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Kawhia to Raglan.

I had been thinking about a ride a bit more challenging than the usual roads. The coastal roads from Kawhia to Raglan were roads that I had not travelled at all. Riding them on a scooter would be an interesting angle.

So this morning Buggsy and I fueled up, him with gas, me with food and drink. Out past Pirongia we took a right at the Ngutunui school and climbed up Pekanui road. Since my last blast up this road, there have been a number of corners patched and resealed. Untill the loose crap gets washed away the cornering speeds need to be kept down. Over the brow and the 8k of gravel on Okupata road has recently been graded. Lots of thick loose metal to contend with. After the metal came a favourite stretch of road. Winding through a endless supply of corners untill we came out on the Kawhia road.

A tad shy of Kawhia I turned into the Kawhia / Raglan road. The name seems to depend whether you read the map or the road signs. Anyway, this stretch winds its way down into a bush clad gorge before rising over a couple of saddles. Here is a pic typical of this road.





About 12k along and we arrived at the Te Papatapu / Kawhia road junction. If you turn right you can find your way to the Bridal Veils Falls. Apparently it is even rougher than the road just ridden. The 12 k from the Kawhia end, I found fairly slow going. The corners were deeply rutted and the scooter’s 10” rims struggled with the corrugations.





Te Papatapu road runs along the inner shoreline of Aotea harbour for the first bit. Stopping at a pulloff a few k’s along, I pulled out the thermos and sammys. The tide was out but I wanted to capture the place with the camera so took a few snaps and welded them together when back home.





At the junction of Te Papatapu and Phillips road we were back on the tarseal. After bouncing along some of the roughest metal roads, I’ve struck for a while, it was good to crack the whip and unleash all of Buggsys’ 6hp. Now I know why the scooter has a stepped seat, it’s to stop the rider being thrown off the back when all hell breaks loose.

At TeMata, we swung left into Ruapuke road. A fantastic piece of sweeping corners, rises and dips. After about 12-15ks we were back into the gravel. Dropping down a gradual decent we turned into the Ruapuke beach road. The end is simply a turn around and carpark. No view of the coast so we headed back out to Ruapuke road and turned left. A short climb and down the tight winding gravel, we came to Swanns access rd. This took us down to the beach, where I finished the tea and sandwiches. There is something about the west coast beaches. I love them. Most have avoided being trashed by the developers, such as Mt Maunganui has been, but I guess in time we will lose these wild places.





From here, the road becomes Whaanga rd. This was the roughest piece of road of the ride. Corrugations, big surface goullies, potholes. The scenery was fantastic. The road climbed well above the sea providing some lovely vistas.










After the Te Toto reserve ( worst piece on the ride ) it was good to get back onto the Wainui road and into Raglan to fuel up.

After some 60 kilometres of gravel roads, it says something about the build quality of the Yamaha. I went over the scooter at Raglan and there wasn’t a single loose or missing screw or fitting. Filling Buggsy at Raglan after 125 k’s from Te Awamutu, he took a mere 4.1 litres.
The ride home was great. I had fitted a small mini HD video camera to the scooter at home. It is not an ‘ action’ video but with a class 10 card, it took some reasonable clips. Considering it was a miserable $15 from trade me, the quality wasn’t too bad. I have a couple of vids to post. Just need to sort out how to upload and edit them and I’ll post them.

This ride was not the most enjoyable, I’ve done. Scenery was fantastic, but 10” wheels are not the best for these roads. I knew that before I left home, but doing it on something that most would think ‘ too hard ‘ was part of the challenge.