Six go wild in the SI - Part II

[skelstar]

...continued from Part I

Day Six - Franz Joseph
A lazy morning started with a coffee break in the Wanaka town. The weather was nice and cool and there was little wind to speak of. By lunchtime we had steeled ourselves enough to jump on the bikes and head for the mighty West Coast. I couldnt wait. The road from Wanaka that runs alongside Lk Hawera and continues on past Lk Wanaka (confused?) was one of the best on the trip (IMHO). Thinking it couldnt be as good as this for long (Im a welly rider) the road plunged down a hill through more glorious 55-65-75km/h corners. We met a cop in some roadworks (phew) that had the audacity to turn his radar on when we were buzzing out at 30km/h (dont ask how we knew). Haast for some food and we trucked on to Fox/Franz. The road between Fox and Franz was AWESOME...35-45km/h corners one after another. Again another fav of the trip. Paul jnr even headed back over with mbobs bike for another go.

Dinner at a cafe/pub in Franz after sorting out accomodation (not bad accomo...motel type units). After having pinched nachos...ie someone was pinching my nachos (ouch!)...we booked into a half-day glacier walk and headed back to our beds. What an awesome day. Probably the most twisty-road intensive of the trip. Def a road to return to...real soon.

Donkey of the day: motoBob (carry-over champion)...go mbob!

Day Seven - Greymouth
An early-ish start and we are heading into town. We get fitted out with some boots, crampon-like-things (iceTalons) and hop onto the bus for our glacier walk. Jase the guide is pretty slick...reckon the girls liked him anyway. He was a born and bred local who knew how to make a enema sound exciting. Some 'Folks' this and 'folks' that and we were walking out to the moraine wall...thingy. Would have to say that the little talks he gave us along the way were quite informative and amusing...always vailed references to Australia etc. Something for everyone.

The glacier walk was done on pre-cut steps in the ice. The guides (we have three now) carried great big Thor-like ice picks. They spent a great deal of time cutting steps on the way up, and on the way down. There was little opportunity to get tired and worn out. The guide routinely asks our names and mbob tells the guide his name is 'Paul' but insists that its pronounced like its Spanish...because Paul (mbob) is apparently Spanish. Trying not to die from laughter, I insist that Paul is no more Spanish than Billy Connelly (sp). We get to the not-very-distant top of pur particular climb and its photo time. The German girls and v-v-v-v-lucky German guy go into a photograph frenzy....with the help of our voyeuristic sidekick Zapf . We started decending at this stage at a very slow pace with more photos on the way down *yawn*. A bit of a de-brief at the bottom and we were in the bus and back to our favourite cafe. An hour later and Zapf is nutting of back to Fox for a sky dive and the rest of us head to Greymouth.

The road to Greymouth was pretty good. Some stretches of straight stuff (where I can catch up) interspersed with lovelly twisty stuff. We find the hotel/pub in Greymouth (Revingtons) and dump our stuff. We decide that we wouldnt mind riding to Arthurs Pass for more twisty stuff. Once we establish that Paul Jnrs Firestorm will get there and back we head out. Some of the best moments of the trip were on this ride. A km behind the group I was treated to views of the plains with the sun low and the shadows long. I could see the bikes in the distance and it was just beautiful. We passed millions of bikes (on their way to Woodstock) and boats on the way up to Otira Gorge. I was primed for the tight stuff but was put off by the 'ice/grit' signs. I did actually hit some grit at one stage that def gave me cause for concern. I know that KS19 rated this as a great road.

While the guys stopped in for a meal at Jacksons I headed back to the hotel to find Zapf getting trollied in the bar downstairs in his 6 armed racing leathers. We headed out for some chinese and came back to attempt to ride our bikes up a ramp into a gargre where our bikes will be stored. While not a steep ramp, it didnt offer a lot of width in which one could put their feet down if one were to stop or stall the bike. Nervous about doing this very thing, I ask mbob (how has returned at this stage) if he could ride it up the ramp for me. Assured by his confident air, I stand by to watch him ride up the ramp and then STOP *gasp* just short of the top. The bike tips off the ramp and mbob (claims that he tried to stay under it to save it) falls with it. Once we established that he was ok (I should have put the boot in) we find the bike is otherwise un-damaged. Go Hyosung. Feeling bad for mbob we head back to our rooms (to tell the others) and try and sleep in our sauna-like accomodation.

Donkey of the day: motoBob

....continued soon

[Keystone19]

Yep, Arthurs Pass was definitely a highlight. I think it was the whole sunset, scenery thing as much as the riding although I don't know what the others were complaining about when they mentioned grit and bumps. I didn't notice anything!

Dinner at Jacksons was great - highly recommend the pub there for a pitstop. There were huge numbers of bikes on the road and we later found out there was a rally on in Hokitika that weekend.

The ride home from Jacksons to Greymouth was in the dark following two bikes heading to the rally. Thanks for the lift guys!

[zadok]

Great stuff. Look forward to the pics.

[Leong]

Apparently someone's pulled out of the honda riders club tour of the South Island later this month, so they're looking for a replacement.... you guys are making this sound really tempting.... great read, and don't worry about it being too long, skelstar.

[Zapf]

PHOTOS! HERE