BMWST?
3rd March 2026, 13:53
Day 2 Berlins to Franz via Blackball,back to Pike River Memorial ,Greytown Franz.330 ks,12 deg Min,24 max.
Pleasant start to the day apart from a bit of glasses fogging a bit with some Sunstrike added for good measure. Original plan was to just go out to the coast and head South but we have both done Punakaiki before. I suggested we go have a look at Blackball for fun,then my mate said yes cos he wanted to Pay his respcts at the Pike river Memorial. After a top up at Reefton where I also applied some anti fog stuff to my glasses. we headed south and turned more Westward at Ikamatua to hed for Pike iver and Blackball. I was having a ball on this road as the first bit was nearly new and great riding.I wont mention speed but I think I hit some personal highs on that bit of road(with this bike). As i flashed past the a pike river AA sign I stopped and waited for Darryl. I didnt know where the memorial was and despite him wanting to go to it he wasnt sure. The sign had nothing about the Memorial. So
we pressed on to Blackball. The "Formerly the Blackball Hilton" was closed( Again,just like Danseys Pass Hotel !)357860
Interesting stuff in Blackball about a strike vs working conditions. At this point Darryl said he did want to go to The Memorial. Looking at Google maps we found that it was indeed at the place we had stopped,only about 100 m away. After a breif discussion we decided to Backtrack(it was only 23k (46k actually)more of that beautiful road.
A bit further down the road att greymouth we ran into a group of Harleys that were at The Berlins Hotel the day before. They are a bit of a pain as they travel in quite a tight staggered group and tend to pass cars together. Darryl was right at the front of the group and I was at the back. as they sreamed around a roundabout together and a couple of cars stopped to let them through. I finally caught up to darryl and we Hit Franz Josef at about 3pm. Petrol was bloody expnsive there. Darryl was annoyd cos the GS was usig about 10 dollars less fuel per fill than his V Strom357861357862 Accomodation was a sort of backpacker,Tiny room just big enough for two blokes and two sets of panniers and bike gear. Shared bathrooms and a kitchen absolutely pcked with pots and pans and cutlery crockery etc. Very unlike the place we head to next
Pleasant start to the day apart from a bit of glasses fogging a bit with some Sunstrike added for good measure. Original plan was to just go out to the coast and head South but we have both done Punakaiki before. I suggested we go have a look at Blackball for fun,then my mate said yes cos he wanted to Pay his respcts at the Pike river Memorial. After a top up at Reefton where I also applied some anti fog stuff to my glasses. we headed south and turned more Westward at Ikamatua to hed for Pike iver and Blackball. I was having a ball on this road as the first bit was nearly new and great riding.I wont mention speed but I think I hit some personal highs on that bit of road(with this bike). As i flashed past the a pike river AA sign I stopped and waited for Darryl. I didnt know where the memorial was and despite him wanting to go to it he wasnt sure. The sign had nothing about the Memorial. So
we pressed on to Blackball. The "Formerly the Blackball Hilton" was closed( Again,just like Danseys Pass Hotel !)357860
Interesting stuff in Blackball about a strike vs working conditions. At this point Darryl said he did want to go to The Memorial. Looking at Google maps we found that it was indeed at the place we had stopped,only about 100 m away. After a breif discussion we decided to Backtrack(it was only 23k (46k actually)more of that beautiful road.
A bit further down the road att greymouth we ran into a group of Harleys that were at The Berlins Hotel the day before. They are a bit of a pain as they travel in quite a tight staggered group and tend to pass cars together. Darryl was right at the front of the group and I was at the back. as they sreamed around a roundabout together and a couple of cars stopped to let them through. I finally caught up to darryl and we Hit Franz Josef at about 3pm. Petrol was bloody expnsive there. Darryl was annoyd cos the GS was usig about 10 dollars less fuel per fill than his V Strom357861357862 Accomodation was a sort of backpacker,Tiny room just big enough for two blokes and two sets of panniers and bike gear. Shared bathrooms and a kitchen absolutely pcked with pots and pans and cutlery crockery etc. Very unlike the place we head to next