Another lap of the South Island

[Phreaky Phil]

Hi fellow adventurers. Dawn and I have just returned from 2 weeks Adv touring down Sth. 4350km covering Rainbow rd, Lee's Valley/Ashley Gordge, Black forest, Skippers & Branches, Attempt on Macetown, Obleisk rock, Thompsons Track, Borland Rd Danseys Pass, Hakataramea Pass, Maruia Saddle rd, Braeburn track, Porika Track.
Story & Pics to follow.

[NordieBoy]

Well?

You've had half an hour...

[LBD]

still waiting...and was the Okuku river ford in Lees valley as slimey and slippery as the time I managed to stay dry for about the first 1/4 of the crossing? Then got sodding wet as I tried to pull myself out from under the bike....:Oops:

[tri boy]

Getting tired.......:yawn:, must fight sleepiness:bash:, can't hold out much longer:eek5:......torture:crybaby:

Ya big tease's:D

[Phreaky Phil]

Sorry to keep you waiting but I had to go do work again. We headed for Wellington on Easter Friday, a couple of days after the big dump of snow all over the Sth Island. We've had this happen before so we didnt panic as much as the first time, although have to admit to craming in another polarfleece. From Wellington you could see the Tararua's had a good dose of snow on them. Our first day in the Sth Island saw us heading for St Arnaud for fuel and a hot pie before heading into the Rainbow. We were'nt sure how much snow there would be but there was only one way to find out.
Pic 1 Interislander with Tararua's behind.
Pic 2 The gate were you pay. $15 now.
Pic 3 Stunning scenery!!!
Pic 4 The last climb to Island saddle.

[Phreaky Phil]

Try again with the photos

[Phreaky Phil]

There was snow on the hills all round and it was just stunning !!!!! As we climbed to Island Saddle, the snow thickened and on the saddle covered everything but the road. Being Easter the road was busy, we saw about 20 vehicles but surprisingly no other bikes. Where were you all ????
Pic 1 Near Island Saddle
Pic 2 Looking South from Island Saddle
Pic 3 Lake Tenyson
Pic 4 Coming down Jollies pass

[marks]

drip feeding your avid audience is hardly fair

get with the program Phil and post LOTS of pictures NOW

[Phreaky Phil]

drip feeding your avid audience is hardly fair

get with the program Phil and post LOTS of pictures NOWSorry, but had to go to work again, Shouldnt complain at the moment i spose. have to sort through lots and shrink them to fit. Will try to do better later on.

[Phreaky Phil]

After a night in Hanmer I set the GPS for Okuku Pass Rd, which takes you into the Lees Valley. At first you head up through a forestry area before the country opens up into farm land. Its neat riding, as you wind in and out of valleys on whats little more than a farm track. Near the end of Okuku Pass Rd there's a river to cross, luckily it was low and only about axle deep. Then onto the Lee's Valley road, with some big open country and long gravel straights before heading into the Ashley Gordge. The road snakes its way up and down over the gordge with some massive drops off the side. Impressive.!!

Pic 1 Okuku Pass Rd
Pic 2 Lees Valley Rd
Pic 3 Auto gate opener !! (Plays up and starts giving trouble after 6-7 gates)
Pic 4 The end of Okuku Hill Station

[Phreaky Phil]

Pic 1 Lees Valley
Pic 2 View off the road into the Ashley Gordge
Pic 3 Ashley Gordge
Pic 4 The mighty Airhead !!!

[Cary]

Must be great having an onboard camera woman/gate opener/closer :woohoo:

[Phreaky Phil]

Must be great having an onboard camera woman/gate opener/closer :woohoo:Not to mention Traction control device. Has to be some Perks eh !!
Having problem with next lot of photos. Had them put onto DVD in Queenstown on on of these flash photo machines. Now all i seem to be able to do is view them. Cant figure out how to save them or print them:argh:
Mite take disc to local camera shop tomorrow and see if they can sort it

[junkmanjoe]

looks like you hade a great time.
snow looks a little cold.
i would be interested to view a course route, some time.
as im heading to do the tour around xmas time.

[Phreaky Phil]

looks like you hade a great time.
snow looks a little cold.
i would be interested to view a course route, some time.
as im heading to do the tour around xmas time.No worries. We will probably catch at a ride soon. We can check it out on a map.

[cooneyr]

Not to mention Traction control device. Has to be some Perks eh !!
Having problem with next lot of photos. Had them put onto DVD in Queenstown on on of these flash photo machines. Now all i seem to be able to do is view them. Cant figure out how to save them or print them:argh:
Mite take disc to local camera shop tomorrow and see if they can sort it

Try copying the photos from the DVD to your computer first then you can resize, rotate etc etc. You cannot save a photo to the DVD as it will most likely be read only i.e. cannot be modified in any way.

Cheers R

[Phreaky Phil]

Figured out what to do but had to save 257 photos one by one. :argh:
After Ashley Gordge we headed South to Dog Kennel corner (just past Burkes pass), turning off the highway onto Haldon rd. We followed this right to the end to Black Forest Station where we paid our $5 and got the combination to the locked gates. From there the track slowly winds up a valley, the track getting steeper towards the high point of the track. You come up the last part of the climb and BAM !!!!!!! Theres this view down to the lake that incredible. From there the track continues on over another saddle before dropping down to lake level and eventually ending at Lake Benmore Dam.
Pic 1 Black Forest Station. Heading up the valley from the Homestead
Pic 2 The stunning view from the top
Pic 3 View south to the next saddle
Pic 4 Neat switchbacks on the way down
Pic 5 View towards the dam (right of lake)
Pic 6 Lunch stop. There's an awesome camp spot here

[Phreaky Phil]

Pic 1 View back to the lunch/camp spot.
Pic 2 Coming down to the dam and powerhouse
Pic 3 View back to the saddle showing the travk down
Pic 4 Auto gate opener having a bit of trouble with the combo lock

[Phreaky Phil]

After a night at the Omarama Pub we headed for Queenstown for a few days as there are a lot of good rides you can do from there. It rained during the night but by mid morning it had stopped. Macetown would be out of the question today so we decided to head to Skippers and the branches. I had been to Skippers several times and its always a favourite, but had never been past there to the Branches. Even better !!
Pic 1 Cyanide point (1 drop and you dead !!!)
Pic 2 Skippers road
Pic 3 Big vertical drops off the side
Pic 4 Me
Pic 5 Skippers to the left, Branches to the right
Pic 6 Stone statue on the branches road. No plaque to say what its about

[Phreaky Phil]

Pic 1 The branches road, narrower and less travelled than the Skippers rd
Pic 2 Old Stone Hut. part of Coronet Peak Station
Pic 3 Due to the overnight rain the river was in flood and the track dissapeared into it.
Pic 4 End of the road. This time !
Pic 5 Autumn Leaves
Pic 6 Branches valley looking back towards Skippers. You can see the road on the left side

[Phreaky Phil]

Pic 1 Restored Skippers School house
Pic 2 Back to school
Pic 3 Restored mt Aurum Homestead
Pic 4 Skippers bridge
Pic 5 Heading back out the Skippers Road
Pic 6 The road is carved into the cliff in places

[junkmanjoe]

bugger about the road under water, how far did you have to retrack to go around.

[Phreaky Phil]

Skippers and Branches roads are no exit roads. We were probably 3km from the end. Got a reason to go back now.

[clint640]

Good Stuff!

We were thinking of going in to Branches when we were down there in Feb but ran out of time.

Cheers
Clint

[marks]

the photos were well worth the wait :yes:

do you rent out the gate opener/photographer?

[LBD]

what a blast that trip looks...great photos, thanks

[Paladin]

the photos were well worth the wait :yes:

do you rent out the gate opener/photographer?

Get yer own ya pervert!!!!

:whistle:


P.S. Fanatstic photos Phil & Dawn!!!!

[Phreaky Phil]

the photos were well worth the wait :yes:

do you rent out the gate opener/photographer?
I'm sure we can come to some arrangement. !!!!!!!
Warning, it is a high maintainance item.!!!!!!

[Phreaky Phil]

That evevning we checked out thw level of the Arrow river, it was high still (compared to this time last year).
Later on while having a feed in Queenstown we spotted a nice BMW R90S parked outside and spotted the couple in riding gear. We introduced ourselves and chatted for a while with Peter and Leslie from CHCH. They said they were part of a group, (Canterbury BMW Register) the rest of whom were turning up tomorrow and were going to try to get to Macetown. We were invited to join them. Great, safety in numbers.

[young1]

Pic 2 The stunning view from the top


That is a cool picture Phil, pick of them (I reckon) so far

M

[Paladin]

I'm sure we can come to some arrangement. !!!!!!!
Warning, it is a high maintainance item.!!!!!!

You are SO dead if she reads that!

:gob:

[BMWST?]

Those pics are EXACTLY why i bought a so called adventure bike,AWESOME pics

[Paladin]

Those pics are EXACTLY why i bought a so called adventure bike,AWESOME pics

well you're gonna get plenty of adventure; the Welly/Wairarapa crowd are gung ho as all hell mate!!!! Let alone the guys further afield we meet up with - all crazy nutters!!!!! (in a good way LOL!)

Welcome to the party!!!!!!! Now, time to get that PD dirty since Phil didn't bother to!!!! ;)

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Phreaky Phil]

The next day we met up with the other BMW guys at Arrowtown. It was was the Arrrowtown Autumn Festival and the place was packed. We headed for the river to check out the level of the first crossing. The level hadnt gone down and was about knee deep. ( I've had a look at a photo I took there last year of Dawn walking across the river, it was only about 200mm deep) We decided we had to have a go. Yeah, it was deep, but we all made it across so we pushed on. Jeff walked a couple of the tricky looking ones to find a good line. About 6 crossings up Warren headed into one and found a deeper hole and 1200 GSA stopped. I was behind and was starting into the river so we parked up and waded out to push him out. Out with the toolboxes and dedrown it. Not as easy as an Airhead. There are covers over the plugs and there is no drain from the airbox. But after about an hour we were going again. We decided to head back as we still had another 20 odd crossings to get to Macetown and the same back again. Another day maybe, with lower water levels.

[Phreaky Phil]

Pic 1 Peter and Leslie and there beutiful BMW R90s (No they didnt try to take the R90 to Macetown)
Pic 2 Jeff BMW 1200
Pic 3 James Brand spanking new KLR650
Pic 3 Mark BMW 1150
Pic 3 Jeff again

[marks]

man thats a nice looking klr :yes:

bet all you bmw owners were jealous

mind you an R90 has to be the sexiest looking roady bmw ever made

[Phreaky Phil]

Pic 1 Pushing out the dead GS
Pic 2&3 De Drowning the 1200
Pic 4 Walking the line. This was the shallow line
Pic 5 Me. Full Focus !

[Phreaky Phil]

[QUOTE=marks;1129194997]man thats a nice looking klr :yes:

bet all you bmw owners were jealous

mind you an R90 has to be the sexiest looking roady bmw ever made[/QUOTE They have owned the R90 since new !!

[young1]

man thats a nice looking klr :yes:



Marks I am surprised that with the way KLRs seem to leak oil that they are allowed to cross rivers!! :woohoo:

[marks]

Marks I am surprised that with the way KLRs seem to leak oil that they are allowed to cross rivers!! :woohoo:

trollop

it most probably burned it all so by the time it got to the river nothing was left to leak out

[Phreaky Phil]

After a brief recess i'm back on the job !!
Our next "target" was the Obelisk Rock on the Old Man Range. We had looked at it on an earlier trip but it was too windy to be a good idea. This time it was dead calm in the valley but there was still a stiff cold breeze on top.
At 1695m high it makes for some spectacular views.
Pics 1&2 Obelisk Rock
Pic 3 The view overlooking Alexandra and area
Pic 4 Heading back down the acess road.

[Phreaky Phil]

Pics1&2 The historic Mitchell Cottage at the base of The Old Man Range. Worth a look at, there's some interesting history here. The stone slab that the cottage sits on was a massive rock. This was quarried flat and the cottage was built from the quarried stone
Pic 3 Stone fence post. I reckon this pic would make one of those motivational posters. Entitled " Perserverance"

[cooneyr]

Those stone fence posts are awesome. You should have (maybe you did?) gone along the top (south) from the Obelisk to Potters (two huts). Read somewhere that some dude was paid by the then council to install a wire on 6 (or was it eight) foot posts so that when it snowed the occupants of Potters could follow it out to Roxbrough. Often the wire would only be 2/3 feet above the snow.

Cheers R

[Phreaky Phil]

Those stone fence posts are awesome. You should have (maybe you did?) gone along the top (south) from the Obelisk to Potters (two huts). Read somewhere that some dude was paid by the then council to install a wire on 6 (or was it eight) foot posts so that when it snowed the occupants of Potters could follow it out to Roxbrough. Often the wire would only be 2/3 feet above the snow.

Cheers RWe only went as far as the Obelisk rock. We had no maps with us showing where the tracks led and were also on our own. Another time !

[Phreaky Phil]

From Mitchells Cottage we headed to St Bathans, then back over the Thompsons Track to Bendigo for look. The thompsons Track was the first time we had seen another adventure bike off the tarmac. It was late in the afternoon so we didnt stay long at Bendigo. I will go back one day and spend some more time looking around. From there it was back to Queenstown.
Pic 1 Blue Lake at St Bathans
Pic 2 Vulcan Hotel
Pic 3 Thompsons Track. Lots of gates. Auto gate opener was overheating !!!
Pic 4 Friendly locals
Pic 5 Old ruins at Bendigo
Pic 6 Mine shaft 178m deep !!!!

[Aslan]

hi Phil - you and Dawn clearly had a magic trip thanks for posting :2thumbsup

cheers Aslan