The Great Lower North Island Loop Ride

[robertydog]

Had a nice lunch at the Thirsty Whale in Napier. Then we rode with the guys up the Napier Taupo Road stopping off at Tarawera, where we had one last chat and sent them on the way.

[Dino]

Thanks guys for letting me tag along today from Upper Hutt to Dannevirke.

You picked some great weather to start the trip off with, I hope the rest of your journey is in the sun.

Have fun.

[DingoZ]

Thanks guys for letting me tag along today from Upper Hutt to Dannevirke.

You picked some great weather to start the trip off with, I hope the rest of your journey is in the sun.

Have fun.

Pleasure, any time at all...... Cheers for acting as TEC until Dannevirke... Hope you had a fun filled cruise back to civilisation. Weather stayed the same all the way through to Taupo. And the same was had on Sunday for the return trip .... Next time no turning back at Dannevirke...

[Grub]

... and no punctures! Da Curse is broken

Will post more tomorrow when I have a brain but the short story was ... it was great! Rimutex to Rimutex = 987.3km, nearly sent us all to th top of the hill and back just to make it a nice round 1,000 but by the time we added home(s) to Rimutex and back it comes out about 1,100 for the two days.

We modified the route a bit as we travelled, trying to save time and still arrived late to meet the very patient and gracious HB crew. Some bozo forgot to factor in the fuel stops at 20mins each

More tomorrow, night all ...

[NZsarge]

Cheers for acting as TEC until Dannevirke... Hope you had a fun filled cruise back to civilisation.

that'll be enough of that thanks! We got electricity and phones, what the hell do you want?!
At least you spelt Dannevirke correctly I guess...

[Dino]

Here is a couple of the better pictures from the short time I was with you guys, I know a couple of you are photographers so don't shoot the amateur.

The first couple are coming through the clouds on the Rimutaka hill, the last one is heading towards the wind farm around Ballance.

If you object to the pictures of you being on KB please let me know and I will remove them, thanks.

Glad you all had a great time and got home safely.

.

[Grub]

Hey smart pics Dino ... how'd you do that?

Middle picture of backs (L to R) are Dingoz, Diego, Navrim, Grub

It was great to have you along, wish it could have been for longer. That's really quite a cool shot of the mist/fog/cloud on the Takas. That was the last fluffy stuff we saw all weekend ... magic.

I really am off to bed now been asleep at the 'puter for over an hour

[DingoZ]

I really am off to bed now been asleep at the 'puter for over an hour

Snoring again I bet....................


Nope don't object to the pics one little bit Dino, cheers....

And yeah (obviously with a camera), but how you do that while you riding, you got it mounted somewhere on the front of bike...?

[Dino]

Hiya, yeah have a little home made aluminium mount for a video camera. Not the greatest quality of pictures but I always enjoy looking back at the action shots as well as the pit stop pictures.

Bad memory (wife will testify to that) so pictures are my saviour for remembering bits n pieces. Also handy to help remember where Grub took us, some great little roads explored, thanks.


Looking forward to the ride report, some good experience will have been gained.

[Nasty]

Fantastic pics ... I think they are great ... always good to see another innovation!!

[nivram]

Great Pics, Great Ride, perfect weekend had a lot of fun and most of all learnt heaps thanks to Grub and DingoZ.

[DingoZ]

Just a couple of photos from the ride...

Great ride, had an absolute blast again....

[diego]

Hi guys, I am back, and safe in Welli. Thanks for the ride. It was a lot of fun, I will see U next time.

[DingoZ]

Excellent. Not a problem in the world Diego. Anytime...

Glad you had fun....

[Grub]

Sorry it took so long, people to see, places to go, things to do ... and all that. Once I got home, I realised that I'd hardly taken any pics because I have a new phone and hadn't worked out the taking pics bit. Then when I did take them, they're the same as what the others did ... oh well

We had a good group leaving Rimutex myself CBR600, Dingoz (he made this happen) with the two-tone GT250R, Diego (he caused it to happen) on his Yammy Virago 250, Nivram (he took the plunge to go on his first ever roadtrip) on a Hyo Comet 250 and Dino (photographer all the way to Danniverke) on the mighty VTR1000. We left on time too at 0900.

The idea fo the trip was to find some really good riding roads where you can just get into a flow and sweep through the scenery. We weren't looking to go fast but to maintain a reasonable cruising speed. No violent accelerations with the subsequent heavy braking into corners, just the kind of smooth zone you get into which puts a huge grin on your face. We also had a fair distance to cover in the day so we couldn't get too far from the rhumb line. Well from the SH2 one anyway because going to Taupo via Napier is anything but direct It just meant that we found and explored roads just off the highway. We managed to stay off the highway as much as possible until Napier. Anyway, I digress....

We had a really strange experience (for me anyway) over the takas as you can tell from Dino's pic. We had misty foggy cloud stuff just after the summit. It only existed for about half a k but was interesting while it lasted. The run to Masterton is just plain boring isn't it. I guess the best that can be said is that it settles you down .


From Masterton, I was very keen to explore with the group a road I found which goes from the Masterton bypass to Eketahuna (map). Everyone should know about this road! How many time have you just cruised past Mt Bruce on that long straight boring road and wondered if there's anything better. There is and the Mauriceville road is it. Check out the google map link and go find it one day. Dino was fizzing about it. The road is wide, smooth, clean and with beautiful sweeping corners. My suspicion is that it might have once upon a time been SH2 before they did the Mt Bruce deviation - it's that good. As you leave Masterton on the bypass road, there's that humungeous straight with the winery(?) on it. Well just past the winery going north is Loop Line which goes right onto SH2. You go up SH2 for about 500metres and turn right onto the Mauriceville road. Ingore signs to Mauriceville West, just keep going and you'll find the name Mangaoranga. I can't actually remember anything being there but the name will be on a signpost or two. If you get it right, you will end up back on SH2 1.5km from Eketahuna township. If you got sucked into the "Eketahuna" signposts somewhere, you'll end up on SH2 via Coach Rd about 3km from Eketahuna - all good.

That is a road you have to do and makes a really good day ride. The funny looking cafe/shop on the right as you go into town is much much better than it looks. The owner is a baker and she makes all her own pies and tasty treats. I would happily incorporate that as a lunch destination with a ride through the back of Martinborough, Longbush, Ponatahi, Gladstone and Homebush. These roads give the rural 'fix' without the narrowness and debris of the Alfredton, Pongaroa, Weber one.

We had to gas the Virago at Eketahuna and then head for our next diversion which was to get to Woodville via Mangamaire, Nikau and Ballance (map). I would really like to explore that route via Nirea and Hukanui (map), has anyone done this? I couldn't determine from the aerial shots if some of that is dirt road or not. Anyways, there's a shot of Dino's as we road the Ballance road. That would have been the narrowest on the trip. That road actually comes out at the very end of the Manawatu Gorge, you may remember seeing a very long one lane bridge across the river there, that's the road. Oh and guess what - there's a damn fine cafe there too.

The run up to Dannevirke was predictable, I would like to spend some time exploring the side roads out that way. On Chanceyy's Manawatu Waitangi Day ride we seemed to find some but I didn't really know where we were. Alas we had to say goodbye to Dino at this point as he had to return home - via Weber, Pongaroa and Alfredton of course! Then we were 4.

It's only 9km out of Dannevirke before you can get off onto yet another classic bike road from Matamau through Maktoku to Ormondville, Kopua, Takapau and onto SH50 (map). This is great riding. It's not narrow with debris, the roads are good sweeping ones and the distance is just about the same as goin up SH2 - but way more interesting. SH50 (the only way to the HB).

We headed for the waterfront and happened to bump inot the HB crew. Well actually, they'd been waiting for 45mins for us! Legends all of them. Our thanks for your patience and great hospitality as always to Robertydog, MSTRS, Yungatart, Frying Finn and there's someone else whose handle I didn't catch. We were holding the HB crew up as they were due at Team Cudby's 'surprise' party so after lunch and a natter it was orf to do the Napier Taupo road ... that is a way cool piece of tarmac. We'd stayed together as a group in sight of each other all day so this time we had a bit of a play and Nivram got the Learn from Yungatart When we pulled into the Tarawera Tavern a few cobwebs had been blown and the grins were almost as big as the stories. It was sad to part and be on our way, especially as they'd left us on our own for that corner. You know, the one 500metres west of the pub which is downhill, left, steep and has judder bars all through the braking zone - thanks guys. Then we were 4.

We arrived Taupo at 5:30 and said goodbye to Diego who was off to meet some mates for 4 days of drink and debauchery. It was all his fault we came in the first place, we had such a great time I nearly kissed him - nearly. Just 3 left, Dingoz, Nivram and I, we checked into the cabins at Great Lakes Holiday Park ... great value at $31 each, perfect for this kind of trip. Perhaps hearing the guy next door writing his name in the bowl with his 4am pee did take the edge off it a bit.

Since the finest dining establishments of Taupo were bidding for our business we snobbed them all and camped out at Cafe Max on the waterfront. Damn good food, not flash, fun staff and a meal (full flounder for me) and extras for about $18 - can't beat that. Day Two laterz