Cold Kiwi: Anyone for some gravel on Saturday?

[Rosie]

We'll be going for a bit of a ride from the Cold Kiwi on Saturday, any other starters are welcome to join us

Route is as yet undecided, so any ideas are welcome. I'll look a the maps tonight and post up my thoughts tomorrow.

[Eddieb]

On that same note, I'll be leaving Wellington early Friday morning and heading up threough the Manawatu back roads to the Cold Kiwi, gravel will be involved.

[.chris]

I am looking pretty highly likely to be coming, definitely keen for a saturday jaunt.
I was thinking about heading up Tukino ski-field road for a look on the way there/home.

I guess a mid-winter trip through the 42nd could be some fun?

[jellywrestler]

I am looking pretty highly likely to be coming, definitely keen for a saturday jaunt.
I was thinking about heading up Tukino ski-field road for a look on the way there/home.

I guess a mid-winter trip through the 42nd could be some fun?

I was at the Kiwi Site at the weekend with a few locals, they say they've had a shit load of rain lately, kiwi site is fine but other places are still questionable, for the 42nd you'd probably want to check with the locals as to how it is at the moment

[Shewolf]

I'll be taking the DR, may just do a short blat on the Saturday morning, apparently I'm needed for something involving weenies

but I'm easily persuaded when gravels concerned

[Rosie]

Hmmm... Tukino ski field, I hadn't thought of that. Will add it to the list thanks Chris.

A bit of a browse around on the Open GPS maps suggests a large number of wiggly (presumably gravel) roads in the general region between Turakina Valley Rd, Mangaweka-ish and the Napier Taihape Rd. Most of these don't show up on the AA maps, so either they don't exist, or they are small and awesome. Either way, there is potential for Adventure.

I'm inclined to load up a few different routes through these roads onto the GPS, and go for an explore. The route would be fairly convoluted, and close to SH1, or other large-ish roads, so if anyone wanted to just come for a short blast, it would be easy to peel off part way through.

[jellywrestler]

I'll be taking the DR, may just do a short blat on the Saturday morning, apparently I'm needed for something involving weenies

but I'm easily persuaded when gravels concerned

Forget the Weenies, register for one of the new events 'Scrambled Eggs' you'll have a ball

[Rosie]

I'll be taking the DR, may just do a short blat on the Saturday morning, apparently I'm needed for something involving weenies

but I'm easily persuaded when gravels concerned

Pheh, you can snatch weenies any time, you should come riding with us instead

I was feeling a bit 'meh' at the prospect of riding the same roads we did last year (and the year before), but all the new stuff I found on the map last night has me doing a little happy dance

[Box'a'bits]

Pheh, you can snatch weenies any time, you should come riding with us instead

I was feeling a bit 'meh' at the prospect of riding the same roads we did last year (and the year before), but all the new stuff I found on the map last night has me doing a little happy dance

Watcha thinking of doing?

I've finally committed to coming again - now I just have to figure out if that's friday arvo, or saturday morning. If you are doing some cool roads / tracks then I'll make sure i'm there early saturday morning.

[Rosie]

Watcha thinking of doing?

I've finally committed to coming again - now I just have to figure out if that's friday arvo, or saturday morning. If you are doing some cool roads / tracks then I'll make sure i'm there early saturday morning.

We don't have an exact route planned; there are a maze of interesting looking roads between Turakina valley rd and SH1, so I'll load a few likely routes (of varying length) into the GPS (Koeke Rd, Kaweka Rd, Manui Rd looks good, for example), and we'll start out down Turakina valley rd, then (eventually) cross over SH1 south of Taihape, and look around the maze of roads south of the Napier-Taihape (again choosing between routes of varying length - Pukeokahu and Matawhero Rds look good). We'll arrive in Taihape just in time for Beer O'clock, then cruise back to the Rally site before it gets dark (or have an early beer o'clock and do more gravel back to Turakina rd from Taihape).

90% of the roads are totally new to me, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect. They are all routeable roads according to the Open GPS maps, so we shouldn't end up in some farmers paddock, but most are too small to feature on the AA maps, so they are unlikely to be sealed superhighways either. Hopefully this combination will result in roads of sufficient coolness for your requirements

New roads are exciting, I'm looking forward to it.

[Gremlin]

Expect the maps to be inaccurate there. No way those can all be sealed roads, there's also bits of broken road in random places.

Essentially, it means none of the guys contributing to the maps have been through the area and tracked it more accurately, so there may be roads not on the maps and I'm sure there will be bits that don't actually exist. It makes for excellent exploring though!

[Shewolf]

yeah - you had me at 'wiggly'

Pheh, you can snatch weenies any time, you should come riding with us instead

I was feeling a bit 'meh' at the prospect of riding the same roads we did last year (and the year before), but all the new stuff I found on the map last night has me doing a little happy dance

[Rosie]

Expect the maps to be inaccurate there. No way those can all be sealed roads, there's also bits of broken road in random places.

Essentially, it means none of the guys contributing to the maps have been through the area and tracked it more accurately, so there may be roads not on the maps and I'm sure there will be bits that don't actually exist. It makes for excellent exploring though!

Yeah, I'm now cross-referencing with google maps and the open gps people appear to have been smoking some interesting substances when they made some of these roads routeable by car/motorbike.

I thought the idea of the open gps was that the roads were generally user-submitted, so if it's on there, someone, somewhere had travelled along it and considered it to be an actual road (and a legal one at that, presumably). Unlike the topos, which base their roads on satellite images and wishful thinking. If they are just sticking random stuff on the open gps maps (and letting you route along them), the maps lose a lot of their usefulness.

But even if we play it safe and stick to roads the AA know about... there is still plenty of exploring to do

[Box'a'bits]

The district plan map, does tend to support the fact that some of those roads exist & more importantly link anyways

Howie had a ride on Ridge Rd South a while ago - but that was in summer & I recall that it was dry but had been very pugged up with stock - an implication that in winter it might be 'challenging'. Challenging is good.

Worst case we do a U turn & back out

Matawhero Rd is 'O' for Awesome - fast flowing gravel. I'd be quite surprised if you haven't done it though

[Eddieb]

Off SH1 not far south of Taihape is Gorge road, which turns into Wairanu road and then into Torere Road.

Not far up Torere Road is Puhirua Road, Puhirua road exists on the maps but is unmarked when you get there, it just looks like a farm track. I tried to go down it after cold Kiwi last year but 100 meters into it were about 100 grazing cows on a track 10 foot wide and I couldn't get through them. It looks like it could be worth another look though.

http://www.wises.co.nz/l/puhirua+roa...175.876179/15/