Southward Bound
by
, 9th February 2010 at 09:53 (1273 Views)
Rode the East Cape in one wonderful day from Ohope to Napier around via the East Cape light house...what a day. Best part by far was between Opotiki and Waihau...it was just me and my bike alone on the road sweeping around great curves beside the rugged ocean side. Saw my first Marlin weighing in at 149 kg....damn thing was HUGE!! A sweet biker friend of a mate of mine sorted out my indicator issue....what a gem. Hitting the road again I stopped for drinks with some great bike guys in Wellington the night of the AC DC concert...the city was pumped full of life. I stayed awake until the wee hours of the morning so I could catch the 2:25 am ferry across the ditch to Picton. Managing to get maybe 1-2 hours of fitfull sleep curled up into a little ball in the corner on the ferry it was a good thing the morning was so cold as it slapped me awake straight away. By the time the sun burned through the fog I was well on my way to Hokitika for the Woodstock Motorcycle Rally...and on the way to hypothermia...think I had on every piece of clothing that I owned and still had to sing annoying songs to myself to stop focusing on the freezing factor.
The Woodstock rally was fan-freakin'-tastic! Some guys hooked me up with a spare sleeping bag and a wee corner in their tent so that I could stay on site and party my arse off until the morning. Saw my first possum toss, drank cheap beer, saw great fireworls and a nice collections of bikes and bikers. Rode pillion over Arthurs pass...was great to be pillion for a change....ok, who are we kidding...it was just great to be on a bike again that is not a piddly 250cc.Loved getting to sit back and take photos while we cruised. Riding back up to Nelson with some of the guys via Pancake Bay was great...good roads...great scenery...the only fly in the ointment was getting babysat by the guys as my bike just can't play with the same intensity as a 1300 cc can. I had a hard time getting around this one car...I was trying for a good half an hour...every time we got to where I could pass it they sped up to 120 km/h which I can only get to going down hill if I am lucky, and then as soon as we would hit the curves they would slow down and crawl around them...finally there was a straight stretch of road heading down hill so I zoomed on by to catch up with the boys....and at the very bottom of the hill the guys pulled into a pub, so my moment of ecsatitic satisfaction of finally being free to fly was very short lived...murphys law.
The ride over to Kaikoura was beautiful...well worth the trip over to a bikers 40th bday bash on my way down south. South of Christchurch was a seriously seriously boring and busy road...things got better as I neared lake tekapo...the sun came out from hidding and the rest of the trip down to Queenstown was amazing and full of happy, girlie giggling moments....One of witch was that I nearly ran out of gas and ended up riding the last 40 kms very, very gently pulling into the gas station with 60% of 1 litre left in my gas tank...luck was on my side and I finished the day riding with some mates into Queenstown to the most beautiful sunset up in the hills that I have seen since I arrived in N.Z.