Wot the Jatz's did

**NordieBoy** · 3rd February 2012, 07:29

Originally Posted by JATZ

But it's O.K. we got to Aucktown

Just gotta get home now

I feel better now

Just don't change gears...

**NordieBoy** · 6th February 2012, 21:47

Most people measure economy in km/L not km/needle

**JATZ** · 8th February 2012, 19:36

This is mostly a seal tour with a wee bit of gravel chucked in. So if you (gentle reader) are expecting to see hard core ADV riding then you'll be disapointed

Anyway...Seeing as how I had had a moment at the local bike shop and got a new bike, and we had to go to Auckland, a plan was hatched to journey North with a bit of sightseeing thrown in.

Sunday 29 Jan, Mrs J and I had our passport's stamped and jumped on the ferry North. One of these days I'll have an "interesting" crossing, but this was just like all the others, boring,

We passed this guy on the way to Picton though, I was hoping they'd be on the boat but it wasn't to be

After going through customs we wobbled our way over the Rimutakas

. It was a little cold up there but not too wet,

and headed for our digs in Masterton.

JMJ and family.

Next day was a ride up towards Napier taking in some back roads
Barty's lane

Bloody North isl. roads, traffic jams everywhere

We mucked around a bit and ignored the GPS's eventually finding our way out to Blackhead beach and Kairakau beach

before making our way to Napier. While talking to a couple of friendly police men

they suggested Lake Tutira would be a good campsite. They were right

nice spot

After a restless night's sleep, damn trucks with their air brakes

We headed for Wairoa and the Waikerimoana road

Had a brief stop here

I think I've been here before

We carried on without stopping to see my mate, although we did ride around looking for his house.

And a bit of scenery

Reminds me a bit of the bush down Cascade way, just a little drier

There's a waterfall there too

Mrs J mentioned the marriage word here, so I got on my bike and rode away quickly

Anyway... we carried on towards Rotoiti and a visit with Clint640 and Rosie
Found this wee road on the way there, somewhere around Matahina/TeMahoe

and a dam thing

Stay tuned for the next instalment

**ADVGD** · 8th February 2012, 19:45

Originally Posted by JATZ

Stay tuned for the next instalment

As always, nice pics and write up mate

**_Shrek_** · 8th February 2012, 19:52

Originally Posted by ADVGD

As always, nice pics and write up mate

aye +1

well done mrs Jatz

**JATZ** · 8th February 2012, 20:07

After a pleasant night with Clint/Rosie we made our way North a bit more, ignoring the GPS again we made our way to Tauranga where some running repairs were needed on the little bike.

We had the work done at this place

Top service and a reeally good price too

If your in the distict and need something givem a call

More navigating using the wind and a bit of intuition and we were in Waihi beach, that wasn't part of the plan

we made our way to Whitianga via some nice twisty seal roads, I was surprised there weren't more bikes on it as it's a gem of a road, maybe they don't know about it

ANyhooo, grabbed some food in Whitianga and headed for Coromandel town via the "309" then over the Kennedy bay rd to our campsite at Waikawau bay
Some pics from this leg of the Journey...

Tuateawa bay ?

There was a repeater station up this track, crap view though

A bit of road

And... home away from home

The next day we made our way to Colville and detoured up to Fletcher bay and a lookout thing

Really nice ride, with veiws 'round every corner

After coffee we made our way to Auckland, it'd been put off long enough

It was a bit after 4 when we got there and traffic was just building up, we ran into it about Mt Wellington

, Had a go at laneplitting, but you have to be a little mental to do that

although mrs J was getting a little hooney at times.

Anyway.... found our accomodation in Belmont and chilled out for a bit.
More to come

The return journey

**Padmei** · 8th February 2012, 20:18

Nice
I passed that outfit & trailer from Wanaka to Fairlie. it was a cool looking rig. it was the trailer that caught my eye- long & odd!

**JATZ** · 8th February 2012, 20:44

Welllll.... After doing family stuff, picking up a piece of stuff for the Emporium and getting a little wobbly

at .chris's place (just aswell we walked over), we had the long trek back south...

We bypassed Hamilton so nothing much interesting happened until my "intuition"

took us down the wrong road. We were supposed to turn down road 40 at Mangatupoto but I turned into Kamaroa rd,

and ended up here

After making our way through the Ohura rd

We got to Ohura. I noticed this sign in a shop window so had to stop

Yip... the tourists are flocking alright

Weird little place, the GPS said there was lots of roads, but there were very few, the same with a couple of other towns we passed through, lots of roads shown but nothing but paddocks and redundant street signs.
Right...We popped out on the Forgotten World h/way, which was part of the plan, but I couldn't get to Stratford on what gas I had, so we turned left and headed for Taumranui and fuel.
After fuel and a ride through National Park we headed for Raetihi, and a ride to Pipiriki and the Wanganui River rd.Thanks to .chris for the recomendation

Some locals...

and a veiw

It was a nice way to get to Wanganui. We grabbed a cabin and a feed and were enjoying a nice Cab Merlot when some rough biker and his old lady

rocked up and started yakking. Turns out it was BigCol from here on K.B. We organised to have breakky with them and hook up for the ride down to Wellington

The Camera battery went dead after this pic so that's all the pics for this trip.
Any way... we had a nice breakky and made our way to BigCol's in Waikanae for a brew, after a chat we had just enough time to make it to the ferry so long as we didn't get stuck in traffic or at lights.
Another boring boat ride except for the company, Mr and Mrs Umopom.
We rode home via Spring Creek as Mrs J's gear lever was starting to get a bit wobbley again,shouldn't have worried about that, as her carb needle gave up just before Okaramio, I think it was a new record for pulling the carb apart and sorting it before we rode to Nordie's and a bit of food/coffee.

Hope you'se enjoyed the read as much as we enjoyed the trip

**Woodman** · 8th February 2012, 20:48

cool, cheers.

**Aslan** · 8th February 2012, 21:32

nice DR's, photo's and prose Team Jatz - thanks for sharing

**_Shrek_** · 8th February 2012, 22:07

great read & pic's there JATZ,

**Big Col** · 9th February 2012, 07:08

Great photos mate, glad the camera battery gave out for the last photo, glad to have met you both and get home without any tickets. I can't believe you travel all round the country on that awful DR razor I mean seat. [hard bastard]