ahh bugger! i cant leave auckland to stay a night for the next 2 weeks as my mates gone on holiday and im stuck with 14days straight work
Forum whore
ahh bugger! i cant leave auckland to stay a night for the next 2 weeks as my mates gone on holiday and im stuck with 14days straight work
Soo-deep
You sure can! We can use a few more brave (stupid really) souls to come with us on this journey to freezing our nuts of!!Originally Posted by 6Chris6
Whats this? Sounds good.
Can I come
Meh
What time are you thinkin of leaving on friday?
ss'duc
Ummmmm like the morning. Maybe 9.30 or 10am.
Meh
Ne mind, have a good weekend
Forum whore
So is it only 2 of us going on this ride so far?
I'm kinda having second thoughts because of the length of the ride and my inexperience, the cost, and I'm doing a riding course on the sunday.
But I'm not sure, I mean, I can think up counter arguments to all those worries, I'm borrowing money for my living expenses (student loan) anyway so I'll be able to pay my parents back, I've driven the car to Whakatane before (maybe there and back to Auckland in one day iirc, so even if riding a bike is twice as tiring as driving the car, I should be ok), and if I get home in time to get a decent nights sleep I should be fine for the riding course.
Has anyone got any suggestions for an indecisive newbie?
ss'duc
Hopefully there will be others on the ride. Have you taken your bike out for a longer ride past Mercer yet? Say perhaps to Hamilton or Rotorua and back? The weather is looking up for Friday so it should be all go!
Forum whore
Nope, not yet. But I've been having a look at maps, I think I might give it a go tomorrow, maybe ride around the coast from Clevedon to Waitakaruru, then onto SH27, then across some of those country roads to Ngaruawahia and then back up SH22 that I've heard so many people here talking about, and find my way back to Auckland.
I figure I kinda want to avoid the main highways, as they tend to be straighter and probably busier.
Edit:
After talking with my younger (but possibly wiser at times) brother, I think the above ride is probably going to be way too long so I might just ride up to Leigh. My bro wants to go up there anyway, and I've driven up there recently too, so I know the way (then again, we might be taking more back roads this time, which I haven't done before), and I'll have company.
fa un giro en moto
Why is everyone whimping out. Today was a great day and tomorrow will be nicer. It isn't that far to Whakatane for goodness sake.
We'll be making lots of stops and the traffic should be light as everyone was away last weekend.
The traffic to Leigh is always a bitch as most people think of it as an extension of Auckland. i know i used to go up all the time for a project up there. Weekends are worst and it doesn't matter if you take back roads or not. Besides i think your brother's advice is based on ulterior motives if he wants to go there.
Longer rides are good for building skills as you get into a rythum and can feel when you're doing things right. And we will definately be back Saturday afternoon, at least i will. Got things to do that night.
uno patito dalle motociclette italiane
Forum whore
backroads to leigh? correct me if im wrong (highly likely) but thats north right?? but not as far as wellsford??.. anyways surely SH16/backroads through Old North Road/ Peeks Road helps?! i Know it definatly does for me in Glen Eden as compared to going over the harbour bridge/ even greenhithe bridge. beats em both, and not to say i speed much at all or anything but i do tend to not watch the speedo as much doing the upper end of peeks road, so that i guess has to be taken into account. Anyways only done peeks twice now but done the the bridges a number of times when going north and im definatly happy with backroads for WAY more fun and im sure a second or two faster. + NO traffic! (relitivly speaking)
Der gummikuh man
Those roads would be the best. However, leigh is on the east coast, so it may be a bit out of the way depending on where you come from.
Queiro voya todo Europa con mi moto.... pero no tengo suficiente tiempo o dinero.....
fuckin grumpy leave me alone
Had a call from Andrew last night, seems they got to Whakatane ok, they were flying the KB flag at a local pub, so far so good !
I guess this morning might be
F/F
"Kiwi Biker, still a great place despite the mods "
"Would crawl over broken glass before owning Suzuki"
The only reason I only ride in the Iron man Class is I have no friends left to enter the two man events,
my own fault really.
ss'duc
The weekend was pretty cool and here is a condensed version of the fun I had.
The day started off sunny the best you can hope for. The meeting point for the crew was some café by the name of “Autobahn”, which happened to be situated just north of “North Waikato”. Erik had already arrived, so that meant the students were the first to arrive – how could that be? So we have tea/coffee talk some crap just while waiting for the others to arrive. The crew consisted of Erik, myself, Bikerboy, and Bikerboy’s mates Jesse, and Roger.
We set off through Ararimu and joined the main highway at Mangatawhiri. The main highway wasn’t too busy, no cops to be seen. After a little ambling along SH we hung a left and went through Miranda, joined up with the main highway again and over to Kopu. Pisstop and gasstop at Kopu and then back on the coromadel road over the Hikuwai hill. This was one of my favourite parts of the ride, as well as seeing a 749 go past.
Hung a right onto the Whangamata highway and battled the twisties over to Whangamata. Stopped at the beach by the carpark in Whangamata waiting for the rest of the crew to catch up, and then off again. The twisties took us over to Waihi this time. Those twisties would have to be my favourite. They were tight sweepers, which is really good for me because I didn’t need much confidence going into them.
When at Waihi I stopped at the information centre and enquired about the route over to Whakatane. When the others had caught up we took the main highway toward Tauranga. Stopped at a Chinese Takeout in Welcome bay for lunch. The only good part about this was watching Bikerboy getting attacked by seagulls – lol!
Hit the road again, quick gasstop/pisstop in Te Puke. Then the coast road down to Whakatane. It was just before 5pm before we arrived into Whakatane. Spent the next half hour looking for accommodation. A lot of places were booked up, but luckily they had room in a motel situated near the water. After checking into the motel BB had to spend good half hour looking over the brochures trying to decide where we were going to eat.
After a long calculated decision, BB opted for a Mexican Restaurant in the main drag, - all that effort and his meal turned out to be crap. I played it safe had a BLT, took me 30 secs to decide, and what would you know, I enjoyed it – go figure?
Dinner was over then it was off to the pub to get some quality drinking time in. We settled into an Irish pub for some drinks. With the exception of me, everyone only had one drink. I was quite happy to get tipsy on a couple of lion red handles and a bottle of Coruba. I wanted to stay longer but was dragged out of the pub by the rest to go back to the Motel. - I guess the older generation can only tolerate so much fun, huh?!
We walk back to the motel, by this time I guess it must have been around 10pm. BB was quite happy to turn into bed, but I was still quite wrestles. In which case I went back out into the town to look for a pool table but all the pubs were closing up. I settled with a walk to Pizza Hut and got a couple of Pizzas. You just can’t beat Whakatane’s nightlife - everything closes up so early on a Friday night. The sort of place you retire to. So I bring the pizzas back to the motel and eat some while watching some TV. Talked some crap with Jesse for half an hour then turned in shortly after midnight.
The next day dawns. I get woken by the light coming in though the curtains at 6.45. I got up at 7.15 and went for a run along the water front. This is where I took my camera and got some good photos of the still river upon which the motel virtually sat. After running for half an hour I got back to the motel. By this time BB managed to surface and mentally gears himself up for the huge task of deciding where to go for Breakfast and what to have.
Breakfast was at a Café on the main drag in Whakatane. The café looked like something out of some ponsy part of Auckland. It took half an hour just to order eggs on toast, I would have been happy with brekky at McDonalds. However you just don’t quite get the same pleasure of spending a long time choosing from a large selection at McDonalds, and that just would not do!! It took us till after 10.30 just to wake and eat breakfast – what a hard life!!
We start our journey back to Auckland. This time going toward Rotorua. After being on the road for half an hour we called in at 130 wide’s place for a cold drink and a yarn. (Thanks for waiting on us 130 Wide) Talked about riding the East Cape which appealed to me at least. The rest of us well yea……
Hit the road again. There were a few twisties along this road, good for building up my confidence. Hung a right just outside of Rotorua and headed out to Te Puke. This was actually a mistake, as we intended to go Pyes Pa – Never mind it’ll be an excuse to come for another ride to Whakatane!!!
Skimmed the outskirts of Tauranga and headed toward the Kaimai Ranges. When heading down the Kaimi ranges I spotted a car full of chicks. I took this opportunity to show off, so hung off the bike way more than I needed to. I don’t know if the girls were impressed I thought I was just a dick. Oh well I don’t care, it was fun all the same!!!
Followed the main highway over to Matamata for lunch. This was just a small lunch after such a LARGE LATE breakfast. Went to the gas station to put some gas in my bike and my eye (again). Five minutes later we were back on the main highway going toward Coromadel/Auckland.
The main highway was way too boring, so we took a detour though Tahuna to Ohinewai. This road is always fun except the sun is always setting each time I do this road, and hence quite a bit of glare. Once at Ohinewai we hopped onto the expressway.
Fifteen minutes after being on the expressway we came off at the services Mercer. Gas up have a coffee and debrief from the weekends fun. This is where I went my separate way and zipped back to Auckland on the motorway.
Thanks guys for your company it was all good fun. Now who can add something I’ve missed?!
Photos left to right
1) Beach Carpark at Whangamata
2) Beach at Whangamata
3) Beach Carpark at Whangamata
4) Waterfront photo at Whakatane
5) Waterfront photo at Whakatane
6) Waterfront photo at Whakatane
ss'duc
More photos from left to right.
7) Beach front Whakatane
8) Beach front Whakatane
9) Main drag Whakatane
10) The famous pub at Whakatane
11) Bikes in the carpark at the motel
12) Bikes in the carpark at the motel
ss'duc
The remaining photos from left to right.
13) The motel we stayed at in Whaktane.
14) Lunch in Matamata - from left to right Jesse, Erik, Bikerboy
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