KoroJ's Blog

....................DAY 2.

Nooooooo! The alarm went off at 0530 and dragged me from my coma! Up up and away, I got dressed, packed the luggage panier, extracting the day’s supply of bananas and water for the top-box, checked the tyres – 42psi on the button, exchanged the summer gloves for winter ones out of the wets and fuel panier, tidied the topbox, snacked, had a nice hot cup of tea….and we were gone at 0630.

I thought it was bloody winter as scooted through fog at 3°, it was almost dawn as we took our first photo of the Poolburn Pub, then more fog on the straightish road out to Patearoa. Once again, Betty balked at the post and had I been by myself I think I would have missed the flyer…and once again, a check at the Patearoa stop revealed the Waypoint had disappeared (but later proved to be still loaded in the unit???) We were now at another point along the trip where Malcolm had the opportunity to shave 18Km off the route by taking gravel to Kokonga, on the way to Flyer 15 (12 for us), MacRaes Flat. Malcolm had estimated he would accrue 7 minutes by doing that, which would work out OK as he would need fuel in Oamaru, but I could zip past and carry on to Omarama for fuel and we would rejoin then.

I’m like a dog with dysentery on these long rides and every time I see a post…(read, - have to stop), I get the urge to mark the territory and hence my aversion to the diuretic effects of coffee, especially when it gets cold like it was at this time. Once Malcolm left the memorial at Patearoa, I nipped around the back for a leak, before putting on the gloves and heading back to Ranfurly. I upped the pace a notch or two into quite-brisk mode and even the fog didn’t slow me down too much because the road already travelled earlier was pretty straight. Betty directed me back through Ranfurly, over to Kyeburn then out through Kokonga and Hyde to Macraes Flat.

I was now travelling at pace down into gullys filled with fog, then rising out with one hand on the throttle and one shielding my eyes from the wicked sunstrike as the golden orb had ascended to just above the hills. To make this worse, Betty’s poor form had me doubting the instructions so when I saw the sign to Middlemarch at the Kyeburn turnoff, I thought, WTF!! Where the hell am I!! and then as I came into Hyde or thereabouts I went into a spin because there in front of me was a lovely big monument stating ‘You are now entering the city limits of Dunedin’?! “Oh shit”, I thought, “I shouldn’t be anywhere near Dunedin?” but I pressed on anyway, in too much of a hurry to stop for a manual check. That was lucky because this fantastic road meandered through and around the hills and occasionally one could see several Km of curly macadam across a wee valley and on one of these occasions I spotted another lone bike…. “awsome….that must be Malcolm” and I could see I was reeling him in.

The road was just long enough, because as Malcolm pulled up at the Gold Stamping machine/memorial/thingy in MacRaes Flat, I pulled up beside him…me with a cheesy grin on my face as I saw his jaw drop and I stated, “I guess I need to fill in Oamaru now!!” (Hehehe) That was niiice!

Malcolm led on and we had soon clicked off the Hill in Palmerston, filled in Oamaru and captured the Meat Shop by the works at Pukeuri. Now came the crappy ride to Omarama….have I mentioned that I hate straight roads?... arse numbing, long straight roads! They did get better as we approached Omarama… and riding past the dams was OK…and the turquoise colour of the water had me intrigued…but I hate arse numbing, long straight roads!

Oh well, we photographed the sheepy at the Mobil Station and zipped out to Flyer 19 (13 for us) at Lake Ohau, more straight roads but the lake was pretty/nice, scooted back through Omarama and onto the Lindis Pass and that hard to read mottled chip surface, continued down to Tarras then over to, and in the back of Hawea for a fill. While we were there a couple of elderly ladies turned up, looked confused so we explained it was an unmanned card pump, at which she looked even more perplexed and meekly asked, “Could you fill it for me please?” “Not a problem” we said, “Stick your card through the machine” and once that was done, Malcolm attended to the pump while I did the windscreen. One can’t complain about the service at an unmanned Allied Servo.

On the road again and that delightful ride along Lake Hawea, then Lake Wanaka where, Malcolm managed a couple of twitches on loose grit then didn’t seem that comfy, so I thought I should give him a rest at the lead. What a brilliant ride, but the pricks that maintain this road need shooting. The number of times we would get in the groove, then all of a sudden we would come across a section of new seal with loose crap scattered about and invariably it would manifest at a corner…with no signage to warn us. I’d fly into it, having difficulty identifying a clean track so I’d have to straighten and hope. This resulted in a close shave with an oncoming car, not to mention a couple of stationary hillsides as I overcooked into corners too scared to take them….I hate it when that happens!

It was still a good ride though but then we had to go out to the Cray Pot at Jackson’s Bay (Flyer 21 but our #14)…..more bloody arse numbingly straight roads. Sure the Beech forest is very picturesque, and the uneven surface bounced us around a bit, but I hate straight roads, so I clicked the pace up a notch or two. It was soon over though, we had clicked, grazed, swigged, the dysentery dog marked his space and we had chatted to a couple of riders on tour…..(but why the hell would you endure those straight roads for an ice cream?) We got back to Haast for a Pic there and fill-up and it was onto the West Coast….and that was nice!

I led us on to Fox where we would encounter another 16-18Km section of road that I had been really looking forward to. Unfortunately, when we got there we encountered drizzle and the road had more of that loose stuff so I had to behave myself, but that was OK because not long after, I found myself on a sweet strip that Malcolm later informed me was Mt Hercules. (But more on that shortly)

It didn’t seem too long before we were turning off for our last flyer to Okarito (Flyer 23 but 15 and the last for us). That was a pleasant wee scoot, although maybe a little narrow to let rip, we slipped in took our picky, more of the usual protocols and we were soon gone again.

Have I mentioned that I love tight roads! The tighter the better and Mt Hercules had some exquisitely tight, cambered switch-backs and the ST was purring (just like last year on the Takaka Hill). It would lay down as it swooped through the bend thrusting forward as it smoothly transitioned to the next most excellent turn in the series and I reckon….that was nice!! I came around a hillside on a right hander and noticed a camper van entering the left hander 20 metres ahead. By the time he had negotiated the corner and was just starting to accelerate up the rise, I had slipped down to the corner, flicked around it and identified that the 50 metres to the next blind right hander was clear. He was lucky to be doing 20kph at this point and I was in 2nd or 3rd, so I applied the power brutally and bolted past the van, probably before he even knew I was there and I would have disappeared from view while he was still collecting his wits about him. I was surprised to find later that this must have pissed him off, generating a little road rage, because when Malcolm encountered him, he would move out to block the V-Strom from passing, even to the point our camper-van-man moved into the path of an oncoming car!! I don’t know??!! Any way, my only moment on this sweet adventure was negotiating a left hander when a truck was coming the other way. The road dropped away from the corner so I tried to give him as much room as possible by bringing the wheels to the edge and hanging over the open space, but there was a curb and I had to resort to the old off-road skills by flicking the bike up while I countered the balance and continued through the same track. Gosh I love tight stuff and the tighter the better….I love Mt Hercules. (might be something to do with the heritage perhaps?)

We now settled into the tame, straighter roads that took us to Hokitika which was the all-but check point (photo of the old schooner and anchor on Gibson Quay), after which we had our last fill, then embarked on the last 250Km of our adventure…Arthur’s Pass. Once again I ended up in the lead and tried to maintain a steady, briskish pace over another of the South Island’s sweet roads as we enjoyed the last section to our Gold prize. I did have a wee moment as we descended from Arthur’s and there’s a couple of blind humps that require a little care when one isn’t familiar with where the road is going on the other side. I took one of these a little quick and braked as it peaked, so my momentum as the bike dropped away felt like it wanted to lift the back wheel and flick me off. It didn’t and wouldn’t (I hope), but it was a little disconcerting…..and then we had more bloody great long arse numbing straights to finish.

We had planned our route, estimating times to the minute and on Saturday we varied slightly but ended up running to the programmed times doing about 1550Km in 18 odd hours. On Sunday we upped the ante a little, leaving Malcolm’s a half hour late, eventually arriving at Yaldhurst three quarters of an hour early at 2045, after doing about 1350Km in 14¼ hours.

The ride didn’t seem as memorable as last year but I think that was due to compressing so much riding into the two days so it all became a blur, but it was awesome. We rolled in, took our last photo of the bikes in front of the pub, took the cameras in for them to dump the photos for scrutineering, had a great feed and a beer, then I had to leave for the B&B with Jim.

Once again, it was midnight before I got to sleep, awakened a bit early and we were on the road by 0830. More boring SH1 riding, but I’d dumped the 5Ltrs insurance in the tank and although Jim filled in Amberly, I tried to make the ride interesting by turning it into an economy run so I didn’t need to fill until back in Wgtn. I made it, going onto reserve at Koromiko, but I did have a problem with the GPS when it cut out and I lost my music going into Blenheim. Fortunately at the end of the trip and not on the TT ride itself. (I’ve since notified the supplier and expect to have checked on the warranty as I also found that it had dumped most of my weekend’s tracks)

The ferry trip was smooth and we just chatted with other TT riders in the café.

Many thanks to Mike and Robert for another great event.
I managed to do 3977Km in 4 days at an average economy of 18.47 Km/Ltr, managing to burn 215Ltrs of fuel at a cost of $461, not to mention some wicked tyre wear.
What a nice ride!
It was nice to get gold!
It was nice to do lots of new roads!
It was nice to do some old favourite roads!
It was nice to meet up with mates and ride with them!
That was nice!!