Getting bike from Palmy to Auckland

[Elysium]

Thanks for the offer but I'm already in Auckland and what a fucking nightmare of a roading system! And hard to find the street names as well and still got lost even with directions.

I'm staying at that Kiwi international place for $44 so it's not bad, plus a net cafe right next door (where I'm right now) Anyway I have to get a newspaper or two to dry out my boots and put the rest of my clothes in the drier.

Tomorow I head off to Sunset view in Panmure to meet this guy and hopefully no problems with the sale, hope he don't mind the mud I got on the bike from the many road works I encountered. I hope the Google Maps direction are right this time.

[Metalor]

All good mate, glad you got here in one piece. Maybe best you didn't stay here then as our drier is currently out of action. Although, we could have sparked the fire up

[Elysium]

Well mission accomplished. Got back from Auckland no less then 30 mins ago. Man I love double deckers buses, the amount of people suddenly looking up at me as we rode passed me me laugh when it was drivers in 4WDs.

Now that I have sold my bike, I an now focus on looking for a replacement.

[Metalor]

Good on ya! How was the ride up?

[Elysium]

Good on ya! How was the ride up?

Pissing down with rain all the way. Parts of SH4 near Hamilton need new seal as my rear slide out slightly on some shinny stuff.
One thing I noticed on the way back was a road development happening (its before you get to Bulls and you slow down to cross rail, there is a pub on the right and further down you come across that huge steel rail bridge on your right. Anyone know the area I'm talking about?) where a long stretch of road is being straightened out.

[Meanie]

Pissing down with rain all the way. Parts of SH4 near Hamilton need new seal as my rear slide out slightly on some shinny stuff.
One thing I noticed on the way back was a road development happening (its before you get to Bulls and you slow down to cross rail, there is a pub on the right and further down you come across that huge steel rail bridge on your right. Anyone know the area I'm talking about?) where a long stretch of road is being straightened out.

I think your talking about that stretch just before Ohinaiti they been doing that for a while now

[robboh]

Good to hear you made it safe.

Desert Road is fine as long as there arent snow warnings, and you time it for midday to early afternoon.

Ive done it a few times from PMR to AKL (and back again) on TZR250 and KR1250SP. Long trips if you arent used to it, but then I used to drive up and down once a month when I first moved up here.

AKL to Ngarawhaia, to Te Awamutu, to KehiKehi, to Mangakino, Western Access around Taupo to Taurangi, to PMR via Bulls is my preferred cage route for PMR.

From memory, I did the Western Access route a couple of times on the bike, and mostly straight up SH1 (and then via Matamata).

Not so sure about a bike these days down the Western Access route. The roads around Mangakino dam are just stunning, but its getting bumpier and bumpier as time goes on, so not sure if it would be a fun trip on a bike or not nowadays. Plus, it gets really frosty up over that route at night in winter.

Actually, worst front-end slide Ive ever had on the road was on a trip home from AKL, just north of Tihape one day in the wet (Desert Road was a gale where I ended up hanging off the side of the bike all the way down the straights to keep it upright). Going around a left, and just before apex the front just went, and kept going until it hooked up on some rougher chip right beside the white line. Scary.

To be honest, I would have told the guy to fly down and ride it home himself, the onus is on the buyer here IMHO, not the seller. Hope you built in some time / traveling / accomm expenses etc into your sale price.