Waikato rides

[awa355]

Arapuni also housed some of the biggest rats seen, in the tunnels going back into the cliffs. Also huge eels and trout below the outlet. We used to be able to fish off the front of the power house, but the PC brigade put an end to that.
A few more photos showing a closer view of the power house,



A wider scene of the old water tower at Ngatira.

[awa355]

Some bloody mainlander snatched the Waikato tag the day before I was heading that way. Anyway, this morning I decided I wanted to ride the circuit regardless so set off under a blue sky which promptly turned to low gray clouds shrouding the hills to the west. Just up from the Ngutunui-Kawhia junction I stopped and pulled on the rain gear. The rain started as a light drizzle. There had already been rain dropped as the road surface was wet. It was a steady ride with both eyes on the shiney wet seal.

Throughout the ride, right back to Otorohanga the road stayed wet with periods of light rain. Most of it had passed over in front of me and I was copping the tail end. I stopped and took a quick pic of the country I was heading for. It looked worse than the photo shows.



Turned onto Harbour road and meandered along stopping to collect a few more photos. Some fantastic rock formations throughout the Waipa district.



I stopped and got the current tag picture and then umm'dd and arr'd as to whether to return home the way I'd come or continue on and see if the weather improved. Decided to continue so cruised on until arriving at the first view of the inner Kawhia harbour. Waipuna rd climbs right from Harbour rd here so I thought there might be a slightly different view outlook from this road.

The tide was turning to go out. Usually I find mostly mudflats at the times I ride this road, so seeing the upper reaches full of water made a change.



On the far bank is a small cottage with its reflection on the water. I had a go at zooming in and seeing what the resulting image would look like. It did not come out as well as I'd hoped. Have loaded the picture in anyway.



Back on the road, the weather had cleared a bit and the only tricky stuff was a lot of stony gravel that had washed down off the banks. In some cases the slips had crossed the full width of harbour road. Harbour becomes Te Waitere road and climbs up through a narrow valley. It was here that I spotted this odd cloud formation. It looked quite different from the cotton wool layers that were sweeping across the sky. The spiral cloud was a lot higher than the layered clouds. It does not look as impressive in the photo as it did in reality. Not sure why this one cloud was so different from the rest.



After Te Anga, I caught up with the rain. Much of the Te Anga road has recently been re sealed. Quite a few tourists at the Piripiri caves and the natural bridge. The combination of wet road surface, unmarked lanes, loose chips (from the re sealing) and tourist drivers in camper vans made for a sedate pace. Also I felt the front tyre (new Pirelli City Demon) slide a few times. Nothing startling happened for the rest of the run home from Waitomo. This wasnt a fast pace, the sun stayed hidden for most of the ride, lots of drizzle but it was an enjoyable ride anyway.

[awa355]

Saturday was my only free day of the weekend, so I decided to get a way for a ride somewhere. I took the back road through to the Karapiro dam and crossed the highway to Karapiro road. Flat and plenty of corners, it soon becomes Taotaoroa road. This climbs and drops over the rolling hills of the Buckland district. First picture is of a common hazard found on many Waikato roads.




More unpredictable than possums, ice, asian drivers etc. I crossed H29 into Totmans road, H27 into Langlands rd and onto Okoroire. Crossing the bridge and seeing the hot pools along side the Waihou river bought back memories of Paul Gunderson and myself, as kids riding our push bikes out from Putaruru to sneak around the old green corrugated fencing trying to spy on the naked bathers through the various holes. We got chased once, hid with our bikes down a bank and got a way with it. After Tapapa I stopped half way along the Glades to see if there was a chance of a photo. Luckily the traffic was quite light.



I had pulled up behind three Indians who were walking around amongst the trees. I was tempted to ask them if they had remembered the petrol, but then thought better not.

A wee bit further along the road was rebuilt some years ago away from the steep bluff that used to see a number of vehicles plunge over the side, never to be seen again. It reminded me of a story my father told of travelling to Rotorua back in 1959 to see the British Lions playing Thames Valley / Bay of Plenty. As dad drove past this section of road he saw a chap sitting on the side of the road with a fair bit of blood on him. He had somehow gone over the edge of the deep dropoff but somehow the car got stopped by a tree not far down. Dad and his brother bound up most of the chaps cuts etc and thought he had broken a couple of fingers. Dad asked if he needed to be dropped off at the Rotorua hospital. “ Buggar that, just drop me off at the bloody game”. They did.
Further along I turned into the side road leading to Mamaku. This settlement has had many sawmills her going back to the 1880’s. I stopped at this old display .



This board tells a bit about this rail tractor.



Another of the rear of the unit.



A run down of some of the many mills that have operated around Mamaku over the years.



A run down Dansey road and into Rotorua to top up. The 114k’s had used 3.3l so the 250 is doing about 34k per litre. I made my way back through Ngongotaha and stopped to get another pic, this time of the lake.




From here, I was going to ride over some of the roads swinging around onto the Gate Pa- Rotorua road. I will cover that in part two.

[awa355]

Part 2.
Further on from the rest area I turned left into Te Waerenga road. This climbs away from the lake and levels out on the top of the hills. I stopped part way up and tried for a scenic photo. The edges of the photos did not marry up so you get half the panaramic vista.



As often happens, you get a wee bit further on and a far more scenic view appears. This road is a double laned road and in beautiful condition. Some nice but short glimpses over looking Lake Rotorua then the road heads away from the lake. I soon turned right into Penny road. Lots of tight bends as the road descends downhill. A short distance on and Penny T-bones Kaharoa road. My original idea had been to explore right out to the ends of these ‘out of the way’ roads. The weather had been overcast all day and being up in the Mamaku hills rain seemed to be not to far away, so I stuck to the seal. Part way towards the junction with SH36 I turned onto Kapukapu road. This goes for a long way before ending nowhere, but what I did ride was lovely country. Clean green paddocks interspersed with long deep gullys filled with native bush.



After returning to Kaharoa road, it wasn’t far to the main Ngongotaha-Gate Pa road. This passes through some rugged country. I pulled up at a car park at the bottam of the Mangorewa Kaharoa gorge. Used as a track by the early Maoris, it was developed as a coach road in 1870 and the first coach used it in 1873 to transport tourists from Tauranga to Rotorua. ( wonder if they bought plastic Tiki’s back then?). The tourist trade dropped off in the 1890’s when the Auckland-Rotorua railway started up. Local were the main users after that. The first car through the gorge was a Darracq in 1906. Here is a photo I took of the road in the early days.



Okay, I didn’t take the original photo, but I did get this photo. Try and work that out. This is what the same road looks like today.



In 1942 when the Japs had landed in Tauranga and forced the local fish & chip shops to sell sushi, they apparently set out to conquer Rotorua. Howard Morrisons mob decided their maori roast outlets were too valuble to lose so they set up tank barricades in the gorge. Must have worked, because the Nips never made it to Rotovegas untill years later when Newmans buses bought the sneaky buggars in from the Waikato.




These ‘tank stoppers’ are similar to the ones on Old Mountain Road inland from Raglan. I’m interested in finding out if there are any other antitank barricades around the country. Incase you’re wondering how come I know so much, I read the information board at the carpark, although the bit about the Japs is slightly embellished.
From the gorge the road climbs up through some massive cuttings. They give an idea of how hard the horse drawn waggons must have had it going around and seesawing up the steep bluffs.



My ride continued on to Gate Pa and onto the Kaimai road. I veered left onto Omanawa road. This climbs up through the country in behind McLaren Falls Lake. Like most rural land around here, it is wall to wall Kiwifruit orchards. A few pleasant k’s on and I turned into McLaren Falls rd




After a brief stop at the dam end of the lake, I continued on to the main road. Nothing exciting about the return ride home except for the rain from Totmans road to Te Awamutu. Another timely reminder to buy some decent wet weather gear. The rain made for a slightly slower ride back over Taotaoroa road. All up, 308k.

[awa355]

A short video of Penny road. It would be a mean hill climb coming the other way. 1min30.

[Murray]

Arthur I am starting to dislike you intensly

[awa355]

Arthur I am starting to dislike you intensly

You could've had a sickie As it was, today would have been a washout. My day catching up with a distant relative and comparing family history was a good one.

[Murray]

_Nah had all the balloonists and conferences on - I wouldn't let the rest of the staff down like that.. Trina had to work til 3 anyway.

Bah humbug - great pictures nice rise

[Motu]

I haven't explored east Waikato much, always thought it a bit flat and boring. I was wrong, time to find out where the good roads are.

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w420/awa355/mamaku%202.jpg[/IMG]

It's not a Bedford, it's an Austin/Morris or BMC FFk. I wonder if the running gear is BMC too. I guess I'll have to go and find out myself then.

[awa355]

I haven't explored east Waikato much, always thought it a bit flat and boring. I was wrong, time to find out where the good roads are.



It's not a Bedford, it's an Austin/Morris or BMC FFk. I wonder if the running gear is BMC too. I guess I'll have to go and find out myself then.

I didn't think it was a Bedford either, Pulling 70 tonnes seems over the top for a morrie (or Bedford for that matter). I cant remember any of the smaller pommy trucks using diesels that would put out the grunt to drag that sort of load.

[Moi]

It's not a Bedford, it's an Austin/Morris or BMC FFk. I wonder if the running gear is BMC too. I guess I'll have to go and find out myself then.

You might find Paul Mahoney's 'The Era of the Bush Tram in New Zealand' [Pub: 1998 by IPL Books; ISBN 0-908876-80-7] - especially pages 164-168 and p174...

Just found this as well... http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/tales/lythgoe85.htm

[awa355]

You might find Paul Mahoney's 'The Era of the Bush Tram in New Zealand' [Pub: 1998 by IPL Books; ISBN 0-908876-80-7] - especially pages 164-168 and p174...

Just found this as well... http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/tales/lythgoe85.htm

Thanks Mark, your link would suggest that the one in my story is a real bitza.

[awa355]

This was a short simple ride to scuff in the new rear tyre. I wasn't planning on any specific route, so meandered out along the Kihikihi rd and turned off onto Owairaka Valley road. After the flat section I stopped to watch some local students trying out the rock climbing that abounds in this area. My camera was left at home and I really found out how bad the cell ph camera is. Any attempt to use the zoom in feature produced a grotty pixelated image.

This pic shows one person half way up the face.


A wee bit further on and the sad remains of the Wharepapa Sth store. Old wooden country shops from yesterday are sadly becoming rarer.


I tossed up whether to turn left or right here, chose left and motored on with an idea of riding around Mt Maungatautari. The afternoon sun was throwing a lovely deep sheen over the countryside and the heavy concentration of clouds and blues sky made for some scenes. Unfortunately, the ph camera is crap and doesn't produce nice photos at all.

This next one is from the top of Rotongata road.


From here I continued through to Oreipunga road. Just past the turn off to Finlay Park I turned right onto Plantation road. This has some lovely sweeping curves before swinging left onto Maungatautari rd. Some more corners, good road surface's and views looking towards Mt Maungatautari. A few k's further and I veered right onto Stokes road. This is a lovely short road, cambered corners, views and only a few kilometres extra before becoming Head road and returning to Maungatautari road.

The lake at Karapiro looked quite scenic under the late afternoon sun.


After here, it was a short call in to my riding mate, Bills' place at Lemmington for a chat and cup of coffee. From here a slow run back home through Roto O Rangi road. The countryside is slow to take on an Autumn look with few trees starting to lose leaves and changing colours.

I wish I had taken my camera tho'. Ah well, next time.

[unstuck]

Good stuff, glad you decided to keep writing up your adventures.

[Moi]

Despite not the best camera, still have some great photos with great cloud formations... especially like the photo of Karapiro...

As unstuck said... keep the reports and, especially, the photos coming...