Ride to Milford this weekend

[Jantar]

The Chatto Creek Club are having a weekend away to Te Anau and Milford this weekend.

If anyone is interested we leave Ian Day's Suzuki in Alexandra at 10:00 am Saturday morning and head for Te Anau via Queenstown. On Sunday we ride to Milford for lunch and a bit of sight seeing then return to Te Anau that night. On Monday we return to Alexandra.

Social nights at Te Anau on both Saturday and Sunday.

[SPman]

Aaaaaaaaah - THAT Milford!.........

[Jantar]

Is there another Milford?

[Big Dave]

I'm jealous.
Te Anau to Milford Sound is the best road in the universe.

We hired the Helicopter at te Anau and flew to Dusky and Doubtful Sounds too. Breathtaking.

[Jantar]

I just arrived home after a great trip. 12 bikes (one with pillion) went into Milford, and met up with around 40 riders from BRONZ Otago who were doing a similar run. So over 50 bikes waiting at the entrance to Homer Tunnel was an awesome sight.

I'll post a full report in bits and pieces with a pic or two in each part. The pics will never load on dial up if I try to send them all at once.

[Blairos]

What an awesome trip that must have been! if you have more pics - please post!

I love that Milford Road!

[Jantar]

6 bikes (7 people) met in Alexandra on saturday morning. There was a Honda Shadow, Honda 750 Bol D'or, Triumph Thunderbird, Ducati 600, Suzuki GSX600F and my Suzuki GS1200SS. We left only 5 minutes after the planned start (this must be a record for our club) and headed through the Cromwell Gorge at a good steady clip.

We paused at the sign of the Fruit in Cromwell long enough to pick up 3 more riders. A Yamaha XS-1100, A Kawasaki GPX 250 and a Suzuki SV 650 . All were experienced riders except for the young rider on the Kawasaki, but he had been a couple of other club runs and we knew that he would be able to handle this ride OK. His dad on the Yamaha would also keep an eye on him to ensure that he did nothing foolish.

I took over the lead and set a pace that I thought the Kwaka 250 should be able to match as he headed through the Kawarau gorge to Queenstown. As we waited for the lights at the Frankton Bridge all riders had rejoined within 1 - 2 minutes so I figured the pace was about right. We head south on what is one of my favourite roads alonside Lake Wakatipu, with Ange on her GSX600F sticking right with me, to Kingston where we had lunch. The Kingston Flyer was in and the pics show a nice comparisom between bikes and train.

From Kingston we headed south again, and as we were expecting another two riders to meet us at five rivers, and we had a bit of time to kill, we stopped at the Garston Pub for a short refreshment break. One beer each shouldn't affect our riding. But as most of us were still gathering outside Chris exited the pub and said to his son "Under no circumstances are you go into that bar." As the rest of ordered our beer the reason for Dean (17 years old) being told not to go in became obvious. It was the barmaid. Miss World and Miss Universe selectors need go no further than Garston to find next years winner. On a scale of 1 to 10 this young lady would be 11. She was drop dead gorgeous in every respect. But sorry Boys, no photo.

On to five rivers where we picked up the next two riders on a pair of His and Hers Honda CBR 600Fs. Hers was a lovely clean red white and blue, and his was a very feminine pink and black.

[Jantar]

We had a pie and a pint (well actually a half pint) at Five Rivers before carrying on to our planned refuelling stop at Mossburn, and while here found out that the local pub had started baking their own gourmet pies. It appeared that a simple run to Te Anau was turning into a pie tasting event with a half pint or a stubbie at each stop.

Just to be a bit different we tunred off the main road and detoured into Manapouri before heading north into Te Anau. At our accomadation we found that we had 3 cabins in a block of 4, and the 4th one was occupied by a couple with a young family. Ange was very quick to start introducing a 4 yr old girl to the thrills of motorcycling.

[Jantar]

On Sunday morning we wanted to be on the road before the tour busses, so we headed into town for fuel and breakfast at 8:00 am, intending to be on the road before 9:00. Well that just isn't early enough. While we enjoying our breakfast in pulled two big busses and unloaded at least 80 asian tourists. They must have left Queenstown at 6:00 or even earlier. The busses were on the road again well ahead of the bikes.

Once on the road we kept to a slow to moderate pace so that we could enjoy the road and the scenery. Well that was the excuse, the wet road and steady traffic may also have had something to do with the lower speeds.

I stopped at Mirror pools for a photo while the others rode on ahead, but I soon caught up to the group at Lake Gunn. When we arrived at the Homer tunnel there were around 40 riders from BRONZ Otago gathered there on their poker run. Some of them carried on into Milford while others turned around here and headed back into Te anau.

Our group of 12 bikes headed down the tunnel and on to Milford with its absolutely magnificent scenery. Mitre Peak had a bit of cloud around the top, and all the waterfalls were spectacular due to the rain the day before. What rain we asked.

[Jantar]

We spent about an hour wandering around Milford, but unless you want to pay a years salary for a boat trip there isn't much to do there. So once again we were back on the road to have a look at the chasm. These two pics are on the road out of Milford to the Chasm. Gerald on his Honda 750, and Ange on her Suzuki GSX600F.

[Jantar]

These photos are on the ZigZag heading up to the Homer tunnel.

As we waited at the entrance to the tunnel a number of riders removed their helmets and strapped them to their bikes. They just wanted to appreciate the sound of the bikes climbing the steep uphill grade in the tunnel. However as we started to move off an idiot in a camper van tried to push his way in front of the bikes. There was a loud roar of exhausts as several bikes showed what lane splitting is really about. Theres not much room to squeeze past a camper van, but within 100 meters of the tunnel entrance there were no bikes left behind the van. The camper van exited the tunnel only after we had all regrouped and parked our bikes in the parking area at the top of the tunnel. What a wanker, thinking he could safely travel up ahead of the bikes.