The Long Way north
Started out Monday morning from friends place in Waikato, fueled up in Matamata, up SH27 then motorway onto SH16 out west. Fuelled up again at Helensville Caltex then ended up stopping at Champion Bakery in Wellsford for yummy good value lunch with generous portions.
Turned off up rd to go via Mangawhai heads, got there and took wrong turn due to slow driver distracting me, plus heaps of shitty gravel roadworks everywhere, came back out onto SH1 at Kaiwaka (yes what a SNAFU) and then into the mother opf all bitch annoying mega shitty slow roadworks across the entire Brynderwyn hills. Not a happy chappy at all. But all my fault....
Saw Marsden point and turned off in hope of getting good bike pic with serious industrial background. Low and behold they have a visitor centre in an old 80' style office building, sign posted but looks abandoned. I see some cool crane models inside so try the door and its open. Takea few pics and then an old lady appears and tells me about the AV show upstairs and wow what an awesome scale model they have there of the whole complex, well worth a look.
Left there and then entered Whangarei in afternoon traffic, dodging feral windscreen dirtier gangs, fueled up again at a forgetable noservice station then headed out to Tutukaka.
What a breath of fresh air, great service and relaxed people, everything you need withen walking distance, food booze and supplies.
There is a general store behind the quality inn there and its very well stocked should you be glamping gourmet cooking.
Pitched tent and fairly good nights sleep, woken at 530 am by abundant birdlife....
In the morning packed up and headed along the coast to Helena bay via Matapouri rd, Jubilee rd (gravel milk tanker motorway), Whananaki rd, Pigs Head Rd, Kaiikanui Rd (gravel with stunnning native bush and stream alongside rd), Webb rd (gravel).
Then Russel rd sealed and onto Russel rd gravel section through forest, wicked scenery. Lost my sense of direction here and ended up going towards opua after that, turned around and got onto Waikare rd (gravel) which i wanted and came out at Kawakawa.
By now I was getting well thirsty and hungry, ended up stopping in at the Hunter Star hotel for a Macs Gold with another random biker.
Small world got talking way too long with another stranger who was the Uncle of a guy i used to work for. Heaps of trucks rocking thru, very busy town.
Carried on north through SH1 towards Kaitaia. Mangamuka gorge is wicked piece of twisty hilly road, until i found the rest area with meadow grass. There were various 4WD ruts indicating people play here a bit so thought id have a bit of fun. Stopped and took pics then the fun stopped after i started launching up a hill and found a minefield of basketball sized sinkholes of which the rear wheel sunk into. Recent rain meant it wa soft enough that she dug in quick and also would support sidestand for that style lever around technique. It was dam hot and sunny. Thought ok lay the bitxch on it side seeing as id already dropped it, tried dragging the front around but ti was catch 22 as youd be dropping the front into another hole.
I got the bike spun aropund nearly 180 degrees by myself but was now faced with more sinkholes which id bounced pass with pure dumb luck previously. My swearing and repeat stop start revving the fuk out of the bike digging holes soon caught the attention of a german tourist who gave me just the help i needed to get the front over the other holes. Shook his hand and thanked him. By now my rear hoop was a solid disc of red clay, should have taken a pic but i was so over it by then!
Gas and a juice in Kaitaia then stayed with a friend up the road in Houhora. Was a bit dehydrated and drunk too much of his home brew and ended up having an early night.
In morning got up to the Cape with no drama, it was awesome and worth the long journey. Was going to camp some more on way home but a bit over it by then with the heat and bit of hayfever from that noxious plant with the white flowers and so headed back to the waikato in nmost direct route. Turned off at Waipu to avoid the Brynderwyns but got stuck behind some less than competant motorists. incidently most of the campers and tourists were awesome, it seemed the kwiw drivers that were the worst....
Took the toll road at orewa, pretty easy buying toll online via smartphone.
Motorway was usual gridlock so it was time for some old school lane splitting hadnt done that in a while, passed two seperate cops with no dramas yet.... check th mailbox.....
About 1800kms all up across 4 days of travelling. Some lessons and reminders in planning and long distance riding, stuf fi already knew but forgotten, more planning next time. But hey theres nothing like doing it on the fly and making it up as you go.
One thing ill say though is the northen roads are twistier than expected, as much fun as that is it means you cover distance a lot slower even compared to similar roads down our way and also lots more traffic.
Govt gives you nothing because it creates nothing - Javier Milei
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....wherezz that track go 
Originally Posted by Night Falcon
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