Riding a motorcycle in New Zealand just might blow your mind.

New Zealand is about the same size as California, and you’re never more than 170 km from the sea. The population is just over 4 million (not counting the hobbits, elves and dwarves you’ve seen in The Lord of the Rings).

When you look at a map, the travel distances in this country seem tiny. But a map doesn’t tell the full story. A map won’t prepare you for moving through entirely different worlds over the course of an hour. It won’t explain why it can take most of the day to ride 200 km.