My wife and I did a 3 day bike tour in November, 2012 on our (non-biking) New Zealand tour using a tandem bike. It was the first time either of us had spend any time riding a tandem. I've written an article about my experience touring on a tandem.

Some comments from the article:

A tandem is much harder to steer.

Balancing on a tandem is much trickier.

Getting started required teamwork.

Riding a bike and being able to converse and see the same things is great.

A tandem is a compromise, its going to be different. We've pretty much become exclusive tandem riders, after a while you don't need verbal communication, you communicate through the pedals. What's really funny is that my single now feels weird when I ride it. Touring on a tandem can be tricky, twice the riders with the same pannier space! We just do CC touring in warm months to keep the load small, although I have seem tandem pulling a BOB, talk about a long bike!

We love touring on our tandem. Much better than 2 singles, in our opinion. No duplication of anything, so the combined load is much less. We have it down to about 43 lbs. for full camp touring, including all bike stuff like pump, tools, spares, rack, and bags. Not a compromise at all, but rather a team enterprise instead of an individual effort.

As a longtime tandem tourer I enjoyed your report of your tandem tour in NZ. You learned the basics by doing as most folks do. What I/we like best about tandem riding in general is the ability to communicate throughout the ride. The tandem allows partners of unequal strengths to always arrive at the same time. Each person contributes what they are able to offer. With more experience and a properly fitted tandem the enjoyment increases enormously. I have had blind stokers, children, quite elderly and individuals fearful of riding in traffic. All enjoyed the experience. Many have become avid cyclists themselves.

Our first long camping tour was from Eugene OR to the coast and then South back home to Santa Barbara along the coast route. This was on the first generation Santana Sovereign from 1978. With strong tailwinds and spun out 56x12 high gear we reached almost 60MPH on one stretch of the Oregon coast. Yet with the long wheelbase stability was not a problem. The small Shimano E-disc rear drag brake was effective on long winding downhills.

I wondered what kind of tandem you rented in NZ? Modern tandems can be very strong and light and nimble. I hope you have a chance to ride one like that in the Bay area. Thanks again for your report.