DB1k 2011 route planning

[NordieBoy]

To quote the thoughts of a certain bowl of petunias.... "Oh no, not again"

Must not over think it, must not over think it...

Have a whale of a time.

[thepom]

Hey Matt,can,t see fast flowing river slowing you down hahahaaa

[cooneyr]

......FYI, Ryan we didn't manage to get over Walking Spur/Boundary Creek etc last weekend as it was pissing down, just went over Omarama Saddle and the river crossings were knarley as, very deep and swift!

I don't want to hear that. Snow stopped us last time don't want anything stopping us this time. Only one major river crossing that I know for the "other area"

I read .... Linen and towels are not supplied but can be hired for an additional charge......I'm counting 6 of us now.

Sleeping bags would be needed. Yep I count 6 now too. I'll book the 8 bed cabin.

....Must not over think it, must not over think it...

It will all be a piece of cake. I know I'm gonna regret that

Cheers R

[mattsdakar]

Hey Matt,can,t see fast flowing river slowing you down hahahaaa

Only two of the the three of us made it thru, a mate on his new BMW f800 chickened out after seeing us struggle and heading back via Danseys, first ford at confluence of the Manuherikia east/west rivers was deeper than my front wheel and swift!
Good thing for us is that it was warm and no snow to be seen up where we will be heading. We got quite a bit of rain while down south so I would be safe to assume that was why rivers were up as opposed to from snow melt

[Transalper]

May not be the best place for this post but most adventurers will see it here and in case anyone is looking for a gps for the Dusty Butt this could be worth a look.

My old Legend is a bit tatty but still going strong (I am keeping it) but i lusted after a slightly bigger screen and the paperless geocaching features now available on some of the other handheld models... untill now... I got one.
There's a new GPS on the market superseding the Map60, it's the new Map62 range.
This range is a wee bit more like the Oregan (think it's that one) in a Map60 body.
With paperless geocaching, the ability to add maps at will, bigger screen than my old Etrex Legend and internal memory of 1.7gig how could I resist.
Got the Map62s from http://www.kiwigps.co.nz/ who is probably the best service in Christchurch and also where I got my Etrex from. He spent 30 minutes showing me around it (different menus to what i'm use to & with the new features) and had loaded it with the free maps set for me.
Have a look. Tonys website is only partly built and he has a lot more stuff to go on (zumos, accessories etc) as time allows.
Things I noted are it doesn't have external power (other than the usb plug) for powering from your bike, but I never used that anyway as batterys always lasted me a full day plus on the Legend and the Map 62s is said to go up to 20 hours too (backlight off of course).
Also the case may not be quite as rugged but only time will tell.
Lastly the power circuit looks similar to the Legend so will be interesting to see if it develops a repeat of the vibration induced shutdown.

[cromagnon]

I have a 62s and used it in the weekend on the bike for the first time, the bicycle mount lasted 15min into clarence reserve but ordered a ram mount from gpscity.com last week but hasnt arrived yet (shipping was half the cost but still a lot cheaper than the nz distributors). Paperless geocaching is a good feature but the power button on the side creaks on mine.

[Transalper]

Tony does the RAM mounts too.
He didn't have the cradle in stock but has some on the way (usually about two weeks he said but not sure about the Christmas delays this time).
I already have the rest of the RAM bits I need as I have the mount balls attached to all my bikes and in my Van.

I threw out the garmin bicycle mounts I had after trying them on the Legend when it was new to me.

The creaking happens on all most all the Map62 units from what I have read. It isn't bad enough on mine to bother me, I did check it out before taking it away.

[rogerh]

+1 for Tony at KiwiGPS

Excellent service, and extremely helpful. Price is also generally within very few dollars of the best you will find anywhere. I will never buy a GPS anywhere else now.

[cromagnon]

The creaking doesnt bother me either and it isnt a structural/durability issue. I didnt have any of the ram mounts so bought the full package.

[umopom]

Hey guys n girls,
Just putting it out there that I'll be again heading down to Fairlie on the Friday morning via the Orari Gorge. Last year was a good laugh so thought it would be worth doing again and seeing who else is keen.
I'll take a head count closer to the time but thought I'd give you Northerners some advance warning so you might want to plan to be in Christchurch for a 0900 start on Friday
Rgds Matt

Hi Matt
Count me in - enjoyed getting bruised and wet last year!!
Cheers
JC

[mattsdakar]

Hi Matt
Count me in - enjoyed getting bruised and wet last year!!
Cheers
JC

Hey there JC,
I'll start a new thread for the Orari Gorge excursion soonish, but will be the same format as last year leave approx 0930 from Christchurch on the Friday, stopping in Ashburton to grab some lunch to eat part wa through the gorge
See you there
Matt

[cooneyr]

The 8 bed two room cabin at the Ranfurly motorcamp has been booked for the Sat the 11th.

Cheers R

[cooneyr]

For next weekend (the 11th) I reckon we should all meet at Rolleston BP at 8am. We'd be in Waimate at about 1030. It will be a longish day by the time we get through to Ranfurly but think of this as training

Unless you want to hire linen you'll need to bring a sleeping bag for the cabin. We'll get grub along the way. Will be a light weight trip.

I can see 6 names who we need to look for at Rolleston-

1. Me
2. Transalper
3. Cynna
4. Thepom
5. Mattsdakar
6. ADVGD

Cheers R

[Crim]

Would love to be there but got a "flash do" on Saturday night and the missus would kill me if I pulled the plug on that one, Long Range weather forecast for Central although not looking really "central Otago" hot at this stage

Thursday 9 Fine. Northwest breeze developing.
Friday 10 Dry with little wind.
Saturday 11 Dry with light winds.
Sunday 12 Dry. Little wind.
Monday 13 Dry. Not much wind.

Have a great trip - still trying to get January sorted but starting a new job Monday so will have to do a bit of groundwork on that one.

[Transalper]

Probably don't want to know what the weather is doing as I think it's the last opportunity to finish up before Christmas things set in so no choice but to go then regardless of the weather.