Boxing day. Planned to leave between 9-10am. We were ready (or thought we were) at 9.30 so headed over to Meanies to see if he was going to escort us out of town. hes keen and Flynn is on the way so back to guitar hero till Flynn come over with Meanie and Monie. Right, quick check of the important things like smokes.. check.. key... check.. wallet... damn... Looked everywhere and then decided I must have left it at my parents place xmas day so headed in there to not find it so come home again to find the damn thing in my pants pocket.
So leaving the centre of the universe an hour late but the weather was mint and only looking to get better so up vinegar hill towards the main road. FMS on VHill, as always. Paused in Taihape for a coke (or half of one anyhow)
Stuck to SH1 to Turangi. Played with the traffic a bit. Found some Nissian thing who was willing to do 135k on SH1 so tagged in behind him for a quicker trip up the island. We half way planned to turn off and go up western access to Rotorua but changed our minds when the others were keen to go to taupo for lunch. Flynn managed to keep his eyes in just long enough to have some lunch at taste cafe and we bid our escorts farwell and headed for SH5. I havent ridden SH5 for a long time and I forgot how good it is. Big open sweeping corners and really good surface to ride on. Met Mr Police midway down Sh5 which slowed things down a little bit but he soon pulled off and we managed a fairly good time to Rotorua. Found the hotel and relaxed for a bit before having a look around. I must say.. Rotorua is a fucking shithole. It is chocker full of teenage mothers or non-english speaking peeps. I swear we were in a different country walking up the street. 400 conversations going on around us and not one of them in english. We had a wander around the mudpool thingys which was kinda cool and sat by the lake and watched the planes, trains and automobiles. Lots of lowlife youths around so didnt go too far away from the bike. Then we went down to a carival by the lake which was really good. I managed to double my money playing on the sideshow games. Good times. So feeling like a winner we headed back to the hotel to watch a episode of shortland street played out in life theatre in the street between some drunk skank and her (ex)(maybe)boyfriend. She was throwing a few punches here and there and so someone called the police to break up the show.
Anyhow, had a bit of a sleep and ready to go for day 2!
Day 2 was planned to be a leasurely ride round the cape and it worked out fantastically. Left the motel about 9am and headed to Opotiki for breakfast. The ride round the lakes was awesome. Very little traffic and for the second time in a row, the sun was beaming down. It didnt take as long to get to Opotiki as I thought it might but was keen for some bacon and eggs by the time we got there. Found a nice little cafe in the middle of town and had a huge feed. Awesome way to start the day. Every Sunday should be like this!
Headed up the hill and took some photos and then hit the east cape. It was always the plan to have a really easy day so we pretty much did 50k stretches and stopped and took in the wonder of the world and the beauty of nature and brought ourselves closer to death with more than a few smokes. The east cape is just magic. Anywhere at all is a great place to stop and have a look around. Mrs C had a bit of fun with the camera on the move so quite a few photos of the scenery and stuff on the move.
We did stop to hug a tree at te Araroa. It is a very old tree and looked like it needed one. Got to Tolaga Bay about 4pm and found the batch we rented for the night. Very very pleasent little batch not far from the beach. Very quiet and a good place to relax. Got a bit upset with the cockroaches as room guests though. Spent till 2-3am deciding if we were going to sleep there the night or move on. Decided we really didnt have anywhere to go so got a couple of hours sleep with one eye open. Told management that we werent really happy with the room guests and he assures us that they are being taken care of and encouraged me to do the recommend to everyone. Hey, if you dont mind bugs and stuff then it really is a lovely cottage.
Had dinner at the local which was really nice and cheap. Over dinner a couple of bikes pulled up and I thought it was Banditrider on his new bike but it was a couple of German tourists. I think I offended them a little cause I thought it was a really old restored thing and asked what vinage it is. Poor german chick goes.. its a 1993! Oh dear......
Went down the beach until the rain started to fall before heading back to the bach to start the war o bugs.
Was up really early monday. Had a bit of rain overnight and was drizzling on and off in the morning. By the time we got organised it was a all gone and a nice overcast day followed. Mrs C was well up and we were keen to get out of there so headed out after dealing with management to the historic wharf. Had to walk to the end of it. It is really impressive. Lots of fishermen on the end of it and some guy gettign fresh musscles on the way. Battery went flat on the camera on the walk out there so didnt get as many photos as I would hvae liked but I wasnt walking all the way out the again.
Back on the road and decided to hit Gizzy up for some breakfast. Ended up with another serve of bacon and eggs in a mall somewhere. Hung out and did bugger all all morning. Left Gizzy at 12.55pm and headed to the much awaited waioeka gorge. Magic.. magic.. magic. Green is the new black and waioeka is the new buller!!!!!!
Had an awesome run through. Got a police escort for a fair while but he turned round and went gizzy way before too long. Had a fantastic time in the gorge, stopped a couple of times for rest, photos and smokes and got to opotiki at 3pm. Met an interesting lad at matawai. This old guy just walks up to us and starts tellling us these really strange jokes. It was really really really odd.
Back into pootle mode and had a quiet run back down to Rotorua. Coming round the lake had our first dose of rain for the weekend. Lasted about 10km but was pretty heavy. Was pleased to see the sun out again though. More smoking and I was pretty buggered but now but pressed on for dinner at Taupo. Rain came back and had a pretty slow trip round the lake to Turangi for fuel and more smoking. Waited for the rain to go away and then rode the rest of the way in the dry in a pretty uneventful main highway jaunt finishing off with a ripper run over a dry Vinegar hill.
Mint weekend. Awesome weather for the best part. Mrs C had awesome company and I was really impressed with the way she handled the bike. Only 2 complaints for the entire weekend, the first was hitting a pothole on the east cape. Its on video which I will upload later but we hit it really hard! Damn near finished the trip early! The second was an enthusatic run out of ohope on a couple of 45ks where she thought that he shoulder was too close to the ground.
Good times.
ps. attached pic of waioweka gorge. more pics in my sig.
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Great write up
Originally Posted by STJim
(wait for it...). Or a mint FZ1 Fazer too.
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