Jandals On Tour '07

[SlowHand]

Thanks for answering the distress call Aklers. Even if I gave you the run around with the Dunedin thing Ablin. Obviously the Return to Inver-vegas won out.

Ablin, you sunofa!! Maybe if it was dublin. Its Albin! Next time i come over, you best have a chastidy belt on your rear tyre. Cause I'm bringing industrial strength pirelli pokers!!

[NhuanH]

Wanaka to Hamner Springs, via Greymouth

The best day of riding for me.

Leaving the dry brown plains of Wanaka and heading towards Haast, I was just taken by the lushness of the greenery and not even slightly damp ground could deter from the quality of the ride. Maybe the new tyres helped my experience too?

A photo op at the Gates of Haast, and a quick piss stop at the Haast village and we whipped onto the Salmon farm through some more brilliant hilly twisties. Fresh smoked salmon bagel, yum. This is where we noticed that Bruce Bar MkI had come off the red ninja. Bruce didn't mind, he said he'd have to return to the West Coast, for research...

At the salmon farm, we were on ~200kms on the trip meter. 60kms to Fox Glacier, the next gasser.
"I hope the fuel light comes on ~220kms".
On 636, fuel light = ~4L left, about 60kms if nursing it on fuel economy challenge mode.
So the fuel light comes on at 202kms!
The remaining 60kms were not lightning fast, but we got to Fox Glacier!
Ti ninja took 16.5L, Red ninja, 16.67. $30 exactly at the exhorbitant $1.80/L, but hey, what do ya do?

Theeeen....a quick ride up the remainder of SH6, a magic twisty section between Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, then past a gorgeous reflective Lake Ianthe.
Then some straights leading up to Hokitika, all going good until I saw some disco lights in my mirrors.
Me = dumbass. Knew about the West Coast and the level of HP. Duh.

HP: "Got any reason you're going so fast?"
N: "Err, not gonna pad you with a lie: nup"

N: "How long you been chasing us?"
HP: "About 3kms"
HP: "Oh here comes my HP buddy. And the General Duties I got mobilised, in case there was a pursuit"
That must have been quite a cause of excitement in Hokitika for a Friday!

HP: "So what does WHYQ mean?"
N: "umm, why queue if you don't have to?"
HP: "oh, very clever"

It was quite a cordial dialogue with Monsieur Po-Po. He told me he'd come down from Nelson because of the Wild Food Fest and that he "had ridden big bikes for years".

Anyway, obviously I was allowed to keep on riding. That made a very ginger and sobering ride into Greymouth to gas up though, for Hamner. The Fox Glacier fuel economy run was rapid compared to that.

From Greymouth, we had a wet run into Lewis Pass via Reefton and Springs Junction. Less sweepers, more constant curves, uphill and then down. Until the plains side, where the curves and the hills got bigger. Noice.

Rolling into Hamner Springs at 6:15pm after leaving Wanaka at 9:30am meant that we deserved a nice pre-planned soak in the hot springs. Noooice.

[R6_kid:Me]

sounds like you left it a bit late in 'summer' for a nice long ride mate... your friend is looking a bit cold in that last pic!

[NhuanH]

Day 8 was always going to be easy, HP incident or not.

We allowed 6 hours to cover 300kms. Took a very cool twisty route on SH70 from Hamner to Kaikoura, saved legging it on SH1.

Fush and chups at Kaikoura, of course. Oh that hot First time in days.

As we were filling up in Kaikoura, re-assessing that even our fuel economy challenge selves could not make it to the ferry on 1 tank from Hamner, a ChCh dood said that there were strong winds up the Kaikoura coast.

SH1 actually has some nice sweeping bits just north of Kaikoura, then there was a section of strong winds leading into Blenheim. But, ah ha! I've been training on SH99 off the southern coast! And I got tyres holding pressure. Bring it on! Too easy. Aside from the wind, there were nice hilly sections leading into Blenheim as well.

Arrived into a very windy Picton about 90mins ahead of schedule, thinking I may need to put more thought into tying bike down this time. Picton is also very quiet on a Saturday afternoon. Although, I could advise the pub owner cranking out Country's Least Known Hits of the 50's what his problem was...

Lining up for the ferry there were only the 2 ninjas. Quite odd. Slightly more effort for N tying bike down this time. Well used 4 ropes that I found on the boat.
A slightly swaying sailing got us into Wgtn and the bikes remained upright. Another brilliant WHYQ manouveure got us off the boat first again, riding up to Plimmerton in the dark, rain, with tinted visors. Again, WHYQ was reduced to WHY DIE.

[NhuanH]

"Gonna need rain gear for the ride home"

All outta energy and adventure, we thought we'd straight line it up SH1 back home. Completely crapper and windy all the way to just north of Matamata!
Seriously, there have been moments on tour when I've remarked in my rain sodden helmut:
"this is fookin ridiculous!"

Again strong winds up to at least Taupo, visibility of about that guy's tail lights, until we pass him. But..I have been trained in Southland! So there.

But....until I got home I did not realise that we must have just gotten through before the Lahar blocking of SH1 and National Park. Oh, that's why those disco lights weren't for us today....

Now, being self centred and offline for a week, we thought that this crapola weather was following us around the S Island. Unbeknownst to us, most of the country was suffering. I saw that we just missed flooding on the West Coast and even Christchurch.

We was unlucky, but also a bit lucky too, missing complete flooding. There was a comment, "what would it take to turn around or stop?"
N: "prolly a twister picking up a bike and putting it in a nearby, or faraway paddock".
- saying that and REALLY wishing it didn't come true! And given this week, it would not have even surprised me. Woulda been summin like:
"oh front wheel is light, damn, so's the back wheeeel...."

So, in summary:
* 9 days
* 4648kms
* About a million litres of rain (on each rider!)
* Hail
* Snow
* Lightning/Thunder
* Gale force winds
* Lotsa laughs
* Self discovery: "man, I MUST be stupid to be out here!"
* 0 bins, even in the face of the evil laughing Jandal god!
There are faaaantastic riding roads on that other island, just a shame it takes a bitty organising to get down there from Auckers.
I loved it all, even with the challenging conditions and run in with the constabulary - all part of the experience. I think "character building" is the euphemism.
- At least I won't forget Jandal Tour 07!

Thanks to:
* Bruce, creator of the Bruce Bar and allowing us to "test" the prototypes. Some further work to be done methinks.
* Bruce again, for the NZ Motorcycle Atlas, by Peter Mitchell. Well travelled and used now. Poor packing, even with it's plastic sleeve means it needs a bit of drying out now...ready for next year! And the lend of the panniers.
* Nathan at MotoSouth, Invercargill. Top people down south there.
* 4 Square, for their plastic bags! In this age of flash ass technology, the good old plastic bag still kicks a whole lotta ass.
* Gah, the sensible, organised traveller.

Of course, this is only the N account. G has full right to spin his own lies...

[oldrider]

Enjoyed reading about your trip but you can stuff your jandal god, I think it is jinxed, leave it behind when you come back next!

Thanks to the great biker god you have taken all the bad weather back up there with you, it's beautiful weather down here now. Cheers John.

[Keystone19]

So were heated grips one of Gah's shopping purchases?

[Freakshow]

Sounds like a great trip! I am definatly going to have to try something like that!!

[NinjaBoy]

I thought it was difficult enough riding a naked MV, but riding those things, I think you have a more uncomfortable journey, but worth it when you come across those awesome Sth Island twisties.

Actually the 636's were not too bad at all !! We were averaging 5-700kms/day and didn't have any sore arms/legs/knees or backs.

Pity you didn't have the actual dates of your rides rather than your postings as we probably passed you at some stage of your rides. (Going the other way of course)

Summary of the itinenary:
Sat 10 March: Akl - Wgtn
Sun 11 March: Wgtn - Nelson and Takaka Hill
Mon 12 March: Nelson - Akaroa via Buller Gorge, Greymouth and Arthur's pass
Tue 13 March: Akaroa - Wanaka via Lake Tekapo and Lindas Pass
Wed 14 March: Wanaka - Te Anau via a snowy Crown range road, Bluff and Riverton
Thu 15 March: Te Anau - Wanaka via Invercargill for new tyres
Fri 16 March: Wanaka - Hamner Springs via Haast, Greymouth and Lewis pass
Sat 17 March: Hamner - Picton via Kaikoura
Sun 18 March: Wgtn - Akl - straight up pass the Lahar

So were heated grips one of Gah's shopping purchases?

No but seriously considered them on the road to Lumsden

[NhuanH]

I'm trying to get a more extended set of photos on flickr.com. Bit of a work in production at the mo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3284360...7600007549249/

Pity you didn't have the actual dates of your rides rather than your postings as we probably passed you at some stage of your rides. (Going the other way of course)

Mrs O/R and self are enjoying your travels through our neck of the woods.

Try not to think about your cold hands and the pain will pass quietly.

At least at this time of year the snow doesn't hang about for long.

Enjoy the rest of your ride. Cheers John.

We were the frozen monkeys with heads down trying to avoid the elements.

Ablin, you sunofa!! Maybe if it was dublin. Its Albin!

Shuddup, you're AZN. I'm sure YOU can't even spell your name correctly half the time.

Enjoyed reading about your trip but you can stuff your jandal god, I think it is jinxed, leave it behind when you come back next!

Thanks to the great biker god you have taken all the bad weather back up there with you, it's beautiful weather down here now. Cheers John.

Do not upset the Jandal.
Don't believe you about your southern weather. My latte's are much nicer outside at an Auckland cafe under a beaming - is that sweat I see before me?

So were heated grips one of Gah's shopping purchases?

Damn, come up with the good ideas now?! AND Motosouth were Kawasaki dealers!
But nothing short of a ninja mounted sunbed coulda helped us methinks.

[doc]

Excellent write up Guy's bit unfortunate about the weather. A couple of years ago me and a mate did a similiar journey to the Monkey, during one of those weather bomb patterns. The whole trip we were getting txt's from people, they nicknamed us Dumb and Dumber. We couldn't believe it as we never had our wet gear on once it was cold but we had dry roads the whole trip. So have you booked the ferry for the Brass ? only a few weeks away now.

[FEINT]

Sounds like you all had a wonderful and long ride down south. Looks like my old 636 has done quite a few km's and the whole of NZ!!

Keep up the good work Gah & Nhuanh!

[Badcat]

bwahahahahaha!
GO the jandal

nice work grasshopper...


roll on October 12....!

k

[oldrider]

Thought you might like to know, we went to a big inter-school rugby and netball competition in Alexandra today to watch our grand-kids playing in it.

Parking was at a premium even for motorbikes and all we could find was a park on "soft sand"!

Search everywhere for something to put under the side-stand!

Searched and searched and searched, finally found a lone abandoned object, "a Jandal", we folded it half and it worked perfectly!!!

Yes, you guessed right, the Jandal God was watching over us, there is a Jandal God after all! (genuflects humbly)

You guys sprang to mind immediately so we muttered a few nasal nuances in honour of the Jandal God and presto, the fog cleared and the sun shone and it was suddenly, a great day.

We celebrated with a couple of Jimmy's hot pies and a cup of coffee and the kids teams did well to boot.

Genuflects quietly and shuffles humbly away muttering Waiata to the Jandal god himself. John.

[Storm]

Awesome write up N, well done to the jandal crew on a massive ride