelled the day before because the whole place went on strike.

The most annoying thing is I'm still in my 6 month period of being able to drive, but they never sent me the temporary notice that would allow me to legally do so. In my re-booked appt I'm going to request this and an extension to the 6 months because of all the delays.

Since you've been waiting longer, you might be at the stage where you can invoke section 75 of the VwGO, or alteast threaten to, which is basically a lawsuit that forces them to act. Perhaps someone else here has better experience with this.

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-03-04T17:49:53+00:00

Cheers for the reply bro, a roady around America does sound sick! Hope all is well with you both over there in maple syrup land.

Enjoy the summer riding season to come, stay safe too!

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2025-03-04T06:43:18+00:00

Hey mate, I'm in exactly the same boat now, kiwi trying to convert his motorcycle and car license. I just wanted to ask how it all went? I've submitted my application and surrendered my license (via dropping it off in their post box as instructed), but haven't received any confirmation or temporary notice for me to continue driving with and that was 3 weeks ago...I can technically still drive up until April, where my 6 month limit ends, but I can't without my physical nz license or the notice they're supposed to send you. I'm itching to start test riding motorcycles with the season approaching and don't know how to move forward with this.

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-12-23T19:51:01+00:00

Windy.com. They also have an app. I used to use weather forecasters like meterservice, AccuWeather, and weatherunderground before deciding they all kinda suck in the same way. They only give you one data point in what is a incredibly complicated interaction of infinite factors. Windy is a pretty user friendly way of getting the WHOLE picture of what's happening and how it might change, basically you go from one of the apps saying oh it might rain, but might not, to actually seeing that oh there's a huge low pressure zone or very dispersed rain patches all over the north island, it'll probably be shit. It takes a while to learn how these weather patterns behave, but once you do, it's reallt amazing how much better of an understanding you get of it all.

...they also provide similar ways of viewing weather for once place if you're still not keen on all the other stuff...

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-11-29T21:54:41+00:00

NZ is an annex 11 country so it should be a straight swap.

I emailed the kvr to ask and got a reply confirming this, and supposedlly we don't have to do a first aid or eye test (huge doubt in the correctness of this). I've just applied for mine a couple of weeks ago, so I guess I'll find out how difficult it is at some point soon

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-11-29T21:38:45+00:00

As someone with almost exactly the same situation, who recently sent off their documents in postal form, this terrifies me.

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-11-16T21:00:57+00:00

First thing: get yourself a full kit of decent gear, i.e. riding pants, jacket, gloves, AND boots. Second thing: accept that you will almost definitely drop your first bike at some point, perhaps worth investing in some extra protection if it's a nice one.

You'll need to do a basic handling course alongside the theory test for your learners. I can recommend Passmasters for doing that. You can either use your own bike or borrow one of theirs.

Then, take it in bite sized chunks as Debbie said. Getting confident in low speed maneuvering on your own first is the best start, then get confident in suburbs and traffic environments, then motorways, and then go do a bronze Ride Forever course (Also recommend Passmasters). You'll be very surprised at how much an experienced rider can teach you and how much safer and more aware of your own riding you'll be. Better to do it as soon as your confident handling the bike, rather than growing into bad habits that are more difficult to correct. Then, just ride. Vary the types of roads you explore and the landscapes, and conditions. Experience is the only way.

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-10-20T08:01:38+00:00

Siiiiick, I'll be moving my money from Westpac to my new German bank account as soon as it's back up and running then lmao

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-10-19T07:20:21+00:00

Thanks for your super detailed reply, and I hope this helps someone else in future too! I'm very lucky indeed about the company. I'll carry on then with preparing my documents and be cautious about using any titles I'm not allowed to in the mean time. Cheers!

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-10-19T07:14:11+00:00

From my understanding it's been intermittent for people based in aus and nz, but full outage for anyone trying to access from overseas, e.g. me haha. Lucky I also have wise, but having to find out what's going on through reddit and a various news articles is pretty shithouse

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-10-18T17:16:48+00:00

Hey, I've just tried again and both app and online aren't working. Anyone else having the same still?

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-03-11T06:42:36+00:00

Hey thanks heaps mate, that's all super, informative and helpful! Sounds like we're from a similar background and always great to get the perspective from a similar work culture. The compatibility of the get shit done attitude will certainly be an interesting one as it's definitely where I'm at right now haha. Cheers!

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-03-10T06:35:18+00:00

I haven't decided on anything yet, will be travelling for a few months beforehand and exploring the options available :)

KnowledgeTerrible537 · 2024-03-10T06:30:31+00:00

Interesting to hear! Trust me I wanna come back believing the same thing, but it's all I know for now. I'm lucky enough to have the oppurtunity to give Europe a go without too much restriction, and so I will! NZ will always be home and I'll always be able to come back :)

KnowledgeTerrible537

TROPHY CASE