South Island safari -- day 10

[Hitcher]

The safari continues

More thoughts...
-- By all means admire the scenery, but keep an eye on the road as well (particularly when there are deep gutters and rocky outcrops in the vicinity (underpant change time))


Day 10: Queenstown - Glenorchy - Arrowtown - Cromwell - Wanaka. After a quick bite of breakfast in the Queenstown Mall watching the town's tourist industry light up and the early morning cloud burn off, we mounted up and hit the Glenorchy road. This is another SI no-exiter, unless you're a tramper about to hit the Routeburn or Hollyford tracks, that runs from Queenstown up to the top of Lake Wakatipu. Just when we thought we'd seen the best the SI could give in terms of scenery AND motorcycling roads, along comes 44km of biker heaven. Superlatives fail me! The ride was helped by superb weather making the views magnificent and the road clean and dry. The old Coleslaw steaming across to Mt Nicholas station with a mountain backdrop, the green of the lake, the blues of the mountains and sky... enough to make a biker wax poetic... And again, the run back to Queenstown was just as rewarding with the light behind us. The road is made for bikes. Nice corners, ups and downs, the occassional straighter bit. It would be worth the ride even if there was nothing to perve at scenery-wise! We gassed up in Queenstown and then tootled off to Arrowtown via Lake Hayes (the cake tin lid lake). This town was chocka with tourists, so we didn't stay long other than to consume a couple of coffees and a bun. We decided to take the longer route to Wanaka down the Kawarau gorge to Cromwell. Again it had been some years since we were last through and we were amazed by the proliferation of vineyards and by the extend of improvements to the road. We didn't see any until Cromwell, but were warned that the gorge road is a favourite haunt of Joe Law. A biker could have a load of quick fun through here, if so inclined! This was our first day without intercoms, due to a previously noted DIN plug failure. Mrs H observed it was a though we'd had a row, after having been previously able to chat about the various sights, smells and events we had traversed! More F***ing magnificent scenery rounded out the ride from Cromwell to Wanaka!!

[pete376403]

Hitcher, you should consider submitting this series to Kiwi Rider, Bike Rider Mag or Two Wheels. With photographs.

[Hitcher]

Hitcher, you should consider submitting this series to Kiwi Rider, Bike Rider Mag or Two Wheels. With photographs.

I hadn't thought about doing that, but anything is possible, I guess. Do you have contact details for the relevant people?

[pete376403]

Not off the top of my head, but the magazine (any magazine) "contents' page ususally gives info about submitting articles, details about formats, etc. Will have a look when I get home

[LB]

I'll flick you an email with a couple of email addresses to contact BRM and Kiwirider. Be aware that KR like to have exclusive articles.