PACWIT Ride Reports

**fjones** · 24th September 2008, 08:58

As we do a ride report I'll just keep them all contained in this thread instead of clogging the tubes. Enjoy.

**fjones** · 24th September 2008, 09:00

For the love of god, this time we were going to get up early. 6am we rolled out of bed no problem, and got our shit together, and we’re off South for a quick meet up, coffee and then on the road again to Ngatea. The roads were busy, but everyone seemed to do a reasonable pace until we notice a non-descript blue Holden nearing us. We figure it’s a ghost car and we play nice at the speed limits. We make it in easy time to Ngatea and have a coffee and muffin at a roadside cafe. With the boring bits out of the way we make way for Paeroa, famous for its L&P drink and the bike races. We stop in front of the Iconic bottle to take some shots, went to use the toilets, a voice tells you to lock the door, you have 10 minutes to do your business and then belts out Burt Baccarat. Of course there is no toilet paper, and Burt’s not gonna help you wipe, so it will have to wait till the next stop.

We plunge forth into the Karangahake Gorge and stop at the Historic Walkway for a quick break, use the toilets, no Burt but plenty of TP. The road was amazing as it followed the river bend for bend towards Waihi. Once we arrive at the “Heart of Gold” we turn off the marvel at the massive hole that looks from the air to gobble up the town. On the road again south, the air finally started to warm up, and we heated up our tires on some amazing strips of crushed rock as we followed the hills and farms towards Tauranga. Forging our way into the town we were happy to see some biker friendly spots to park along the main road and we had no trouble finding somewhere to eat our hearts out on some “healthy” lunch. After we stuff ourselves, we took the toll hwy towards Matamata, a quick stop at Mclaren Falls, neglecting to fill our tanks at Tauranga there was not a single station until Matamata as we arrived on fumes.

Once to Matamata, we decided, well, I decided that I wanted to hike up Wairere Falls, as I have always seen it, but never been up close. So after clambering up the side of the mountain for 45 min we made it to the viewing platform to see people at the top of the falls. They were braver than me. The sun started retreating, as did we, for more food and a good night of sleep.

Sunday was a quick trip back to Auckland. As we had taken this route many times, we began to relax and get in the grove of the rolling hills and sweeping turns. On a nice straightaway, we pull out to pass a dawdling van to be face to face with the largest wild turkey I have ever seen. A literal game of “chicken” ensued as the turkey went all frogger style until he darted right into the bushes. I edged between the turkey and the van, narrowly missing his wattle

For complete ride report and all photos follow the direct link. Check out the last photo of the bee!

http://www.pacwit.com/index.php?opti...ports&Itemid=9

**fjones** · 29th September 2008, 18:58

This report is written by Flora...

With our minimal time available this weekend, we headed to Wellsford as our first pit stop. A chilly morning so we bundled up to prevent too much discomfort in the first few hours of riding. Not long, and we had arrived in Wellsford for breakfast. We eyed a corner cafe that looked promising, and sauntered down to have a feed. Being good little children we opted for the healthy menu of fruit and muesli. This wouldn’t be the only gravel we would encounter for the day.......
The morning weather looked more promising as we pushed on, we found our way to the coast on one of the busiest motorcycle roads in the north; Mangawhai Road. With only a few stops to click some photos we pushed on through to Cove road, and experienced some seriously tight turns. Finding a nice spot to shoot a few, Joe did a few laps so I could practice my moving shots (still needs more practice). Cove road opens up to Langs Beach and some amazing coastal scenery. Large million dollar batches dot the hills that overlook the islands beyond, I’m sure the fishing isn’t too shabby here either. Up past Langs lies Waipu Cove, and Waipu where some settlers from Scotland arrived many years ago escaping to find a better life in New Zealand, so the town has a bit of a Scottish flare to it.

A sip of water refreshed us as we tracked back the way we came. We head south and the west towards the coast again, hitting some nice turns, up towards Leigh and then...... gravel. Ok, so the map doesn’t say gravel, but hey, they’ve been wrong before, so we think ok, not so bad we just do it quick and hopefully there is some better road ahead.... we are all relived when it transitions back after about 3kms, not so bad.. what did we get worked up about? We then round a corner and we come face to face with the elusive wild turkey, now everyone has to believe me that they exist (of course I didn’t have my camera out) a little rev of the Leo Vince and the turkey warbles off into the bush. Then, just after Pakiri, it goes from bad to worse, not only does it turn to gravel, but also a single lane track where it said “Use extreme caution 35km/h”. Up the hilly road we go, dodging ruts and runoffs, cars defiantly not doing 35km are coming down the hill with their dust clouds piling through our visors, ew.. shouldn’t I be on the DR for this? Then, finally, we end it all and work our way down the hill on tarmac into the biggest hairpin I’ve ever encountered. And just like that, we were in Leigh.

We had inhabited the Sawmill cafe in Leigh a few times during the last 6 months, and the food was pretty good, albeit, the service a bit slack. So we remembered the tasty squid and chorizo salad and baked snapper from our previous visit. The appetizing menu had be eradicated and replaced with odd combos of lacklustre food. We were too hungry to care, and ordered what we thought would be a light meal. Ok I’m not going to complain, we’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves. Afterwards we toyed with the idea of something sweet, but we should have taken the lack of service as a sign to get out of dodge but we were intrigued by the menu’s description of some of the deserts. We wanted to ask the waiter if we could have some of his love fudge packed up to go.... but I didn’t think that a sense of humour would accompany his poor service. We decided to hit the road and b-line it back to Auckland. Traffic and frustration ensued, as always, but we made it back just before the heavens opened up and washed the slate clean for Sunday.
Direct link to the entire report and loads more pics of the ride here:
http://www.pacwit.com/index.php?opti...ports&Itemid=9