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View Full Version : Northland ride day 2



jafar
19th March 2008, 23:30
Bacon & Eggs for breakfast while looking out over the Hokianga harbour, man life is good, load 'bluey' (cb1300) & down to the gas station. $1.92 per litre :sick: then onto the ferry. They has a bit of a challenge to get everyone on, half the cars had horse floats on & they had all shown up together, course when we show up on the bike it is straight on & park :first:.
The road from the ferry goes straight ahead & there is a road that goes to the left, the horse people were heading left, so we figured we would too, there is a nice church spire that you can see from Rawene that I wanted to have a closer look at, well I somehow missed the turnoff for the church & we ended up half way to Panguru, the horsefloats had been left a long way behind & so had everything else off the ferry.
I was stopped half way up a hill just outside Motuti scratching my head while looking @ the map when a Maori guy stopped in his truck to see if we were ok, he showed us where we were & told us how to get out of there through a little bit of gravel !!! yeah ok his idea of a little bit & mine are are different, he lead the way through to Panguru & waited for us at the turnoff to make sure we were on the right road.
Panguru to Runaruna is all gravel, most of it is in good condition & easy enough to do on a road bike, scenery is excellent & not a car in sight.:niceone:
Runaruna is a crossroad, turn left & your heading to the Whangape Harbour, we turned right & headed towards Awaroa & Wainui Junction, you can really see how Aunty Helen can run a surplus in the treasury when your out here , the road is a disgrace, there are parts where the road has slipped away & all that has been done to fix it is to put up some sticks as a barrier & let the grass grow. :shit:
Ahipara & Shipwreck bay sounded inviting , so hook a left @ the junction & we are there in minutes, quad bikes are available for hire & real coffee @ the cafe too .30+ degrees when we were sitting there too, gets warm up north .
Kaitaia is not one of my favourite places to be so we came in one side & out the other, Awanui is the crossroads for those wanting to head north to the cape or right onto highway 10.We stopped & the coffee shoppe then carried on down highway 10. The vintage car museum is worth a look, it is on your right before Taipa.
Mangonui is a neat place to visit, water to the roads edge & shops out over the water, the fish & chip place is supposed to be ok too,we were more interested in getting batteries for the camera & couldn't find any here, time to go. The next stop was going to be Taupo Bay , but the road came up a bit quick so we settled for Totara North. What a find that is , the road is twisty & leads out to the wharf eventually. The pub is good too , the kitchen was "out of order" when we were there ,standing on the deck over the water watching the fish & eels is a rare experience.
The plan was to stay @ Whangaroa, well the pushbikers had foiled our plans the first night & tonight it was the turn of a local gathering to take up the available motel(s), a wedding + a funeral in this speck of a place had us scratching around for somewhere to stay, luckily we hadn't left it too late & we headed off to Tauranga bay & do the loop back to highway 10 & on into Kerikeri.
Puketona Junction has 2 things to justify its existence, one of these is a motel, booked in & a quick ride to Paihia for dinner, nice ride & great place to visit, excellent food & good company. The ride back to the motel was supurb, nice warm evening just topped off the day.

Mrs Busa Pete
20th March 2008, 07:25
Very good write up there sir. So i take it you are having fun. If you want a bed in Auckland there is one here.

jafar
20th March 2008, 16:38
Very good write up there sir. So i take it you are having fun. If you want a bed in Auckland there is one here.

Thanks for that :2thumbsup

Mom
20th March 2008, 16:44
Thanks for that :2thumbsup

Oi you! It was a mouse! A little friggen mouse!

Not a RAT! You really got me going too BTW. Shits like you need a slap :love:

I saw you in town on Monday? morning, you must have stopped for coffee on the way home, did you hear me beeping my pathetic car horn at you? You probably thought, fucken cage driver :finger: when you heard it.

jafar
20th March 2008, 16:58
Oi you! It was a mouse! A little friggen mouse!

Not a RAT! You really got me going too BTW. Shits like you need a slap :love:

I saw you in town on Monday? morning, you must have stopped for coffee on the way home, did you hear me beeping my pathetic car horn at you? You probably thought, fucken cage driver :finger: when you heard it.

:argh: there is nowhere to hide :eek5:

Mom
20th March 2008, 16:59
:argh: there is nowhere to hide :eek5:

You know it baby :blip:

jafar
20th March 2008, 17:02
You know it baby :blip:

:love: you too mom :lol: