Trip South last weekend.

[Howie]

(Probably not a dial up friendly thread as has quite a few embeded images}

I had planned a trip south around the weekend of 25-26 Feb for a while, to either head to the rally at Mavora lakes, or go into the Clarence river reserve. The amount of time available meant that I decided to stay in the top half of south island . I had also been contacted by Marks who along with a few others was planning a similar trip to include the Clarence.

Due to the Christchurch earthquake 3 days before we were due to leave a couple of people pulled out due to work commitments changing etc. so on Friday Morning there were going to be four of us on the morning ferry down to Picton, but only Three made it to the ferry on time, one having bike problems and missing the ferry.

On the way across on the Ferry we were warned of possible fuel problems south of Blenheim. So several options were thought of by each of us. After having lunch in picton One decided to head straight to Kaikoura, as he could do the return trip from Blenheim on one tank, and really wanted to visit the Clarence river reserve, I am not sure yet if he found fuel and made it into the Clarence or not.

Marks decided he was going to Head straight to Reefton, and explore that area some more.

I decided that if I headed for Hanmer via the Rainbow instead of the Molesworth I could top up with fuel at St Arnaud , and would still have a 300 km range to get somewhere if there was a lack of fuel in Hanmer. When I was organising a rough time to collect a key to a pre paid holiday house I had booked I had been informed that there was a fuel shortage in Hanmer on the Wednesday afternoon, but the woman I spoke to thought it had been sorted by Thursday Morning.

The fourth person had managed to get his bike sorted and was coming down on a later ferry. I wasn’t sure where he intended heading once he arrived.

Marks had decided he would wait for him in Bernheim, after being in contact with him.

I decided to head for St Arnaud




and the rainbow as I had spoken to some other riders on the ferry, and they were doing the Port Underwood road before heading through the Rainbow, so knew they would be behind me if anything went wrong.





Paying The toll






Those clouds are building up

The clouds are getting even lower over Lake tennyson




Looks like rain on the way




Tucked away for the night in Hanmer

[Padmei]

Nice. good stuff

[junkmanjoe]

shame every one went different ways......... carry on plzz

[Howie]

carry on plzz

After arriving in Hanmer I collected keys, fuelled the bike, Made a Coffee then eventually checked my phone to find a couple of missed calls, and a text from BMWRSNUT, so sent off a text saying yep I was in Hanmer, and yep there is petrol available. Soon after that I got a call from him saying that he was in Spring Creek and was going to head for Hanmer as he was still keen to do the Clarence river reserve. So I unpacked and showered while waiting for him to come over the Lewis pass. The one thing I forgot to tell him was that it was pissing down in hanmer

After BMWRSNUT arrived we headed out for dinner, had a bit of a chat about heading for the Clarence the next morning, before settling in for the night.


Woke up to my alarm on Sat morning at 6.30am, to find it was still raining, and didn’t look like easing anytime soon. Had Breakfast, and a bit of a chat once BMWRSNUT ws up, and deciced not to head for the Clarence as it ws probably closed by the rain, turns out they didn’t let people in untill about 11.00am. We decided instead to head up Jollies pass, through the Molesworth, and back through the Rainbow, then down Jacks pass back to Hanmer





Fuelling up, and maintenance in Hanmer on Sat morning


Acheron Accommodation house Gate




Still a bit Damp







Arriving at Molesworth Cottage





Back into the rainbow, an interesting side note as I had paid on the way through the previous day I didn’t need to pay again as it was within a 24hr period, well it nearly was












Lake Tennyson again

As we got closer to Jacks pass the weather closed in again, and it was a slow ride down the pass to Hanmer through cloud and rain.

[shafty]

Mate, as a "Roadie" looking over the fence at what you Guys do - its pretty damn inspiring!

Thanks

Shafty

[Aslan]

nice report and pics Howie - that KLR is a practical machine for this sort of riding eh - large capacity tank etc - nice pics and prose - catch you out there sometime soon - Pukemanu ADV perhaps - it's on my to do list - cheers S

[Howie]

Mate, as a "Roadie" looking over the fence at what you Guys do - its pretty damn inspiring!

Thanks

Shafty

Thanks Shafty

As an ex roadie, it's not that different, you carry a few more spares. Be prepared for things not to go to plan. Find the back roads, and 4wd tracks to follow, and have fun.

nice report and pics Howie - that KLR is a practical machine for this sort of riding eh - large capacity tank etc - nice pics and prose - catch you out there sometime soon - Pukemanu ADV perhaps - it's on my to do list - cheers S

Thanks for comments Aslan, I haven't booked for the Pukemanu yet, and it's getting a bit late now.

The KLR went well in standard configuration, I have about a 400km range to dry.

[Howie]

By the time I headed to bed the stars had come out, and when we woke up in the morning it was to a clear sky, and little wind. So we decided to head for the Clarence river reserve, which turned out to be about 100km from Hanmer via the sealed roads. As we had to be out of the accommodation in Hanmer we had all our luggage with us. Had a chat to the DOC guy at the entrance and he let us leave some of our gear on the back of his ute which was good as I hadn’t looked forward to carrying the pack on my bike over Blind saddle.

A few pics from the ride in and out.




Looking back towards the Inland Kaikoura road.



Where we are heading, that’s Blind saddle on the right.(1190m)



View looking back towards the coast from Bushy saddle (540 m)



View into valley other side of Bushy saddle



That’s Seymour Stream below us that we end up riding beside, and crossing a few times to reach the Clarence.




BMWRSNUT enjoying the ride in




Another view towards the Clarence river valley







Historic Tentpoles Hut . A sign in it says it used to have bunks for ten people, now onky has Four




First of many crossings of Seymour stream.




Looking back up Seymour stream





Historic Quail Flat Homestead




Heading back out.


After getting back out to the entrance on the inland Kaikoura road at about 4.45pm, we headed off to Reefton to meet up with Marks via the Lewis pass. Had a quick fuel stop in Hanmer at about 5.45. They close at 6 .It Was lucky we weren’t much later as I wouldn’t of made it to Reefton, and it didn’t look like Springs Junction was open when we passed through.

[Howie]

After some discussion last night about going into Big river, and Waitahu river and with Marks regaling me with tales of a punctured fuel tank on a KLR like mine, and sump breaking boulders ( I still haven’t brought/made an ali bash plate) I decided to leave Marks and BMWRSNUT to it and head for Karamea via Westport. I poked my nose up a few side roads along the way and got back to Westport just after 5.00pm.



Fenian creek. A short road north of karamea




Coastal view on the way to start of Heaphy track north of Karamea


End of the road, start of the Heaphy track




Oparara Arch car park, up McCallums mill road.

Marks had warned me that this road had quite a few braking corrugations from camper vans etc. What he didn’t describe in detail ws that they were about 6 inches deep, talk about vibrations.




On the way back out from the arches




Karamea Beach looking south




Karamea Beach looking North




Looking towards Mokihinui




Up at Charming creek walkway




Some of the history still up at Charming creek




Charming creek









Morris & Woolletts road, off Charming creek road.

I only went about 1km up this as I was on my own, and it had a few hung up trees across it as well as the odd small one across it. Would like to go to the end of it sometime as I map shows it to be about 5-6km long.





Morris & Woolletts road.


I got to Westport at about 5.00pm, Sent a text to Marks saying don’t wait for me as I’ll probably head back via the coast road to Greymouth. I fuelled the bike and myself, Then headed south towards Greymouth, as there was a road I wanted to explore between Greymouth and Reefton.




Coast south of Punakaiki

I turned off SH6 before Greymouth passed through Taylorville, then crossed the Grey river to come out onto SH7 at Stillwater.

I then headed towards Reefton,
But turned off onto the Ahaura-Kopara road at Ahaura as I wanted to see if I could find This

I managed to find the right track, but daylight was fading fast, so it made it a bit of an interesting ride with the KLR’s excellent headlight.



Track into Jims Flat Hut.








It was Dark by the time I got back up to the Ahaura-Kopara rd, so headed back to wards reefton, finally arriving back at about 10.00pm to relief of Marks, and BMWRSNUT as they hadn’t heard from me since Westport and were starting to get a bit concerned.

[young1]

Awesome write up and pictures Howie.

BTW where is Clarence River Reserve?

[Howie]

Awesome write up and pictures Howie.

BTW where is Clarence River Reserve?

Thanks Young1.

The Clarence river reserve is accessed from the inland kaikoura road about 20km south of Kaikoura this pdf file from DOC gives a good guide . They only open it up about 5 weekends a year over the summer, this was the last one for this summer.

[alane]

[QUOTE=Howie;1130002864](Probably not a dial up friendly thread as has quite a few embeded images]

Thanks Howie for a great report. Got quite a lot of the images up.even with my crap connection.

Clarence reserve would have to be the best ever ride I,ve ever done,---& i,ve done a few.---Challenging ride--great scenery----river crossings---(27 times the Seymour streem is crossed,I,m told.)
It really needs 2days/or campover to do it all justice.

[Crim]

It really needs 2days/or campover to do it all justice.

+1 on that was all prepared to go in the same weekend with sleeping bag etc but bloody EQ put paid to that, oh well something to look forward to next year

[Howie]

[QUOTE=alane;1130003236]

(Probably not a dial up friendly thread as has quite a few embeded images]

Thanks Howie for a great report. Got quite a lot of the images up.even with my crap connection.

Clarence reserve would have to be the best ever ride I,ve ever done,---& i,ve done a few.---Challenging ride--great scenery----river crossings---(27 times the Seymour streem is crossed,I,m told.)
It really needs 2days/or campover to do it all justice.

Thanks alane, I've only recently switched to broad band, so know what it's like to be on dial up.

+1 on that was all prepared to go in the same weekend with sleeping bag etc but bloody EQ put paid to that, oh well something to look forward to next year

It's good to see you posting Crim, Hope your coping alright with all the damage in your area.

[junkmanjoe]

great read up Howie.. some photos i parked in the same places..

JMJ