Well this tour was gonna be happening rain or shine and the weather gods were definately smiling on us... We had 4 bikes( Suzuki SV100, Buell X1 Lightening, Buell XB12, Suzuki Boulevade) and 6 people so it was a good size group to tour with...
Left bright and early on Sat morn (around 7am!) which turned out to be a very good thing cos by the time we hit Rotorua for Brekky it was turning into a scorcher!!! Just love the road sth around the lake (think its highway 30?), well its just magic, nice twisties with awesome scenery to boot. We rolled into Whakatane with a mean thirst and I reckon the soles of my boots were starting to melt... Great! Paul and Amanda had mates that lived just up the hill AND they were home AND they had a full fridge! Alright! So we parked up long enuf to guzzle a cold beer and gaze at the pool... well Paul actually stripped off and jumped in...Anyways we continued on over the hill and along the stunning coast- the colour of the water was almost surreal. Had to stop and take piccies:-) Oh and should mention, another great riding road!
So thru the gorge which was fantastic and alot cooler, thankgod! There is 1 thing I didn't enjoy about the gorge and that was going round a tight corner with rock wall on 1 side and zero visibility of the road ahead and then suddenly there was a truck in my face! Well not literally but those roads are pretty narrow and I was glad I wasn't taking the corner wide!!! Another stop for a cold one at Matawai then onwards to Gizzy with 500kms behind us...
Overnite stop at Gisborne involved showering, changing clothes ( ah bliss getting out of the leathers! ), drinking , going into town to eat and drink some more and then back to the motel where a wee bit more drinking went on... lots of stories swapped and laughs had.
Big fry-up for brekky and then we hit the road again bound for Taupo. The road over the hill from Gizzy to Wairoa is fantastic but VERY bumpy with lots of uneven patches, OMG by the time we stopped at Wairoa I thought my head was gonna explode ( wee bit of a headache... )!
Anyway some panadol took care of that and we continued on our journey til we hit the Napier-Taupo Highway where I quickly realised I had found my new favourite hoon-it-road, yeeeeee ha! What an amazing stretch of highway... And it goes without saying that once again the scenery was beautiful. Stopped at the Tarawera Hotel for a much needed cold one cos the sun was starting to BAKE, then made beeline for Taupo where our own private spa was waiting at the Motel... sigh...
So we had a BBQ with enuf food to feed an army and whiled away the nite with copious amounts of alcohol and more story swapping and laughs...
Monday Morning...ok I was feeling alittle jaded but once we got on the road again I was sweet again... Cruisey trip home, saw 3 cops between Taupo and Tokoroa so we weren't taking any chances. OK well 1 of us wasn't so lucky cos unfortunately he was playing catch-up but considering we had paid sweet FA attention to our speeds the whole weekend I reckon we had done pretty well to avoid tickets! The whole trip was roughly 1200kms, not bad going!
All in all the weekend was fantastic and I am already looking forward to the next tour...
Special Thanks to Paul for organising the Wkend and to Mandy for being 'Camp Mother'.Also thanks to Deano, Busman and Helen for yr great company!
Heres a few piccies
1.looking towards Whakatane
2.looking towards Opotiki
3.Gizzy- da Buells- X1 Lightening
4.Gizzy- da Buells- XB12
5.Gizzy- Suzuki Boulevade
6.Stopped at Tarawera Pub
...it is better to live 1 day as a Tiger than 1000 years as a sheep...
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Originally Posted by buellbabe
We don't like to share, only to brag....
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