Gremlin's Tall Stories

Having not had my BMW since early March, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms (most, if not all, the parts have arrived, now they just have to repair). To tide myself over this difficult period, I've taken to looking at what additional parts I should fit (coz I don't have nearly enough).

Sometime this afternoon, I downloaded the 2011 Twisted Throttle catalogue: http://www.twistedthrottle.com/article/static/211/1/5/ My memory is vague, but I appear to have lost several hours in the 236 ...

Monday morning, no early morning alarm, we sleep in, but my alarm does go off at 0845, as I need to start making some calls. I’ve given up on cotton wool for the nights, just using my new custom plugs, as I can wear them much longer than the normal ones.

McIver & Veitch about the tyres I now won’t be needing, as the Southern Cross is no longer an option (for the second time in a row dammit). Interislander to alter my booking and bring it forward to the same as Toto’s, and his accommodation ...

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So, picking up from the Blog of Day 1, it’s 10pm, leaving Queenstown, and now we are properly into the night section. Don’t want to go too quickly, as you simply don’t have as much light, yet don’t go too slowly so as to lose time.

I did have one handy trick up my sleeve for the night section. During the 10k service the mechanics worked on the bike for two full days. She now sports 8 forward facing lights. Low beam (HID), high beam (+90% bulb), OEM fog lamps (wasn’t able to get the ...

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Again with the early alarm… much too early… no choice, must get up. It’s 4.30am.

Into my gear, luggage is lugged down the stairs of the backpackers and piled outside. 5.15am we fire up the bikes and pop down the road to the BP that confirmed the previous night they are open 24/7. Other bikers are there eating, we only need gas, and I get a couple of bottles of Powerade (still wondering where Mizone blue went to).

Another short trip to McIver & Veitch, there are already ...

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Toto’s not broken Honda hasn’t been sorted in the beginning of the week, so while he was offered one of the rental fleet of BMW, he declined, opting for his own GN250. Yeah, you read that right… he WANTED to do it on his GN250.

Of course, this meant his pace wouldn’t be quite up to mine. Actually, allow me to correct, his pace was slower than almost anyone else, and couldn’t barely ever reach the speed limit of 100kph. Thursday and Friday’s plans were altered slightly. He would head ...

Once again, I was marshalling for Paeroa, which means an early start Sunday, so the accommodation is sorted for officials, marshals etc. This year, same as the last, accommodation was Thames. They were happy to have us last year, and presumably having their motel booked out for a night appeals to them.

Ange had asked to have a go on the BMW, so I took her down on Saturday. As is Gremlin’s way, we left late, departing Auckland at only 2pm. Ange needed to be in Thames to give the accommodation ...

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So the previous two weekends had seen me pop up to Cape Reinga to visit the Northern Exposure Tour and then East Cape, to finally see the lighthouse I needed to visit on the Southern Cross in mid-March.

As the West Cape was also on the Southern Cross, it made sense to see that too, as a previous West Cape ride I had cut short, due to leaving a little late in the afternoon (and subsequently exploring the gravel around the Forgotten Highway as well).

Departing Auckland ...

Well… perhaps it doesn’t. Some would say it’s possible to get to Mount Maunganui without going round East Cape, from Auckland. This is doable when there are plenty of other things having high priority, but when you have to be in the Mount at 9.30am, it requires an early start, so that in turn requires a reward, aka, nice long ride since you have so much day left.

A couple of weeks previously I noted the fog lamp switch was playing up, sometimes turning on, other times not, or on, ...

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