Hamilton - Wellington trip questions

[amberzfire]

Will be passing through Otaki at 5pm at the earliest, I don't have to be in Wellington until 1am so a bit of traffic isn't a problem

sweet .. plenty of time to get into town

[Monsterbishi]

A brief trip report -

Flew up to Hamilton around 0830hrs yesterday, picked up some snacks and electrolyte drinks when I filled up at the servo, ratchet tie-downs and a Multi-tool from Repco (Just in case roadside maint was necessary) and started my 860km trip home with my latest mechanical family member, a 1994 FZR600R - here's a few things that I learned/noticed:

NI Riders get their wave on more often than not, at least 9/10 riders either waved or nodded when we met along the way - compared to my SI leg which was lucky to even get a 50% wave rate!

The NI weather yesterday was a mixed bag, from pouring rain through the twisties on the desert road which wasn't fun when I'm on a bike that I've never ridden, on a road I don't know, to wind that had me on a solid lean just to go straight, it was a real four seasons trip finished off with 337km of sunshine for my ride from Picton to ChCh.

A lesson learned the hard way - I found out that the clear lens on my helmet is polarized to a different direction to my sunglasses when I put them on in Hamilton and the world turned into a ocean of rainbows and silver so I had to do the trip without them, luckily glare and sun-strike never became a issue.

Right now my body is expressing its disdain about riding a Sportsbike 860km in 24hrs, probably not helped by the fact that I haven't ridden more than 20k's in the last five years while I've been restoring my YZF750R.

[mossy1200]

Is it a honda ?

Honda rider wouldn't be worried about walking funny.

[Old Steve]

Glad you got home safely. Great way to get to know your bike.

For next time! If going down the centre of the country, I usually turn off SH1 at Tokoroa onto Maraetai Rd and take Whakamaru Rd (SH32) down through the forest to Whakamaru, then from Whakamaru south through Tihoi (stop for a bite) and down the Western Access to Turangi. That way you skip Taupo and a bit of the SH1 traffic.

There are earlier turn offs further north at Putururu and Litchfield, but it's easier to run down to Tokoroa on SH1 before turning off.