Words: Roger Moroney
Back in 2008 motorcycle enthusiast Michael Rose had a dream about creating great
experiences for fellow riders through riding in our special land down under.
M
ichael Rose had long wanted to create and
manage a motorcycle tour company in
New Zealand which could provide so many
sights, experiences... and memorable dreams.
The journey to creating his “dream” was an
interesting, sometimes challenging one, but the
determination never wavered. “We spent four
years researching routes and accommodation
providers... ran surveys at motorcycle shows
overseas to see what people wanted to ride,” he
said, adding that “overwhelmingly” it was BMWs.
Which for a lad who enjoyed Japanese sports
machinery was initially a bit of a blow. But not
in the long run, as he and what would become
Paradise Motorcycle Tours NZ would discover.
He said after “mystery shopping” the opposition
within New Zealand and overseas he concluded
there was a lack of true quality being offered.
Some of the machinery on touring offer was
below what he saw as acceptable, and some had
self-guided tours based on handbooks of riding
notes, not pre-programmed GPS. “It wasn’t
difficult to improve on that.” With a hard won
marketing grant from NZ Trade and Enterprise
the company started with a hiss and a roar and
they were inundated with enquiries. Rose said
with their set-up “fleet” of three bikes they were
not able to service the demand. “We had given
birth to a monster,” was how he lightly put it.
But luck, in a sense, stepped in at that stage,
through a major global financial hiccup. As the
global financial recession kicked in, the enquiries
began to disappear, with potential clients from
the UK and the USA deciding that taking a
motorcycle trip across faraway New Zealand was
out of the question.
So, at least they had some bike availability,
although their first tour had just one rider on it.
“Alice, a single woman from Swindon in the UK.”
Rose said looking back Alice had an amazing
tour...which was made extra special by the fact
all his biking chums wanted to go along as well
so she didn’t feel lonely. So, with 10 bikes and 16
other folk joining in, Alice never had to carry a
22 KIWI RIDER