Rainbow closed at Hells gate

[thepom]

Rainbow closed till Xmas at Hells gate due bovine disease issue.

[jellywrestler]

Rainbow closed till Xmas at Hells gate due bovine disease issue.

rainbow is a bar in mount maunganui , i'm confused?

[thepom]

Yes it’s a gay bar but it’s not the rainbow I’m talking about. This is an adventure bike thread. The rainbow is gravel road linking hamner to st arnaud in the South Island.

[BMWST?]

Yes it’s a gay bar but it’s not the rainbow I’m talking about. This is an adventure bike thread. The rainbow is gravel road linking hamner to st arnaud in the South Island.
and its a good road too,nice scenery interesting road just challenging enough to be entertaining,and can be quite daunting too.Me and my brother went through there once in heavy rain.,and once straight after a storm.The first occasion we were crossing deep streams where normaly there is nothing but a trickle,the second time we needed all the clearance and traction a twin locked v8 diesel in low range can provide on occasion.
I have also done the entire route on a mountain bike( twice.)

[thepom]

Jeez that’s good going doing it twice. Road has been well dressed so not so many corrugations so a smooth ride.

[bikaholic]

Going through Archeron Road on Thursday. Rainbow Station closes to the public from the first Tuesday after Easter till Boxing day.

[BMWST?]

Jeez that’s good going doing it twice. Road has been well dressed so not so many corrugations so a smooth ride.
not twice at the same time ,two seperate rides,1 year apart was an event called the rainbow rage.The first time i got about 6 punctures because the rim tape was slipping and the tube was rubbing on a sharpish edge of the rim

[MD]

Nine of us riding down the Molesworth this Friday (27/11/20). Plan was to go up the Rainbow the next day. I tried applying for out of season access but they won't allow it. Stock movements and slips they said. Really disappointed and wanted to see the scenery.

Question for those in the know.
Is it worthwhile us riding from Hamner Springs as far north as we can go, to Lake T for sure, then back tracking and riding Lewis Pass around to St Arnaud and then riding as far south as we can go down the Rainbow Road? I am guessing the toll gate is somewhere near the Rainbow ski field turn off. That way maybe we can still experience 75% of the road by doing it in two stages? How many locked gates are there and whereabouts.

[JATZ]

You can ride to just past Sedgmere huts before hitting the locked gate which is the Rainbow station boundary. If you've got time to kill and enjoyed the Molesworth then go for it. The northern end is all seal to the ski field turn off, locked gate shortly after the next river crossing.
If you're heading St Arnaud way, may I recommend the Maruia saddle road between Burnbrae and Murchison, perhaps the Braeburn track and if you don't mind lumpy 4wd only, then the Porika.

[MD]

You can ride to just past Sedgmere huts before hitting the locked gate which is the Rainbow station boundary. If you've got time to kill and enjoyed the Molesworth then go for it. The northern end is all seal to the ski field turn off, locked gate shortly after the next river crossing.
If you're heading St Arnaud way, may I recommend the Maruia saddle road between Burnbrae and Murchison, perhaps the Braeburn track and if you don't mind lumpy 4wd only, then the Porika.

Hey thanks for that helpful advice Jatz. I will search out that saddle rod you mentioned and the others. Some of our group have road bikes and not very experienced riders so we will be sending them around the main highways.
Cheers. sail tomorrow and the rains seem to be buggering off just in time. Sun/Mon looking like lots of rain though.

[JATZ]

Hey thanks for that helpful advice Jatz. I will search out that saddle rod you mentioned and the others. Some of our group have road bikes and not very experienced riders so we will be sending them around the main highways.
Cheers. sail tomorrow and the rains seem to be buggering off just in time. Sun/Mon looking like lots of rain though.

Maruia saddle is gravel/dirt and entirely doable on a road bike. Braeburn is gravel and somewhat corrugated. Porika would take some commitment on a road bike.
Enjoy... :D

[MD]

Just a word on our experience. Bloody Bluebridge were 2 hours late leaving Welly. At that point we saw no problem with that because the Metservice were showing zero rain anywhere in the SI. Dickheads, that delay proved a shitload of pain.
Blenheim over Taylor Pass 28 degrees blue skies. Four of us head right up Awatere valley to find the Molesworth. Another 5 on road bikes go left to head down to kaikoura then meet us at Hanmer Springs. They struck rain and froze within no time and considered it the worse ride ever.
Two hours of joy and lots of photo stops as we reached the Molesworth then the temp drops real fast. We had removed our inner linings and saw no need to put the wets on. Yeah maybe a short bit of drizzle and it will warm up again lads- SO WRONG.
Dropped to 5 degrees and my boots filled to the brim, gloves soaked, visibility was crap, undies wet through, gotta love that feeling. The fun fords became shit scary torrents. So it was 2 hours of bliss loving the scenery then an hour of holy shit where are we, this is miserable. Next big mistake. We took Jollies Pass to Hanmer unaware that 10 odd kms further was the real road, Jacks Pass to Hanmer. Fuck a brick the road turned to a rough mountain bike track a quad bike would struggle with in this heavy rain. My KTM 390 had the tires for it but the others were 2 GS1200 Boxers and an old BMW 650 sort of adventure bike all with more road biased tires. I was at the front and really worried about the others.
Anyways we made it to a warm motel but were all drowned rats with no dry clothes. The next 2 days in Takaha were bliss though. Swimming at 6pm in the sea with a belly full of wine. Gotta love life.
I went solo to see how far south the Whanganui inlet road went. Another lesson for someone who should know better, don't ride remote roads alone. No life, no buildings, no phone coverage, no farm houses, NOTHING.
Our main take out is we will not use Bluebridge again. Years of annual December SI ride and always BB are bloody late. They stuffed our first day big time. We all would have made Hanmer dry if they had been on time.

Oh yeah and to top if off we get off the ferry at Welly, late Monday night (yeah thanks BB, late sailing a fucking again), flooding and heavy rain to Kapiti, already wet through at Picton, work 7.30am tomorrow. Gotta love bike trips. Full praise to the KTM for doing an awesome job, no matter what I asked of it.
Sorry the pics are out of order. 1st and 3rd are way south from Whanganui Inlet, west from Collingwood. Middle one was entering Molesworth station, me hopeful the rain and cold was about to pass. Spot the hopeful idiot with wet undies.

[lokrite]

rode south of whangnui inlet on a xt400 yami in 1985 and real freaky in those days so turned back even though I had ridden every track north of wesport and that included all the mine tracks even posed beside the big machines at stockton must find the pics

[Racing Dave]

I went solo to see how far south the Whanganui inlet road went. Another lesson for someone who should know better, don't ride remote roads alone. No life, no buildings, no phone coverage, no farm houses, NOTHING.

Not exactly nothing - there's the Anatori River, just before the lighthouse. Did you cross there?

[Navy Boy]

Just a word on our experience. Bloody Bluebridge were 2 hours late leaving Welly. At that point we saw no problem with that because the Metservice were showing zero rain anywhere in the SI. Dickheads, that delay proved a shitload of pain.
Blenheim over Taylor Pass 28 degrees blue skies. Four of us head right up Awatere valley to find the Molesworth. Another 5 on road bikes go left to head down to kaikoura then meet us at Hanmer Springs. They struck rain and froze within no time and considered it the worse ride ever.
Two hours of joy and lots of photo stops as we reached the Molesworth then the temp drops real fast. We had removed our inner linings and saw no need to put the wets on. Yeah maybe a short bit of drizzle and it will warm up again lads- SO WRONG.
Dropped to 5 degrees and my boots filled to the brim, gloves soaked, visibility was crap, undies wet through, gotta love that feeling. The fun fords became shit scary torrents. So it was 2 hours of bliss loving the scenery then an hour of holy shit where are we, this is miserable. Next big mistake. We took Jollies Pass to Hanmer unaware that 10 odd kms further was the real road, Jacks Pass to Hanmer. Fuck a brick the road turned to a rough mountain bike track a quad bike would struggle with in this heavy rain. My KTM 390 had the tires for it but the others were 2 GS1200 Boxers and an old BMW 650 sort of adventure bike all with more road biased tires. I was at the front and really worried about the others.
Anyways we made it to a warm motel but were all drowned rats with no dry clothes. The next 2 days in Takaha were bliss though. Swimming at 6pm in the sea with a belly full of wine. Gotta love life.
I went solo to see how far south the Whanganui inlet road went. Another lesson for someone who should know better, don't ride remote roads alone. No life, no buildings, no phone coverage, no farm houses, NOTHING.
Our main take out is we will not use Bluebridge again. Years of annual December SI ride and always BB are bloody late. They stuffed our first day big time. We all would have made Hanmer dry if they had been on time.

Oh yeah and to top if off we get off the ferry at Welly, late Monday night (yeah thanks BB, late sailing a fucking again), flooding and heavy rain to Kapiti, already wet through at Picton, work 7.30am tomorrow. Gotta love bike trips. Full praise to the KTM for doing an awesome job, no matter what I asked of it.
Sorry the pics are out of order. 1st and 3rd are way south from Whanganui Inlet, west from Collingwood. Middle one was entering Molesworth station, me hopeful the rain and cold was about to pass. Spot the hopeful idiot with wet undies.

Oh dear - Sounds like you had quite a time of it. I now use Interislander whenever I head back home via ferry having been unimpressed with BB in the past. Good to hear the KTM is doing well. :yes:

[MD]

Not exactly nothing - there's the Anatori River, just before the lighthouse. Did you cross there?

Bugger looking at google maps I was so close. I turned back at a bridge over a creek a bit north of Anatori river. There was a closed gate so I figured maybe it was prviate property from there onwards.

[JATZ]

Bugger looking at google maps I was so close. I turned back at a bridge over a creek a bit north of Anatori river. There was a closed gate so I figured maybe it was prviate property from there onwards.
You got to Sandhills Creek ? It gets better after that. The Anatori crossing can be deep if it's not timed right, next crossing after that is bouldery, then beach riding.
It's good to leave something for next time.
I shot through Molesworth the other week, got rained on in Blenheim, down to 6 deg in Molesworth then 25 deg leaving Springs Junction. Kiwi summers eh ?