Rotovegas ride

[EJK]

Yo! how was the trip? Photos Photos Photos!!!

[motorbyclist]

how was the weather? today turned to shit (and apparently it was meant to be clearing lol)

[twinkle]

It was awesome!!!
now i'm going to eat my waffles :P

[twinkle]

kay, full stomach now.

Had to work till about 3 in the afternoon saturday, so i left around 3:30. SH2 was raining so went through miranda where all the was. Went almost to the coromandel township then turned off some side road and ended up in tauranga somehow . Took SH36 then SH29 into rotorua, raining the whole way and lots of fog and some roadworks on SH29, down to 40~60km/hr due to the fog. Landed in rotorua about 7pm I think, about an hour behind the others.

Sunday was a bit of a blur for me, I remember breakfast and lunch i think we went whakatane~tauranga~miranda~auckers. Started raining cats and dogs about 10ks from where we got on SH1, still raining, I like the rain

[klyong82]

Ride was super. Lots of fun great scenery. We rode appox. 8 hours from Auckland to Rotorua as we travelled along the coast line Clevedon, Kaiaua, Miranda, Kopu, Whangamata, Waihi, Katikati, Tauranga, Matata, Whakatane then Rotorua. About 4 hour we were riding in the rain.

Road was reasonably quiet with not many cars but came across alot of touring bikers Suzuki Bandits 1250 and Honda VFR800 I noticed. Lots of action happened along the way like rear brake not working, bald tyre (hence skidding), our hands were blue black when we reached our accommodation, etc etc. Nish also had a Brokeback Mountain moment I think haha!! just joking

Saw a total of 3 cop cars in their brand new Holdens driving in the opposite direction. Was a great ride and we covered about 850km's. Great views and we stopped at a few lakes and Nish reckons the lake was so quiet and misty as though we were watching a horror movie scene haha. I even saw a couple hugging and kissing while standing on a railway track unless my eyes are playing tricks on me.

On our way back we stopped at a beachside in Mt. Maunganui. Beautiful sunshine and lots of attractions to see

But yeah it was a fun tiring ride but well worth it. Thanks Isaac for arranging this trip. Nish, James, Mei you all been great during the trip. Lots of jokes, beers....cheers all....we should do this again.

edit: Thanks also to EJ and Hong for tagging along with us to Kaiaua...hope you guys had fun....

[twinkle]

OH haha we had some beer left over sunday morning, me an Nish thought we'd take it for lunch. I get to tauranga, remember the beer, open my topbox... hello the bottle is only 1/3 full...
All my clothes that were also in the topbox are in the washing machine now yum stale beer

[klyong82]

Here they are.

Pic 1 BP Autobahn.
Pic 2 Kaiaua
Pic 3 Whangamata bakery (the fish pie is awesome according to Nish)
Pic 4 Tauranga - Check out Mei our biker chick
Pic 5 Beach on the way to Whakatane
Pic 6 Mei using the force to strangle Isaac

[klyong82]

Pic 1 Our haunted lake (pic is also blur - I wonder why)
Pic 2 Our cabin getting ready to depart back to Auckland
(James what you doing on my bike? Is that why my ABS was playing up!!)
Pic 3 Isaac at Mt Maunganui
Pic 4 Mt Maunganui beachside

cheers guys

[HungusMaximist]

Looked like you guys had a hell of a time.

Fark, that pack rack on Issac's RF is HUGE.

Hope the rain didn't stop you guys too much!

[twinkle]

Pic 2 Our cabin getting ready to depart back to Auckland (James what you doing on my bike?)

Just trying it out for size
I look about normal size on the gucci, the GN must look tiny underneath me

[klyong82]

OH haha we had some beer left over sunday morning, me an Nish thought we'd take it for lunch. I get to tauranga, remember the beer, open my topbox... hello the bottle is only 1/3 full...
All my clothes that were also in the topbox are in the washing machine now

Haha we were suppose to finish it in Mt. Maunganui.

Hope the rain didn't stop you guys too much!

Nah mate we kept on going we had no where to stop and we were soaked when we got to Rotorua.

Hey Nish, I check and I did 378km's (before the fuel reserve kick in) on my tank and that was the distance coming back from Rotorua to Auckland. Talk about fuel efficiency.

[HungusMaximist]

^ fark, the blimming Guzzi is yapping that fuel like as if it's a 250. It's good to own a V-Twin aye, I use to have a V Twin 250 and I get around a good 350 km-400 km on a full a tank <- the Hobag Comet GT250 back in Melbourne.

How big is the tank and how fast are you guys doing overall? Like fast fast or fast or nana.

Cheer.

[EJK]

See closely at the Pic No.2, the glass door and windows are fogged lol
Curtain closed too



lol

[Macstar]

Hey ya'll

Phew, what a ride eh? I don't think I've sat in the saddle for that long ever before (luckily I have a Corbin leather seat).

I think Kim summed up the trip pretty well, Sat was a long, but awesome slog. We were spared the rain till we hit the Coromandel ranges which was a bummer cause that's where some of the best sweepers were.

Despite all of the wicked scenary and corners, by 6pm on Sat evening (after a full day of riding) I was pretty happy to pull into our accommodation. Few beers in the hot pools, bit of Burger Fuel for dinner and a few yarns...

Accomm was sweet apart from the resident rooster announcing the Sunday morning dawn. (Those steamy windows and pulled curtains came from the boys cabin I think....).

Ride back was a bit more subdued but heaps better weather. We took a slightly shorter route through the Waihi gorge and then back through Miranda again in to Akl (but not around Kawakawa Bay).

Like Kim said, only a couple of cops spotted (big surprise considering the 800-odd kms travelled. I saw those two people hugging on a railway track too, but I don't think it was some twisted shannagins, maybe an accident scene?

Saw a local sitting on his horse outside the local convenience store just out of Whakatane.

Happy that the RF uses less gas than the Ninja!! But yeah, I overheated my rear brake trying to burn the Ninja off and had to rest it for 10 minutes while it cooled off.

Anyways, photos speak for themselves and due to popular demand, we will definetely be holding another similar ride after your guys exams.

Sweet, cheers guys for coming along and everyone else for following the thread.

[klyong82]

Pic 1 Whangamata lunch break
Pic 2 Mei demonstrates the force again and this time on Nish....
Pic 3 Nish making sure the "Package" is ready to be delivered. haha
Pic 4 Hmmm...yeah that's me
Pic 5 Mt Maunganui beachside