Suggested roads and sights in Northland?

[Cajun]

you should be moving rocks shafty, not inside on computer

and put those bags on your bike looks like a scooter

[shafty]

haha - yeah, all rocks now in place, and still time to wash the ST before dinner. Not a bad wee ride today - it handled the wind good which I'm happy about. I saw the GSX14 turn on to the Old Te Aroha Rd, thought bugger that it's windy enough already w/out using that road, so whipped thru via Matamata and arrived just ahead of you. How windy was it?

....and stop looking at my rear end, it's not a scooter at all!! lol

[Cajun]

shrug well everything is pretty windy when you are doing warp factor 10. was trying out the new power commander that was fitted to my bike saturday

But wind wasn't to bad, worse wind was coming up the kamais, i put a new whisper kit on my shoei helmet, due to fact it has tons of wind noise, but guess you don't get that with your electric up and down screen and like.

Yeah adele doesn't like that first part of old te aroha rd either, but she alot better with new tires on her bike.

[Indoo]

Well there are plenty great roads up this way and beyond. Out through Dargaville/Waipoua Forest/Opononi etc (SH 12) is a must.....

If your doing sh12 be aware that there now appears to be a fair few HP monitoring it and even a couple of unmarked cars, it was an expensive trip for me last time.

[clint640]

Last time I was up there we basically kept as close to the coast as we could on tarseal, up one side & back down the other, had a ball. There's some awesome roads up there.

Cheers
Clint

[jrandom]

I second all the SH12 comments; it's a great road, and you only have to stay on SH1 for 20km after you get off SH16 and head north to the SH12 turnoff.

I keep planning to get someone to drop me off at Brynderwyn with my pushy; the 70km from there to D'ville would be a great pedal ride.

Keep the Mk I eyeball and radar (if you've got one) peeled, though. I visit Dargaville most weekends, these days, and I see an HP car almost every trip, but I've never seen more than one. I'd venture to suggest that once you've gone past one going the other way on SH12, you're quite likely not to run into more of them.

I suspect they prefer to stake out SH1. I'm not aware of 12 having a particularly bad accident record.

[Beemer]

Russell's a lovely place to visit - try fish and chips on the beach (the shop was called Birdy num-nums in 2005!). Don't forget to visit the chocolate factory at Kerikeri too - think it's called Makana.

And that place that starts with M (memory failing me this morning) where you sit out on the deck of this fish and chip place (bit of a recurring theme here!) - real tourist attraction but lovely meals.

[Indoo]

Keep the Mk I eyeball and radar (if you've got one) peeled, though. I visit Dargaville most weekends, these days, and I see an HP car almost every trip, but I've never seen more than one. I'd venture to suggest that once you've gone past one going the other way on SH12, you're quite likely not to run into more of them.

Thats what I used to think, until unfortunately I met Mr 2nd HP.

[The_Dover]

Thats what I used to think, until unfortunately I met Mr 2nd HP.

I thought you were a pig? Don't you get mate's rates?

[vifferman]

The wife planned and organised a trip round "Oop Norf" for us for Easter. We went SH16 to start with, then turned off before the Brynderwyns and headed for Kai Iwi lakes, Waipoua forest, Opononi, Rawene ferry, Ahipara, then stayed at Awanui. From there we did an early morning trip to Cape Reinga, and missed all the tourist buses (VERY important!). The Cape Reinga gravel roads were a bit rough, but I found that going up the wrong side of each hill, and keeping the speed up over 90km/h where possible helped heaps. On the way bag, we checked out the giant sand dunes on the West coast south of Cape Reinga, and Ninety Mile beach. Stayed another night at Awanui, then rode through to Kerikeri, taking coastal tourist routes where possible. Did the same from Kerikeri to Whangarei, which was such an awesomely winding road I had to stop because I was so tired!

I think the roads up north are very under-rated, especially those mentioned, and even though it was Easter, the traffic was incredibly light, so we had a blast!

PM me if you want any more details.

[Indoo]

I thought you were a pig? Don't you get mate's rates?

Hes HP, different occupation really. And I couldn't be arsed greasing up to him pretending that we do the same 'job'.