gijoe1313 and Gremlin invade the Mainland!

[oldrider]

Mrs O/R and I were travelling through the Lindis to Wanaka this morning and approaching Tarras I mentioned to her:

Keep an eye out for a couple of specific bikes today as I think there are two young KBr's from Auckland in our area!

She asked how she could tell them apart from any other bikers?

I replied, one has a very loud red coloured camo suit which you don't see every day.

No sooner said than around the corner comes Gremlin (in front) followed closely by a rider in a loud redish camo suit with a red helmet!

We waved but of course that was a bit futile, A because you had no idea who we were and B we were in a cage!

Never mind, I felt better because we saw you and waved!

Sorry not to have struck you at a stop somewhere but you had good weather.

You should have had a nice ride to where ever you were heading to today.

We passed you about 10:30 just North of Tarras. (Cluden Hill)

At least we were thinking of you. Cheers, John.

[trump-lady]

Just checked in with the olds....they have arrived and theres about 10 people over at the house bout to have a BBQ. Awesome Cantabrians. I owe apology,..... It appears I was drunk and put the wrong ph number for dad last night. All in all has worked out. Ive been told the pootlers were going to go to Akaroa, but now with all the visitors are now staying in. Mum says Justin talks alot hehehehe and asked me if they talk about anything else but bikes. I said no, that will be convo all night.

[Sharry]

That is so cool of your dad Trumplady May the pootlers have a great night entertaining your dads guests

Surely they must be in need of a good nights snoozing after all these antics

[dangerous]

Mum says Justin talks alot hehehehe and asked me if they talk about anything else but bikes. I said no, that will be convo all night.

hahaha... and then lemans turned up, heheh now Justin cant get a word in edgways

[karla]

Just checked in with the olds....they have arrived and theres about 10 people over at the house bout to have a BBQ. Awesome Cantabrians. I owe apology,..... It appears I was drunk and put the wrong ph number for dad last night. All in all has worked out. Ive been told the pootlers were going to go to Akaroa, but now with all the visitors are now staying in. Mum says Justin talks alot hehehehe and asked me if they talk about anything else but bikes. I said no, that will be convo all night.

You have the best "olds" (they're young really!) - I'm surprised that you ever left home

Had a lovely bbq, good to chill out and listen to the stories being told, and not just from the NI loose kb units! After days of extreme highs the evening was a cool way to end the day (in both senses of the word).

Little boy has left a jandel there (I think) so we have an excuse to go back again one day

All good ~

[laRIKin]

Just checked in with the olds....they have arrived and theres about 10 people over at the house bout to have a BBQ. Awesome Cantabrians. I owe apology

No problems at all glad we went and had a great night talking shit.
I'm sorry I bit back on the other thread.
Would be great to go for a ride one day with you and your old man.

[trump-lady]

You have the best "olds" (they're young really!) - I'm surprised that you ever left home

Had a lovely bbq, good to chill out and listen to the stories being told, and not just from the NI loose kb units! After days of extreme highs the evening was a cool way to end the day (in both senses of the word).

Little boy has left a jandel there (I think) so we have an excuse to go back again one day

All good ~

Yeah I do have the best olds eh. They are young, had me at 17. When bills come in I wish I had stayed home lol, they just raised me to be very independant but we are very close

Glad you all had fun and Im sure u can always drop in. You ight wanna call dad though cause there is a puppy running round who loves to chew. He might need to rescue it lol.

I will be down 2010 on the bike because I do the hog rallys with dad so hopefully we will meet up then....

Awaiting lastest news from the pootlers, guess you guys talked them out

[laRIKin]

I will be down 2010 on the bike because I do the hog rallys with dad so hopefully we will meet up then....

Awaiting lastest news from the pootlers, guess you guys talked them out

WIll be great to meet you as well.
Just put a Big Kick Ass thread about you come down, with a bit of warning.
Tell Dangerous as well so he can spread the word.

When we left Gijoe was geared up to ride to Akaroa and back and then was going to do it again in the morning before doing it again with Gremlin and your Dad.
Before head in north to Hamner Springs.

[mikeey01]

I had the pleasure of meeting up with GiJoe, Gremlin and a few other kbers last night. A couple of down to earth great blokes who share the same as we all do, the pleasure of riding and exploring.
Yes their antics have been hilarious thus far and yes they're a couple of real hard cases in the flesh!
Great to catch up and I'm glad I made the effort!
Thanks to trump-lady's folks, I swore the dogs were going to eat my pasta eating arse when I arrived.
What a great bunch of people who are from the salt of the land, no bullshit posers just fine folks and fine company, thank you so much guys and girls I enjoyed the evening and many laughs and hell my guts aches this morning from laughing so hard!

Guys hats off to you both for actually cracking on and doing it and I wish you well on the rest of the travels and look forward so much to the write ups yet to come.

[laRIKin]

We seen the lads heading North at the Waipara turn off about 5-ish??
When we were heading home after doing the Mt Lyford loop.

We did the KB wave and they did it back.

[McJim]

Good to hear that our intrepid travellers are still pootling northward. I wonder how many NZ roads gijoe1313 hasn't travelled along - it's gotta be less then the number he has travelled!

[alanzs]

Great thread. I am planning on coming down south starting this weekend, so the routes/experiences have been awesome to read.

And, from one teacher to another, well done!

[Gremlin]

Well, reading back, it has been a while since the last update... we have been busy meeting kb'ers and umm... riding

The last update was in Wanaka, with GiJoe escorting Angel to Alexandra.

The next day was Wanaka to Christchurch, and trump-lady's parents, Steve and Mary were putting up with us for the night (or is that putting us up? ). There was also a BBQ and meeting some kb'ers planned. The day started with fine weather, GiJoe had made it back, slept some stupidly small amount, and was buzzing to ride (stopping his desire is like trying to sink a buoy).

Tekapo was passed, the lake photographed (as y'do) and onto Fairlie for the one necessary fuel stop. It started to rain as we entered Fairlie, the clouds were dark and heavy, and it generally didn't look too fun ahead. Re-fueling the bikes and ourselves (it was lunchtime, and time for the countless servo pie, errrr, all in the course of sampling ) I also chucked on a jersey, as the temperature had dropped several degrees.

On the way to Christchurch, in an attempt to avoid the boring straights on the main drag, we detoured through Methven and Darfield. Of course, we found more straights. At least one damn straight must have been over 5km long. Stretching past the horizon, we made jokes about the great corners to keep us awake. Ah for an auto-pilot. I can see why Akaroa is sooo popular. At one point, about 500m above sea level, we hit heavy cloud on a back road, visibility was down to 20m. Eerie, but rather fun (in a mad sort of way). GiJoe blames Gremlin for breaking the weather.

We arrived in Christchurch early, around 4pm, probably 2 hours ahead of the planned schedule, for those meeting us. Naturally, we thought about more riding, and GiJoe had never ridden Akaroa. A call is made to Shrek, turns out he is right around the corner (one of those coming to pinch and prod us). When he arrives, we find out that trump-lady has mistyped her Dad's number (GiJoe read her posts and realised she was rather pished) so no-one could ring him.

Since they didn't have a computer, out comes my laptop, and I jump online to communicate and post the correct number. The plan for Akaroa goes out the window (delicious, gijoe suffered - but he hid his disappointment well - he's had a lot of practise) we start chatting, more of the chch kb'ers turn up, and the evening gets under way. Steve and Mary put on a fantastic BBQ, drinks are consumed, stories are swapped (ie, one was where a guy wanting a hardley described it as great british iron ), and time passed fast.

As the kb'ers left, gijoe displayed his dissatisfaction with the days riding by heading out to Akaroa around 11pm. Not surprised by his antics any more. Steve was rather bemused. I catch up on some route planning and costs etc, and turn in.

GiJoe comes in at some point, again has a small amount of sleep, and leaves for Akaroa at 7am. Much to my amusement (I'm easily amused) he laters tells me all the servo's were shut, so he couldn't ride out, goes around the city, and returns to cook breakfast. Obviously, I'm still examining my eye-lids at this point.

hmm... wasn't concentrating, and started writing the next day in the same post... Day 11 continues in the next.

update: pics have been added, first one was me starting the day off, frustrating the hell out of gijoe...

[McJim]

I should never have let Angel near my computer - she has (ab)used all my braodband allowance for the month and I am now reduced to dial up speeds until the billing cycle clicks over (note to self - do not let visitors use your broadband ) Glad you fellas are alright - I was beginning to get a bit worried by the radio silence (lack of posts) for a while there.

When my connection speds back up I will maybe post some of the piccies from your trip.

Happy travelling!

[Gremlin]

GiJoe had been busy cooking, so I set to devouring the food, the only way to compliment a cook isn't it?

After breakfast was finished, Steve had decided he would like to ride with us, and since he actually lived in the city, it made sense to put him at the front, and show us some of the local roads (Locals usually know them best )

He took us out towards Akaroa, taking in Summit Road, and bits of other roads around the hills. A brief stop in Akaroa (sure is a busy little place) it was more winding roads and a drink stop at the Wheatsheaf. To his surprise, we had never been through Lyttleton tunnel (hell, we didn't even know one existed), so the route back included that. Amazing how your mental age can go into single digit figures when you ride through a tunnel

They were fantastic hosts, demonstrated by the fact that we only left them around 4.20pm. Previous route ideas had been purged, as there wasn't enough time, but we'd take the local routes every time, as the country ones can be ridden any time (and gives an perfectly good excuse to come back) so it was straight to Hanmer, a total of 150 odd km (the mornings ride had been around 210km).

We checked in to our Hanmer backpackers just before 6pm, and set to unpacking. We had already tossed up ideas about doing Inland and Leader Rd after check in, while going to Hanmer Springs via the comms, and thought it a good idea. There was some sort of Adventure ride going on in the area, and the lady in the backpackers hadn't been too helpful when I was enquiring about gas availability. Asking the riders, it was basically closing. Excess gear was thrown into the room, jumped back onto the bikes, and made for the servo. At this point, GiJoe deals a masterful stroke.... and locks our room key IN THE ROOM I go to the servo to delay them from closing.

Turns out the adventure riders have done the job (apparently there were around 150 of them), and we fill up successfully. The route through Inland Rd, down the coast, and back through Leader Rd is 255km, the outer range of our tanks, but hey, it will be fine (and there is probably 1 fuel station anywhere near our route, and not on the route itself). At this point, you're probably thinking we ran out, or something happened.

Nope. We returned to Hanmer around 10pm, 3 hour total time around the loop, and had a useless walk around Hanmer for grub. I told him things would be shut, but does he ever listen? He ends up finding the free food rack in the backpackers, and we raid that while talking and organising, and then fell into bed. The main trip for the day was 600km, and GiJoe, with his earlier pootling, had covered 650km for the day.

pics are going to follow later when I have been through them.

edit: This will be it for right now, as we're leaving picton, after "technical issues" (they couldn't open or close the stern door).