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.

[CookMySock]

Heading off from Coro to Ohope via Murapara on Friday....That'll be a good route. :niceone:

Steve

[Blackbird]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!

[CookMySock]

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.james74/EastCapeEscapeFeb2010#.

[junkmanjoe]

Sounds like you had a blast mate.
great looking bikes, and good company going by the bottles on the table.............

well my turn to go around soon..

was there many fuel stations on the coast road.

JMJ

[BiK3RChiK]

Awesome! We had a blast too... did just over 700k's. Missed the traffic but caught the rain a little bit.

[Blackbird]

It was a blast thanks! So easy riding at pace with my mates as they're all experienced riders with advanced training. Yep, the fuel situation wasn't too bad. We filled up at Opotiki, Te Puia Springs and Gisborne round the Cape proper. There is also gas in Te Araroa, Ruatoria, Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay. I know that fuel was still available a month or two back at Waihau Bay about 40 km west of Hicks Bay and assume that it still is, so if you've got 150km+ range, no worries at all.

[Blackbird]

Awesome! We had a blast too... did just over 700k's. Missed the traffic but caught the rain a little bit.

Sorry to have missed you! We passed a group of other riders going south (Triple R, Bandit, gold Daytona and something else) but that was the only group we saw on either day. It's a heck of a special place eh?

[STJim]

Sounds like you had a great ride. Wonderful roads.

[BiK3RChiK]

Sorry to have missed you! We passed a group of other riders going south (Triple R, Bandit, gold Daytona and something else) but that was the only group we saw on either day. It's a heck of a special place eh?

It sure is special! We were 8 ladies on a Orange and Black Triple (lead rider), CBR1000RR, Bandit, Hyo GT250 Comet, Ninja 650, Lil Scorpio 225, Yellow Hyo GT250R, Hyo GT650 Comet. We kind of split into mainly two groups, but that was cool with everyone riding at their own pace, until the end when the chick on the Comet 650 who was TEC felt like having a blast on home turf ;)

There was a LOT of bikes on the road and it would have been difficult to look out for anyone! Awesome weekend had by all and we are looking forward to the next time we can go. But what's up with the mountainous brekky's at pubs at exhorbitant prices? I asked for a half meal but no... they wouldn't do that! We wasted so much food!

[junkmanjoe]

It was a blast thanks! So easy riding at pace with my mates as they're all experienced riders with advanced training. Yep, the fuel situation wasn't too bad. We filled up at Opotiki, Te Puia Springs and Gisborne round the Cape proper. There is also gas in Te Araroa, Ruatoria, Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay. I know that fuel was still available a month or two back at Waihau Bay about 40 km west of Hicks Bay and assume that it still is, so if you've got 150km+ range, no worries at all.

cheers for that..
roll on easter, i guess i get all the holiday traffic,, but there is never any rush to get to the other end..

JMJ

[robinm]

I just did the east cape myself yesterday, started at Whakatane 7.30am and got home to Woodville 7.30pm, 800kms later, I discovered aching muscles that I never knew I had, but a brilliant trip and awesome weather, in fact the weather was too good, I sweated like a stuck pig inside my leathers. Only downer was lots and lots of road works. I had planned it as being a 2 day jaunt, but arriving in Gisborne by 1.30pm I decided to leg it home. The trip was the long way home from my trip to Paeroa for the BOTS, 1500kms in 3 days. Great times were had.

[Blackbird]

Excellent! It really is a cracker of a trip. There was the odd bit of patching and a loose big chunk 1 km downhill stretch (going south) that the Triple skated about on a bit but the uphill stretch of a few hundred metres was quite compact. You have a great bike for touring - had my K100RS for 8 years.

[raftn]

have done the cape only once, but loved it....nothing like a weekend away with mates. The last fifty kms home is always a downer after that!

[Blackbird]

have done the cape only once, but loved it....nothing like a weekend away with mates. The last fifty kms home is always a downer after that!

I want to do Northland for a few days to explore. Every time I've been up on the bike, it's been "low flying"on endurance rides with no time to stop and smell the daisies!

[merv]

So did Freebird drink all those Stellas by himself?

Great trip Blackbird.

[Blackbird]

So did Freebird drink all those Stellas by himself?

Great trip Blackbird.

Well, he made a good dent in them Merv:innocent:. Sad to say, I wasn't drinking much on account of a dodgy sandwich in a gas station on the way down from Coro:shutup:

You NZTA guys really know how to re-hydrate yourselves:Punk:

[Hinny]

I want to do Northland for a few days to explore. Every time I've been up on the bike, it's been "low flying"on endurance rides with no time to stop and smell the daisies!

You should do the 'Northern Exposure Tour' to the Cape every Auckland Anniversary weekend. Good fun.

[Scottie]

You lucky buggers. We (four bikes) did this in early Jan and had a great ride.

[Pixie]

I want to do Northland for a few days to explore. Every time I've been up on the bike, it's been "low flying"on endurance rides with no time to stop and smell the daisies!

When you decide to do this,email me,I might join you

[Hinny]

I want to do Northland for a few days to explore. Every time I've been up on the bike, it's been "low flying"on endurance rides with no time to stop and smell the daisies!

Make sure they are not Dog Daisies before you plonk your nose among them.
Look nice - smell like Dog Piss.