Gremlin's Tall Stories

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 away early both days, and we would meet up at the end of each day.

This was a good thing, as I only got away from work at 8pm on Wednesday evening. After dinner, packing, finishing planning, I got to bed at 3am. That cursed early morning alarm sounds at 7am, so I load up the bike and have breakfast. I feel like I’m forgetting things, and hate that. I had forgotten to get some cotton wool the previous evening, so race into Countdown to get some. I don’t want to use my new ear plugs for the night, as I will use them all day, so I figure cotton wool should be gentle on the ears and still stop Toto the Freight Train.

Fuelling in Takanini at 9.30am I’m slightly behind the time I would prefer, but extra is always built into each plan. I take SH2 and SH27 south, loving the smooth feel of a bike just serviced. The BMW is perfect for the long distance riding, loving the open country and eating up the distances. Good time is made arriving in Turangi just before 1pm. I wasn’t planning on stopping here either, but the draw of the bakery was too great. I did enjoy just feeding myself, and not the bike.

A txt or two to gijoe and toto, a delicious chicken and avocado sandwich and some chocolate milk to wash it down. SH1 south to Wellington was enjoyable as always… aka, boring as hell. Desert road is a nice change to the straights, but Foxton/Marton etc, wow…. Put some corners in, would you guys?

Pace was nice and legal, trying to be smooth, as I wanted to get from Auckland to Wellington without filling. With panniers that have never been taught about aerodynamics (ie, square) a miserly fuel consumption is hard work, but I was on excellent track before the straights around Marton, with my range calculating I would have 50km spare.

On the straights I crouched down behind the screen, and must have made a few cops wet themselves with excitement at the speeding bike, only to find I wasn’t. I’m beginning to suspect that while a nice change in riding position, it’s terrible for consumption, perhaps creating a vacuum behind the screen, as south of the straights I checked my ranging again, shocked to find I was now 20km short of Wellington. Whoever stole my 70km of gas, I want it back, y’hear?

Back to working hard at getting better consumption, I’m tossing up whether to fill. I don’t want to fill right before the ferry, as the bike would sit with too much fuel in it for the night. I’m dithering all the way south, and decide to risk not filling, as I have improved the consumption enough that I have 10-15km spare, fluctuating slightly. The ranging function is very handy, and varies with how you are riding, but calculates to dry, not reserve, so I am finding myself regularly using reserve, calm that I have 40km left for example.

I reach the ferry at 5pm, 30 minutes to spare before check-in deadline, and Toto has arrived half an hour before, having stopped 5 times. He left at 6.30am, so I had gained 2-2.5 hours on him. The waiting time passed chatting to a Connie and his wife on a Zed thou, and their mate on a cruiser, all heading for the TT2000 as well. There were 6 bikes in all on the ferry, all bound for the TT2000. Loading the bike onto the ferry my range dropped from 15km to 12km…

The ferry was calm, and we checked into Tombstone Backpackers shortly before 10pm, showered, bed. My range had dropped to 10km.

Friday

Toto was up early before 7am, the cotton wool was almost useless, so once he buggered off I rolled over and grabbed some more sleep, rising at 8am. A basic breakfast is provided by the backpackers, which is great, so cornflakes and a hot scone for breakfast.

Over to Shell for a refuelling, my range dropped to 7km, and I was hoping like hell that Devil was correct in saying the ranging was very accurate. The bike fully luggaged was approaching 300kg, and there was no way I wanted to be pushing it. With 7km left, I made it… not bad, 614km, Takanini to Picton, 7km left. I filled with 34.66L, the tank is officially rated for 33L, but I know I have been filling with more.

Worried about the status of Christchurch I also bought a couple of 1.5L bottles of water and two powerades for the actual riding. The water I planned for use in Chch at the end of the weekend, if required. I was also disappointed to see someone filling a huge drum of fuel, hopefully it was for boating in the sounds or farming or something, and not Chch related, as that sort of activity just makes the problem worse. I also bought a couple of packs of OSM (One Square Meal) as food in Chch would be limited…

I couldn’t make Dunedin on the one tank (700km ish) at any decent sort of pace, so the plan was to head south, try to fill in Kaikoura, and if not, make a fill somewhere, to be safe. I was carrying a 5L can, which meant in theory I could make Dunedin, but preferred to have a safe buffer, so it was also filled in Picton. $84 in gas in total… unusual for a bike

Another calm ride south, trying to keep a smooth legal pace for good consumption but also fast enough to make good time. There were still cops on the road… wonder if they had thought about limiting their fuel usage? Evidently not. Nice motorists warned me about one in Ward, but the radar detector found him before I’d entered the town. I returned the favour exiting the town.

Stopping in Kaikoura was the first signs things were amiss. Queues out the BP, I thought, bugger it, I don’t want 98 anyway, I’ll use the Caltex, only to find a board outside, “No Fuel”. Back to BP, they were out of Ultimate, and I wasn’t desperate enough to use 91 yet. The BMW will run on it, but won’t like it, limiting the engine a lot. I carried on instead, and on a hunch, popped by South Bay, knowing the normal people wouldn’t know about it. I found out from Toto later they were charging $2.30 per litre of 91 in Kaikoura, and when he asked, got told, oh no, normal prices. Yeah right.

Sure enough, apparently the premium had just been filled, so I was in luck, plenty of gas. The fuel meant I was completely OK for Dunedin, so had 2 OSM bars and got back on the road shortly before midday. I thought about stopping somewhere for a late lunch, but never bothered, not feeling particularly hungry or thirsty. Entering the outskirts of Chch I ran into heavy traffic on SH1 and ended up heading further inland, taking some back roads to come out just north of Templeton. Traffic and the GSA really are not suited.

I decided at Templeton with it raining slightly to have another quick stop, for food and drink, just eating 1 OSM bar and powerade. The straights south are incredibly boring, and there was a lot of traffic, so I just kept plodding south, leap frogging each car when safe, as I came across them. I remember passing through the likes of Ashburton and seeing limits on gas, massive queues, Ultimate unavailable, and wondering if the Concours and friends were going OK, as they were going to stop there. Passing through Timaru, things were returning to normal, but I kept going. Consumption was going well, below 6L, which isn’t too bad considering the wind and having a lot of luggage.

North of Oamaru I ran across a car towing a vintage sidecar, and when passing, it said 1914 Triumph, with the sidechair appearing to be made of wicker. I was definitely sad not to be able to pull out the camera and snap while going, but gave a wave while passing.

Somewhere along this stretch I also came across an accident the cops were already attending. Only this one was slightly unusual. Traffic was down to 1 lane, so a queue had formed. Getting our turn, we were waved through by a very cute constable, I noticed the dented barrier on the small bridge, and then a fire truck on the other side. I couldn’t figure out why it had mud all over its wheels, facing the wrong way was fine, but where the vehicle? Then I noticed the scrape marks on the fire truck… oh…

70km north of Dunedin, I came across my umpteenth line of traffic, and saw what I thought was a cruiser near the front, except it looked to almost be holding up traffic. Working my way through, surprise surprise, its Toto flogging the little GN. He comments later he’d seen me coming for a while, with the unusual arrangement of lights. I motion if he is Ok for gas, he nods, so with a wave I leave him to play with a truck in front of him.

Entering Dunedin, I mess up a couple of turns, but eventually get to the accommodation, and while unpacking Toto rocks up, rather tired, but happy to be there.

We unpack and head out to grab some food. We agree Dunedin is a terrible town to be in/on a vehicle, what with all the hot students walking around. Bloody accident waiting to happen I reckon. We find a Thai place and have a delicious dinner.

Back to the backpackers, we’re only in bed at midnight, after re-packing and getting gear ready for the morning. We both threw liners into our gear, as it had gone cold in the evening.