East Cape jaunt

[Blackbird]

Going round East Cape this weekend with 2 other KB'ers and a non-KB mate so if you see a Black Street Triple, a grey BMW K1200R, a red Blackbird and a grey BMW R 1200 GS on the road, that will be us. Heading off from Coro to Ohope via Murapara on Friday, round to Gisborne on Saturday, then Napier and home on Sunday. About 1350 km which will be a nice leisurely canter. Photos to be posted in due course.

[junkmanjoe]

sweet,,photos....this one section of road ive been hanging out to ride..

JMJ

[carbonhed]

Lucky bugger. Love those roads. Are you going to manage the Waioeka on the way home?

Down to Napier for early lunch... back to Gissy... over the Waioeka and home... long day I guess.

[DangerousBastard]

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Heading off from Coro to Ohope via Murapara on Friday....

That'll be a good route.

Steve

[Blackbird]

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Lucky bugger. Love those roads. Are you going to manage the Waioeka on the way home?

Down to Napier for early lunch... back to Gissy... over the Waioeka and home... long day I guess.

Straight from Napier to Taupo, just a bit tight for time. It's sort of getting the team bonded for the Grand Challenge 1600 km in 24 hour ride later in the year as I'm the only one that's done it before. We'll probably do it again in a day as practice before winter.

[BiK3RChiK]

Have fun! A bunch of us chicks are going the other way round this weekend, so if you see us, we might wave (wouldn't want to be accused of turning this into a waving thread!)

[Blackbird]

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Have fun! A bunch of us chicks are going the other way round this weekend, so if you see us, we might wave (wouldn't want to be accused of turning this into a waving thread!)

You have a great time too! Weather doesn't look too bad at all.

[BiK3RChiK]

Thanks, we will! There's about 8 of us and we are making a weekend of it...

I'm so looking forward to it! Yeah, here's hoping those showers forecast come to nix.

[Maha]

And what (may I ask) makes you wanna detour through Murupara?

[Blackbird]

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And what (may I ask) makes you wanna detour through Murupara?

Not Murapara itself, that's for sure! I once stopped there for gas and felt completely unsafe.

If you take the Rotorua-Taupo road, then go east on the Waikaremoana road, you head north at Murapara to Aniwhenua, Matahina and Whakatane. It's a fantastic twisty backroad with very little traffic, great views and pretty good surfaces. You also avoid the terminally boring Rotorua-Whakatane highway with all the speed restrictions past the lakes.

[Maha]

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Not Murapara itself, that's for sure! I once stopped there for gas and felt completely unsafe.

If you take the Rotorua-Taupo road, then go east on the Waikaremoana road, you head north at Murapara to Aniwhenua, Matahina and Whakatane. It's a fantastic twisty backroad with very little traffic, great views and pretty good surfaces. You also avoid the terminally boring Rotorua-Whakatane highway with all the speed restrictions past the lakes.

Is that along the base of the Urewera's? through the Galatea area?

[Blackbird]

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Is that along the base of the Urewera's? through the Galatea area?

You have it in one!

Mate and fellow KB'er JimmyB is coming down from Auckland and we're meeting at Kopu, picking up fellow mate and KB'er Freebird from Wellington at the Waikaremoana turn, and another mate from near Te Awamutu is joining us at Ohope on Friday night. The logistics are always tricky when close friends live a heck of a way from each other!

[DangerousBastard]

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And what (may I ask) makes you wanna detour through Murupara?

There are two parts to that route that are unique.

From Kaingaroa to Murupara there is the smoothest widest road with hardcore sweepers on it that will suit the 240k knee-downers. At the 100k speed limit this road is essentially "straight", but at speed, hehe bliss.

Next leg, Murupara,Kopuriki road,Waiohau,Tahuna Siding,TeTeko, is twisty almost non-stop short 20 second 200click bursts followed by 65k (posted) corners, so it's go! brake! corner! go! brake! corner! for almost a solid hour. Mean.

Even for a nice tour/pootle, it's a beautiful area to ride through.

Steve

[colonel]

the little woman and i did the cape a couple of weeks ago Bloody awesome roads ,dont know how many times we stopped to take photos. we got caught in the storm heading to Napier still had heaps of fun. All guys enjoy and stay safe

[Blackbird]

Awesome company, awesome weekend round the Cape in fantastic weather. Roads were largely deserted as usual and only a few other bikers round the cape. I covered 1346 km to and from Coromandel with no dramas apart from coming close to collecting a hawk in the face just north of Murapara - a close call!

Stayed at the Ohope Top 10 as usual, then round to Gisborne. Only 2 patches of roadworks but ok if you took it easy. Usually stay at Waikanae Beach cabins but they were fully booked so stayed at the Wainui Beach Motel. Lovely place with friendly staff. Receptionist's husband has an R1 and an Africa Twin and he took a break from mowing the lawns to have a beer with us.

The next leg of the trip was a road we hadn't done before - Tiniroto Road - the inland route between Gisborne and Wairoa. One of the best biking roads we've ever ridden and if you haven't done it, you're really missing something.

Hit Eskdale just as the concert traffic was coming out of Napier - diabolical and it took 20 minutes to get gas. From there, Freebird headed south to Wellington, Jimmy B stayed in Napier for business today whilst Richard and I negotiated traffic on the Napier-Taupo highway to our respective homes. One Highway Patrol car seen all weekend and that was parked up.

We live in such an incredible country, somewhere to be justifiably proud of.

Some "taster" pics posted here with my full set at: http://picasaweb.google.com/geoff.ja...EscapeFeb2010#.