Waitangi Day 2008: Wellington/HB North Range Rd ride pics here

[merv]

Waitangi Day turned out to be fine and lovely, just the sort of weather for all sorts of motorcycling adventures. Zukin suggested we meet at Woodville and do North range Rd. At the same time many were taking their road bikes out so the Welly team were also meeting the Manawatu team at Woodville.

While I love riding my road bike I love even more getting out on the gravel. Knowing it would be a long haul I left my 250's at home and borrowed Mrs merv's DR650SE.

We didn't get too may bites on the thread and after a few dropouts we were left with Zukin coming down from Napier, bart from Dannevirke, myself from Porirua and Frodo from Kapiti. A nice little foursome.

Me and Frodo arrived at Woodville to find Zukin already there talking to the road crew and that is where my photos start.

[merv]

So I was on the blue DR, Zukin on the red F650GS, bart on the yellow DRZ400 and Frodo on the silver Pegaso.

We left Woodville and headed up North Range Rd where, love them or hate them, you get real close up views of the windturbines. The lattice tower ones are the old ones the new ones are the huge white tube tower models.

[Aslan]

glad you all had a great time - great day for it - thanks for posting - cheers Aslan :soon:

[merv]

Once up on top of North Range Rd we saw a few adventurers heading the opposite direction. Only one (on the Triumph) stopped to say gidday and he said he was a KBer. All you dudes need to tell us who you were so we can put handles to the pics.

Yeah hi Aslan, we had a great time. You were missed of course.

This posting pics will take a while but I may as well finish them tonight eh!

[merv]

Here comes the Triumph and that's not our man Sels1.

bart kicked up a bit of dust.

Frodo says he's fitted a Power Commander to the Pegaso and he's got it running a whole lot sweeter. I would've thought the Yamaha engine would have been all sorted in the first place.

[GSVR]

I reacon Bonez went on the wrong ride. He would have been in his element doing North Range road on the CX.

Glad you had a good day. How many gates did you have to open ?

[merv]

The windturbines are big f-----s.

[NordieBoy]

Looks like a nice ride.
You should all be wearing your KB Adventure shirts with your names on the back :D

[merv]

The road is still fun with good views but its not as hard out as it was before it was used to put the turbines in.

The South end comes out at the top of the Pahiatua Track.

Nice shots of Zukin and Frodo in formation.

[merv]

Looks like a nice ride.
You should all be wearing your KB Adventure shirts with your names on the back :D
I was but it was under my jacket and Honda jersey while I was riding the DR. I wanted my name on the front but Spank didn't do it how I asked. I wanted it that way so you see you name with a jacket on but unzipped. I wore my Ulysses badge on the front to make up for it.

We headed off to Pahiatua and then Pongaroa for lunch. Some dude was there on an Ape road bike but he didn't have the courtesy to say hi to a bunch of dirt riders. Just high-tailed out when he saw us.

[merv]

The boys checked out the hard copy map while bart ate the cut lunch his Mrs sent him with. You see he brought his licker with him too. No drink driving I hope.

Then the Hitchers arrived right on cue on their ride to Akitio. Mrs Hitcher looks like she fits that F650GS like a glove - she should so have one of those before the gravel roads are all sealed over.

[merv]

bart left us at Pongaroa and the remaining three of us headed off to Mt Marchant over Puketoi and Pori Rds.

Those steps you were doing the building inspection on were they OK Zukin? Would they get their compliance certificate?

[merv]

The views on this circuit are great.

[merv]

At the end of Puketoi Rd is this Landcorp sign so I guess we all own part of thsi land as tax payers.

[merv]

You can see we stop a lot to look at stuff.

Once finished on Pori Rd we did Barton's Line and then Dagg's Rd to Bideford.

[merv]

Here's the last couple of pics at Bideford.

Mrs needs me in bed so I'll leave posting the GPS track until tomorrow.

My pics finished there because we headed off to Masterton and then Zukin stopped at Greytown and was to return to Napier from there while me and Frodo headed home across the 'takas.

Thanks Zukin for the ride, great idea and great company guys.

[kiwibryn]

I LIKE your camera merv... It makes my maggot look good... glad you had a good run. :sunny:

[merv]

I LIKE your camera merv... It makes my maggot look good... glad you had a good run. :sunny:

C for classic. That bike is something special eh!

[cooneyr]

Sounds like you fullers had an awesome ride. Surprising how much of North Range Road I recognize from 8 years ago. Will have to get back up there one day to have a look at the new turbines.

Cheers R

[merv]

Sounds like you fullers had an awesome ride. Surprising how much of North Range Road I recognize from 8 years ago. Will have to get back up there one day to have a look at the new turbines.

Cheers R

The track is easy peasy now, you'd get a car through it, still fun on the bike though.

[Hitcher]

Wasn't yesterday a great day! It's amazing who one meets where. Pongaroa was very sociable, and we greatly enjoyed our trip to Akitio -- on the seal, of course. Fantastic roads.

[merv]

Wasn't yesterday a great day! It's amazing who one meets where. Pongaroa was very sociable, and we greatly enjoyed our trip to Akitio -- on the seal, of course. Fantastic roads.

Yeah was great to see you two. I said we might meet somewhere on that road once we hit the seal again.

[bart]

Thanks for the ride guys. Awesome day. Looking at those photos Merv, I'll try eating with my helmet on in future.:msn-wink:

I'll try shrinking some photos and post my extra adventure.

[merv]

I'm hoping Zukin and Frodo will post their pics too then there might be more of me so I can see how bad I looked.

[Zukin]

I'm hoping Zukin and Frodo will post their pics too then there might be more of me so I can see how bad I looked.

Hi

Yes photos to come later tonight
But boy did I have a good day yesterday, the ride, the company and the weather
I had a spirited ride home last night and got into my driveway at 8.30pm :2thumbsup

[merv]

Yeah well you had a lot further to get home from Greytown than I did. I'd already showered and gone out with Mrs to the Paremata Monteiths before you got home. Good riding with you Zukin - must do it again sometime.

[bart]

Right, I shot up Whariti first, as I didn't have as far to get to the start point.

Very hazy, but always an awesome view.

[bart]

Here's some of the ride.

[merv]

Thanks bart, cool angle when you were up the hill like that.

[bart]

a few more......

[bart]

I pulled out at Pongo, but went the long way home.

North to Waione, then up the hill to Waihi Falls.

Up the Towai and over Conoor. One of my favorite roads.

[bart]

Had a quick look in the north end of the Makairo track. Didn't go too far, as it's not the ride to do solo.

A bit overgrowen, but not too bad the further in you go.

Got home with about half a mm of nobbly left, and only a sniff of petrol. Awesome day.

[Zukin]

Ok here are my photos

In the mirror
It was interesting to see the old windmills and the new ones
Looking over Palmy on one side and then Pahiatua on the other
How big are they? This big :eek:
North Range Road
Frodo coming around the corner

[Kendog]

Damn that turbine looks amazing. I would consider getting the gixxer dirty to get up there and see that.

[Zukin]

Watch out! Here comes Merv
Bart on the DRZ
Pahiatua
We even enjoyed some good tarseal roads
Bart on the seal
Pongaroa for lunch

[merv]

Damn that turbine looks amazing. I would consider getting the gixxer dirty to get up there and see that.

Mate the Meridian wind farm on the North side of the gorge has the same size big turbines and you can ride there and park under one by riding on a sealed road all the way. Just go to Ashhurst and turn off to go over the Saddle Road.

Otherwise, sure just ride your GSXR up the gravel road to these ones but at this time of the year the gravel is so dry even our dirt tyres felt like slippery eels on that surface.

Seeing you're interested here's a pic of our Toyota parked by the base of the one at the visitor area off the Saddle Rd - big eh!

Then one of Mrs in front of some more.

[Zukin]

Waiting to regroup
Speed section :clap:
The normal view of the road, nice gravel too
Merv is just about to run the camera man over :dodge:
A great road up to Pori Road
Here comes Frodo

[Zukin]

Merv on a mission
On the top of Pori road, the range you can see in the background is the one with the windmills that we rode over earlier :laugh:
Smoko break on Pori Road
Merv was rather sheepish in this photo :laugh:
and Frodo in the dust

Overall a damn good day
Finally managed to meet Mr and Mrs Hitcher in Pongaroa of all places.
I was riding for just over 12 hours and loved every minute of it :sunny:

Good riding with you again Merv and Bart, and it was very nice to meet you Frodo, now you know what to expect on the KB adventure rides
They are damn good, just dont tell too many sports bike riders otherwise they will upgrade to "dirty bikes" and our quiet country gravel roads will never be the same again :laugh:

[merv]

Ah the sheep :laugh:.

Geez the guy sheperding them along was the grumpiest looking farmer I've ever seen.

[skelstar]

WHeres your GPS track merv. Thats what I'm waiting for.

[merv]

WHeres your GPS track merv. Thats what I'm waiting for.

Mate, Mrs is waiting for me in bed, but seeing its you I've taken the time to download it off my Garmin so here's the plot put on Google Earth map.

The green colours are a bit hard to look at.

[skelstar]

Is she still waiting since last night? Yeah that screenshot was what I was after. Hey they put Wellington betweem Greytown and Carterton. Thats a bit 'off'...

[Kendog]

Is she still waiting since last night? Yeah that screenshot was what I was after. Hey they put Wellington betweem Greytown and Carterton. Thats a bit 'off'...

At least it's not between Upper and Lower Hutt :whistle:

[merv]

At least it's not between Upper and Lower Hutt :whistle:

Yeah wonder why - I had no control over that, just loaded my track on Google Earth and voila (or is that viola or violins playing or something like I saw on another thread?) there was Wellington marked in two places, but sure you wouldn't want it squeezed in up the "Hood".

[merv]

WHeres your GPS track merv. Thats what I'm waiting for.

You going to get a dirt bike and come with us some day?

[skelstar]

You going to get a dirt bike and come with us some day?
Too expensive for me this having more than one bike. No offence but theres a lot of gravel roads in your pics, I'd be after something a bit more 'cross country'... reckon riding across farmland/non tracked stuff would be great. I don't know what you call that though... trail-riding?

If I had another bike at the mo it would be a race bike/bucket.

[merv]

Too expensive for me this having more than one bike. No offence but theres a lot of gravel roads in your pics, I'd be after something a bit more 'cross country'... reckon riding across farmland/non tracked stuff would be great. I don't know what you call that though... trail-riding?

If I had another bike at the mo it would be a race bike/bucket.

Yeah that would be trail riding. I kind of retired from that a few years ago when after having done so much of it I got sick of getting home late on Sunday nights with a thoroughly filthy bike I didn't have time to clean and it was just too hard on the bike to leave it sitting in the garage covered in mud until I did have time to clean it. Gravel roads are fun but not so hard out on me or the bikes. This is what adventure riding is about really, the soft option compared to trail riding or dirt competition like enduros which I did many moons ago.

Bucket racing's cool so yeah give that a go.

[oldrider]

Here comes the Triumph and that's not our man Sels1

No, that Tiger rider in pic 1 is KB's Duck_01,(Mark Taylor) unmistakable, they just don't make them like that any more! :shit:

Your camera must be fast to catch him in a still photo. :yes: Cheers John.