Gremlin's Tall Stories

Wednesday morning and up at 9am, except I think Toto was awake earlier. Breakfast will be grabbed when we’ve left the accommodation (allowing more sleeping of course) at the usual bakery. We pack up, or at least I pack up while Toto repairs the mechanism on his helmet that is protesting at the amount of dust. We’re slightly over-time again, receiving a reminder, but we’re already well on the way to getting out of the room.

Toto’s (race) helmet is protesting at this gravel stuff, so he pulls it apart to give it a good clean, then when putting the visor back on it falls apart again, so he tries putting it back together properly I manage to get ready before him this time and we go down the road to the gas station to get more gas. Well, I’m still good after the previous day’s adventure through Rainbow Road, but the Hornet needs more feeding.

Returning to town it’s back to the bakery and as boring as it sounds we pretty much had the same thing as yesterday. So many options, but the ones we’d had, had been so good, why not have them again. Toto laments the lack of lemon this time around and again have treats but eat them inside. No round town walkies this time, it’s back to our bikes. A couple of guys had been giving them a thorough looking over while they had been parked up, much to our amusement. We’d also had fun trying to get what they had been saying, which was probably far more amusing than what they really said.

Up Clarence Valley Rd (we’d decided it was the best option with all our gear) the grader had finished the road so we had a much easier time. I stopped midway to try and capture the beauty of the valley again while Toto continued up the road. I caught up shortly before the top, as he did some photography. Unfortunately, the tell-tale grader sign was back, and now he was having fun with the link road between Clarence Valley Rd and Jollies Pass Rd, which was fine the previous evening.

He was in the process of freshly grading the top layer and besides his tracks we were the first behind him. Initially I was extremely cautious, carefully following in the grader tracks but slowly began to realise the Anakee 2’s were up to the task and I tootled wherever I liked along the road. It also wasn’t very long before we came across him and the next obstacle was figuring out how to get by. We’re not exactly fast on gravel, but he was racing snails (or drunk possums).

I realised he couldn’t pull over much what with being a grader, but I stuck behind him for a short while for him to realise I was there. I eased over the mound he was leaving behind and waited for a slightly wider part of the road before tootling past. Toto took a bit longer and the grader was nice enough to stop to let him by. He didn’t figure it was a good idea to get too close to all that heavy machinery.

Molesworth is certainly a different road to Rainbow. They start out quite similar, but Molesworth remains smoother, but is almost twice the distance. There are fewer water crossings, and I can see why some think it’s a more boring road. I think it’s just different and has other beauty. There was certainly more traffic on the road but for the most part everyone was considerate and everyone giving way. I did have one oncoming car evidently not looking at the road as I rounded a right hander and only started slowing down as they passed me and I was diving for a slightly wider section in the road.

Toto seemed to have finally reached his zone and was zooming off ahead. There were sections of quite rough road and having seen Long Way Down you can blow the rear shocks if you’re not careful. I therefore slowed down for the rough stuff and only sped up when I felt road conditions improved. Toto was completely out of sight so I stopped for a toilet break and to take in the nearby river. It turned out Toto was only a few km up the road patiently waiting at the top of a hill, with a great vista in all directions.

I find myself wondering how far through we are… probably only half way… the road goes on for ages. We join the Awatere River. It mostly runs through a gorge while we’re usually on top of the gorge or winding our way around it. Toto makes a stop at one point above the river, which we end up turning into a bit of a late lunch stop. It’s incredibly peaceful sitting in the long grass on the roadside, legs dangling down the steep hill that leads to the river. We muse that plenty will never see such scenery, or worse, not care either, while the river continues to flow like it has for millions of years, regardless of who is prime minister of the country.

That’s probably enough of the creative writing shit and deep soulful thinking.

We carry on, hitting sporadic patches of seal in the steeper sections, presumably to keep the road more intact. Each time I hit it, I think ah, the adventure bit is over, but gravel is only a few corners away. It’s hard packed so not much of a worry, but it’s not seal either where you can focus on your lines instead (well you do, but in a different way). The weather has also been kind to us, on a day that was meant to rain according to forecasts.

Eventually we do permanently get back on the seal, riding through countless vines… wino country. Large estate signs, the vines are basically up to the road, no fences in between either, which makes it feel like you’re almost riding through someone’s vineyard, rather than a public road. We came out at Dashwood, just north of Seddon, but no point in stopping yet. It’s onto SH1 in the midst of some roadworks we headed north to Blenheim.

It was already 4pm, so while en-route to Blenheim I scotched the idea of using the coastal route to Picton as it would take too long. I was planning on filling in Blenheim and suspected Toto needed gas as well, but questioning him on the outskirts and with the new more direct route up SH1, neither of us needed gas. I’d had my earplugs out all day to hear the rivers and birds, so briefly stopped to put them back in as the road noise at 100kph was too much.

It was a short trip to Picton and back to the Tombstone Backpackers. We would have two nights there, with the day completely flexible for whatever we felt like doing. Returning to the Tombstone I had to avoid an oddly parked car at the entrance, but as we de-geared in preparation for check-in Toto asked the couple of girls if they were OK. A rather sad “No” was the reply, and when he asked if they needed help “Yes please” was the answer.

Two damsels in distress? Say no more, these couple of bikers were in there like a shot! Apparently, when trying to reverse their rental car it had gone forwards instead and was now faced with a rather steep drop of a metre or two through a rough flower bed to another flat area. One front wheel was right on the edge, the other slightly back, but no room for error. Toto commented later I was a little keen heading forward to help the girls and he thought to himself “But he can’t really drive”. However, I had no intention of driving, instead I went looking for some chocks for the rear wheels to stop the car going any further over the edge.

A woman from down the road comes up to see if they are OK, apparently another car had had to be pushed back over the edge with a digger previously, and the couple of girls didn’t seem to like this idea overly much. Two large chocks in front of the rear wheels, Toto in the driving seat and I braced against the passenger door frame. Toto got the car in reverse and reversed up the driveway a bit before I removed the chocks and Toto then parked the car on the roadside (and away from any steep drops). Two damsels rescued, thankful hugs all round and a good deed done for the day.

We checked in without any further calamities and were given a room we know well. We’ve previously stayed in it, and a few years ago GiJoe and I stayed in it and I broke the towel rail away from the wall. Careful inspection revealed it had been moved down the wall and seemed more secure. Still, I would treat it very carefully. After unpacking we assembled a load of washing and got it on the go.

Toto settled into browsing the internet on his laptop but for me the hot tub was calling. I tried luring an Asian girl into the hot tub (Toto had to ask if she was really Asian ) but while inquisitive, no hot tub visit was made… oh well, she wanted to know if it was warm and I said it was warmer than outside, and with disappearing sun it was certainly cooling down. After a nice relax I checked on Toto, sure enough, still on the laptop but hadn’t checked the laundry so I whipped my bitch into shape and got him to transfer the washing to the dryer while I retired to the hot tub again. He didn’t seem keen to join me either?

He disturbs me a short while later wanting to know when we should have dinner so I said give me some warning as I’ll grab a shower first. “Now”. So much for a warning then. Shower done, damn it feels fantastic. First shower with the proper 4 way mixer for hot, cold (everything in between too) and pressure. Felt fantastic and I felt properly clean. We strolled into town, more joking and after a particularly good one he’s now walking in the street instead of anywhere near me… can’t remember what it was, but it must have been good.

I’ve already scouted the eating options during my December trip, so advise him of what’s available but what’s likely best and over to Kentucky Eataways to evaluate our options. The menu is extensive and I finally settle on a chicken burger, piece of snapper and a thickshake. Toto has mussels, normal fish and a giant burger. Both the burger and snapper are absolutely delicious and Toto enjoys his food as well. The burgers were so packed it was hard to eat them without them falling part… fully of tasty morsels.

Back to the backpackers we settled into the room for the night. I spent hours trying to get some blogs done while Toto slacked off and read FML instead (and distracted me by telling me some as as I was trying to blog). We ended up putting some of our hijinks on a Facebook status update which ended up completely off topic but provided further entertainment for the evening. It was then bed, around midnight.

Pics: http://s210.photobucket.com/albums/b...0TT2000%20D08/