AVOID East Cape Roads - stuffed!
Heads up everybody- DON'T RIDE EAST CAPE THIS DECADE.
So just done four days riding. Some amazing bike roads covered and some shite wrecked roads. Maybe I should have posted this in the Adventure/off road forum.
Day 1. Kapiti to Pongoroa-Weber Road to Dannevirke- Napier. 7/10 for fun roads and reasonable condition.
Napier to Gisborne- Holy shit batman, best built roads around 9/10. Cambered like a racetrack. Three of us on cruisers were lovin the extra lean provided. Felt like I was back on a sportsbike. Closed the next day by a rockfall.
Then the shit hit the fan from Tologa Bay to Hicks Bay and further around towards Opotiki. Those roads will be ruined for years I'd say. No sign of any repair crews anywhere on the Cape. Slips, rockfalls, slumps, fallen trees, flooding, sink holes for hours of riding was no fun. Our spines took a bashing. The feeble attempt to repair some of the worse was throw some rough gravel over it and walk away.
Some of the sudden drop-offs into slumps would shatter a bike/car chassis if taken at anything halfway to the posted speed.
But hey smiles returned big time from Whakatane south over Matahina Dam-Galatea-HW38 Kaingaroa Forest towards Taupo 8/10 and beaut scenery. Then headed West along Poihipi Road- up to Whakamaru dam- Bennydale and eventually popped out on HW3 and made for New Plymouth- HW3 had annoying roadworks for miles with stop/goes and heavy/slow traffic but I gave it a bonus point for nice scenery bringing it to 5/10
Happiness is a means of travel, not a destination
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