Gremlin's Tall Stories

Cursed alarms... 0500... this was hard work, but at least my back felt a lot better than the previous night... These rides are hard work at pace on a naked, but hey, they were great in corners, which is what I wanted.

Doing the maths last night, I had decided that with being more tired on the 2nd day, getting 2800 points in the bag on the first day, it would be extremely unwise to push for the remainder of the required 7000 points to get a gold award, and scaled back my ride for Sunday to comfortably achieve Silver. Oyster Bay was dropped from the list, and Kaiteriteri-Marahau and Portage were all that was needed.

Got to Morley Honda late, around 0610, the main bulk of riders had already pulled out, but no problem, this day would be more of a cruise, and no need to push. Ended up leaving Richmond at 0630, after spending time cleaning my visor, filling up the hydrabak etc. Toto had already left, with his own route in mind.

Kaiteriteri was tackled first, thinking the extra light for Takaka would be nice. Struggled a bit to find the Marahau fire station, but asking a local, and I headed next door. Exiting Marahau, my first cop, why on earth was he going there at 0730 in the morning? Didn't dwell on it as it meant one less on Takaka Hill.

Raced up it, finding plenty of bikes coming the other way, and on the return journey, passed a few. Round Nelson, stuck behind incredibly slow cars through Nelson, doing 30-40... what is this? Early Sunday morning? Sheesh!!....

The aches and pains were back in their familiar places again, making me glad I had chosen to have a slower day. Passed a few bikes on the way to Queen Charlotte Drive, and judging by their pace, I was somewhere near the back of the pack, but no problem. GPS and calculations, I knew I had plenty of time.

Portage flyer was next on the hit list. Wow... how to describe it? 30km one way, at least 15km of that was 2nd gear, incredibly tight and narrow. Queen Charlotte Drive has nothing on this road. On the way out, came across a crazy fellow. Thought they had broken down, so stopped and asked if they were OK. Yes, they were, and was I on the TT2000? I have no idea how he knew, but confirmed, and he told me to get on with it. Hardly one to refuse, and seemingly havign obtained my own personal cheer squad, I returned to finding out how well a fully laden supermoto can go around corners. Got to the Portage Resort, having seen 1 bike leaving it, and I was pretty stuffed. Saw dreadlocks when going back to Queen Charlotte Drive, it looked like he was having a lot of fun as well. My flyers for the day were complete, and provided I still had all my proof, Silver had been achieved.

Roadworks continuing to be a common theme, Picton eventually arrived, and my first gas stop for the day. Felt like the end of Day 1 all over again. Knowing I was heading into cop country, the pace was legal for the most part, enough traffic had to be dealt with etc, but detoured around Blenheim, which would have sped things up a bit. Murchison came and went, the feeling of just wanting to be finished was strong again (seems to come up every time there's an abundance of straights). I could tell I was tired, I wasn't doing my calculations, keeping an eye on distances, just using the GPS and whether my final ETA was going up or down - it barely ever seemed to go down... just up, rather disheartening.

Got bored before reaching Hanmer Springs so upped the pace and eventually tacked onto the back of a busa and ST1300. Hanmer Springs was my 2nd and last break for the day. Found myself annoyed that I was thinking, the final leg, almost the end... and yet I still had over 300km to complete, and more than 3 hours... a whole ride for some... but short when you're doing more than a thousand a day. Busa and ST1300 had already carried on, I never saw them again.

Inland Rd to Kaikoura wasn't too bad, but couldn't fully enjoy it was I was too tired. Good road nonetheless (better than the boredom of SH1 anyway). Ended up upping the pace again, going unusually quick down the straights, but a strong sense of wanting to fucken finish the goddamn pain and punishment. Kaikoura to Chrischurch I can barely remember, lots of corners, more cars, nothing different to the other thousand kilometres that had passed under my wheels earlier in the day. I'd done the road on Friday anyway, but at least I didn't get the same greeting all over again. Didn't see a single TT2000 bike, a lonely ride.

Checked into Hampton Honda, Toto had been there a short while, and told of his humiliation by a scooter... well, he didn't say that exactly, but I read it like that. Stats for the day, I had been on the road for about 13 hours and covered over 1100km, stopped for about 1-1.5 hours, and overall average was high 70s or low 80s. Moving average was high 80s I think. Too tired to really care or think I should check it, but I had completed my goals.

Took proof to scrutineers, Silver was confirmed, then support the awesome organisers by buying the achievers pack, polo shirt, award etc. Hey, its not like you do these rides every fortnight. Consumed the sausages and drink on offer, and spoke to some of the other riders, bumping into LBD (now there's one crazy fella... the TT2000 was a leadup for the Rusty Nuts Super Tour starting tomorrrow...)

Eventually, we decide bugger it, no point still being here, thank the organisers and promise to return next year (which I definitely want to) and gear up. Toto needs gas, so he says, see you at the petrol station, which I confirm. As he rides off, I think damn, which one? No problem, as I pull out the drive, he's coming back, saying he can't find it!! Some things never change, how he ever completed the route must be one of Toto's wonders of the world, because I'll never know.

Back to the accommodation, still had the key from Saturday morning... lucky Toto didn't keep it. Still had two packs of muesli bars left (from 3) so had them for dinner and breakfast, Toto agreeing they were awesome, and he wanted some in the future.

Covered more than 2300km for the 2010 TT2000, in about 27 hours. Excludes the "commute" from Auckland

Currently in Wellington... rest of the ride north will come on another day... only getting back to Auckland late on Thursday.