Top O the Bruce

[Cary]

Dam cold and wet but a good ride none the less. Now that is all sealed it's easy.

[dss3]

Dam cold and wet but a good ride none the less. Now that is all sealed it's easy.

Yeah i did it a couple of weekends ago riding up in the snow, was quite and experience, had to stop and warm up the hands on the exhausts a couple of times. People were just standing and laughing when I was right and the top!

[Skyryder]

Last Christmas I went up there. Left the bike at Taumarunui and drove up as it looked like rain. I use to work at the Chatuea and I was surprised at all the changes. There use to be a bowling green right in front of the hotel. That is now covered in moss. One of the first jobs I had was to mow the lawn and the golf greens. The road up to the hotel had been widened and smoothed out and as you say the road up to the Top O the Bruce is now sealed. What amazed me is the number of ski lodges that had been built. One of the jobs I had was working in the ski hire so I climbed the steps and had a good look in there. Talked to a couple of the staff but they were too busy for a long chat.

The mens' and womans quarters have been pulled down. Bit sad to see that as there were some great partys in there at the time.

I was there for about three hours and left the place a little saddened. Had some good times there one way or another.

Will go back on the bike with the wife on the back next time just to clear the ghosts from my memory.


Skyryder

[Ixion]

Dam cold and wet but a good ride none the less. Now that is all sealed it's easy.

Basstardds.

[Zed]

Dam cold and wet but a good ride none the less. Now that is all sealed it's easy.

You're a keen man Cary! Nice piccies and your bike doesn't even look dirty??

[BNZ]

You need a ski rack!

[T.I.E]

You need a ski rack!

attatched to the top of ya helmet. but bloody nice pictures.

what about a snow board?

beter still you could tow a snowboarder behind. now that sounds like an idea.
a 4wd quad with a ski rope. i could certainly see myself doing that.

[Cary]

You're a keen man Cary! Nice piccies and your bike doesn't even look dirty??

Thats cause it was pissing down.

[zadok]

Those pics bring back some memories from my time living in Turangi and going up there skiing all the time. I had to put chains on my car to get to the Top o The Bruce, or if it was too bad, go in the Goat.

[Cary]

Well I remember going up there in a 80's Corolla station wagon, 1200cc of raw power with five guys, skis and all our gear. And that was when in was a gravel goat track!

Now on a dry day it would be not a bad road, although there was a bit of grit on the road and was a little slippy in the wet.

[marty]

Basstardds.

it's been sealed for over 10 years now....

[vifferman]

Crikey (Crikey!!) It's been a surprisingly longish while since I was last there - probably over ten years! That roundabout thingo wasn't there then.

I was up there around 14 years ago, it was cold, icy and snowy (well - it was the middle of winter) and I guy turned up at the top on his Guzzi. I went and talked to him, and said, "Man - you're keen!"
"Oh, I just wanted to come and check it out..."

Probably one of my last memories of skiing holidays up there was when I'd just spent about 30 minutes grovelling in the slush, fitting chains to the Telstar (yes, it was a kind of vaccuum cleaner - it sucked - and the most boring (yet reliable) car I ever owned). Just stood up after fitting the second one, and the wife's cousin comes back down the road in his Hedgehog Mobile and says, "They've just closed the road!"
Pharkit.
Went and bought a Subaru a couple of weeks later....

That's a nice-looking bike, Cary.

[Cary]

That's a nice-looking bike, Cary.

10 years, wow.

Yea does the trick, supprised me to. May not have the top speed but still alot of fun in the twisties and taking it off the beaten path is hell fun

[Bartman10]

Very nice pictures there. The roads been sealed for at least 12 years. I first went up there in about 1992 and it was already sealed then. It usually gets some fairly large pot holes in it from all the chains wrecking the road surface though.

Take care on that ice!