Who wants to go on a ride to Cape Reinga?

[xjrider]

Weather update for north island, fine with cloudy. Spells. And. Light winds!

[Vinz0r]

Weather update for north island, fine with cloudy. Spells. And. Light winds!

Haha what weather service is that from? Metservice still says rain all the way through!

[Maha]

Friday 1pm ...http://www.metvuw.com/forecast/forec...on=nzni&tim=54
Saturday 1pm ...http://www.metvuw.com/forecast/forec...on=nzni&tim=78
Sunday 1pm ...http://www.metvuw.com/forecast/forec...n=nzni&tim=102

[sinaptik]

Metservice makes it sound pretty bad: http://www.metservice.com/national/w...eather-outlook

[george formby]

I'm optimistic for all of ewes coming up here this weekend, like I posted earlier we have had a similar weather pattern for weeks & it has amounted to a few light showers & the odd very localised heavier shower.
Also bare in mind that the weather is coming in from the East so in all likelihood the West coast will be dry, it's usually one side or the other oop here.
Gawan, get on yer bikes!

[Angel_of_Metal]

I'd be a maybe... as long as you guys don't take offence to a 250 dullie on knobblies giving you a good spanking on the twisties . I'm a semi respectable 31yr old who likes a beer and a few yarns

You had me at the word 'spanking'

Now if only I could ride at the moment...

[xjrider]

Haha what weather service is that from? Metservice still says rain all the way through!

Accuweather.com lol

[Maha]

Hope you guys went, the weather maps sure have changed over the last 24 hours. http://www.metvuw.com/forecast/forec...i&noofdays=3 & http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/kaitaia

[Vinz0r]

We sure did! Ended up being five of us (four bikes). We had changed our plans due to weather and were going to do forgotten world highway, but then on friday the forecast changed; thunderstorms for lower/mid north island and fine up north!
So we decided to just go for it.
Was a good trip, although next time I think I'll invest in some proper luggage carrying devices. Running downhill through twisties and getting hit in the back by 30kg of gear is not fun, my poor wrists..

Sinaptik and I did 90 mile beach, he on his KLE500 and me on the ZX6R, that was quite an experience..
We got there a little early so the tide was still fairly high, which probably didn't help matters as the sand wasn't packed very hard. Also, we took the wrong entrance! We meant to come in at the one a bit further up that has good access onto the beach, but we ended up at the southern one (can't remember names) and had to plow through a whole lot of loose sand. 8000 rpm in first gear and only moving about 30cm/sec was a bit of a laugh. Went out via the stream, water level was pretty low so as long as I stayed on the gas didn't have too much trouble.

The first night we stayed at the DOC campsite at Waipu, second night we stayed at the Tapotupotu DOC site 3km south of the Cape. Came back from the Cape to Hamilton today.

Here are a few shots I got with my phone camera, Sinaptik had his GoPro so hopefully he'll upload some video of the beach ride. Tim got some really cool panoramas of the Tapotupotu site so hopefully he puts them up!









Some photos of what beaches do to fully faired sportbikes. Sand, so so so so so much sand.

[Maha]

Two stunning weekends in a row, good on those global warming contributors.
Hope the bikes go a hose down, the four that went on the beach our trip hosed them down back at base camp.

[G4L4XY]

Here are some Panoramic shots of the Tapotupotu camp site.

By the looks of your pics Vin I'm glad I didn't do the beach but at least you can say you've done it!

[Vinz0r]

By the looks of your pics Vin I'm glad I didn't do the beach but at least you can say you've done it!

Haha, I just spent about six hours disassembling my bike, cleaning out the sand and re-greasing. Never again!

[george formby]

Most excellent! Love Tapoutupoutoupouto thingy camp site.
Great job on the beach!

[Grashopper]

Haha, I just spent about six hours disassembling my bike, cleaning out the sand and re-greasing. Never again!

Made for some great pics though. :

Good to hear you had a great trip.

[nerrrd]

Haha, I just spent about six hours disassembling my bike, cleaning out the sand and re-greasing. Never again!

Good on you for giving it a go...but yeah that looks like a lot more sand than I ended up with, and I'm still finding more I've missed two weeks later. Surprisingly sticky stuff.