5,976km/250cc/12 days

[3L4NS1R]

(is there gas at Rawene anyway?)

Apparently so, just next to the queing area for the ferry, gotta get there before 5 though, it closes anytime after that...

[3L4NS1R]

We had planned originally to get on the road by 9, so we had plenty of sightseeing time for the vista pinnicle of the trip, Milford Sounds.

However, by 1000, it was clear that Danger had indeed lost his wallet during the night, so after a town wide search was conducted, and a police report submitted, we were on the road for Te Anau by 1200. While I was waiting for Danger to get back from the police station, I took the Bday girl on her promised motorbike ride, this time enjoying the Crown Range for what it was, a supurb bit of road engineering, clearly designed and built by bikers.

After returning from the outing, just as Danger got back, we bid our fairwells and departed Wanaka. Doing the Crown Range for the 5th time in 2 days, I could say I was warming into the route, possibly enjoying it a bit tooooo much for the likes of some of the cagers. We arrived in Te Anau aroung 1700. After some discussion, we decided to do the Milford Sounds trip that evening.

We picked up two 5L gas cans to compliment our rather short fuel tanks, and set out. When I said this would be the vista pinnicle of the trip, I may have slightly lied. This was the vista pinnicle of life in general. If you ever have the option, do the Milford Sounds in the evening. The light and shadows makes you realise how vast and how tall the stone walls are, and how deep the canyons go. If I was to say I was exhilerated by the end to the point of hyperventilation would be an understatement.

If there was a New Zealand ride to end all New Zealand rides, the Milford Sounds is definitly it.

We got back to Te Anau in dark, and the lack of bottle shops and supermarkets forced us to walk into our dorm room and ask 'Anyone going to the pub?'. Fortunatly for our bodies, only one tenant was keen, unfortunatly for us, it was a Scots man.

[3L4NS1R]

[Mid feature interval for sleep]

[Ms Piggy]

This is awesome stuff! Love your writing style & it makes look forward to my next ride South in a few weeks!

[hellnback]

...Returning to the backpackers, me and the bday girl decided a late night swim in the lake was in order, so we disappeared, returning a few hours later to, for the first time, a quiet dorm.

Skinny dipping???

[musicman]

Oh look! It appears they've replaced the sign at Cape Reinga. This is how it looked in June 2008.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...1&d=1212921958

[3L4NS1R]

Skinny dipping???

well... didnt have togs with me so we improvised.

[Hitcher]

A top effort. And a great read.

[gijoe1313]

Well well, so you were the enthusiastic chap who flashed towards me in Wanaka! I thought you were a drunken lout and I had no wish of a stoush in the middle of a small NZ town late at night

If only you had shouted out gijoe or something and I would have easily have stopped! I did circle the town again (not too hard in Wanaka) before heading back to my lodgings for the night!

Most excellent and triumphant is your write up so far, most gratifying is the challenges you have met, faced and over-comed. I couldn't imagine being plastered and recovering from hangovers and riding!

I like the cut of your jib sirs, getting up early and commencing riding! Done in the spirit I love! Reading your stirring tales of daring-do makes me grit my teeth for the lack of riding I encountered!

It is a terrific and exciting thing to read about your exploits in conjunction with Gremlin and my travels in the same neck of the woods!

Looking forward to the rest of your write-ups.

BTW, how is your mate doing? Is his bike rideable again as well?

[3L4NS1R]

Continuing on from last night:

Turns out its hard to find a decent coffee in Te Anau. Ether that or the ones that we found were the excactly wrong ones to go to. Not wanting that sour taste to ruin a day, we were out of the town by a reasonable 8am. Taking the same route back to Wanaka was a drag, that stretch of flats and straights gets mighty old mighty quick, especially when you are fighting to keep 100kph anyway.

Not bothering to brave the packed Queenstown streets again, we had lunch in Frankton, and completed the Crown range in a record time of 42 minutes. We were pretty stoked with our effort, and even when we got the news Danger's wallet was still not found we were still on a roll. After managing to miss the turn off for the West Coast, forcing us to backtrack several kms, we struck out along SH6, pootling around several large, beautiful lakes, so desperatly wanting a swim, but not wanting the bother of the effort required.

The scenery rapidly changed at the Haast Pass. Suddenly the stretching tussock clothed vistas closed up to dense, close jungle, often forming a continous roof over the road. After several days in the open, it was enough to make us feel slightly claustrophobic.

The Haast Pass itself is intense. Possibly made more intense to me because by this stage the oil leak had become so severe it was splattering onto my rear wheel, so any slight lean meant I could feel the back spin around.
It's also intense because of the geography. Not only are the corners wicked, but the steep inclines and declines add in a third dimension, which made the riding experience very rich indeed.

Of course, with all this up and down, it took us quite by suprise by how many cyclists we saw in this area, you know, the hard ones, the ones without motors...
So it was that we adopted a habit, where upon spying a cyclist, we'd drop our feet off the pegs and make cycling actions with them as we sped past.

I think they saw the humor in it too...

We made one stop on the way through, at the Blue Pools, thinking it would be a refreshing swim. It was definatly refreshing, pity the swim lasted about 20 seconds before we realised it was far too cold.

Can't say we took many photos on this leg, jungle starts to look the same quite quickly. So it was a twistie-weary biking duo that rolled into Haast that evening, searching for a feed, a coffee, and desperatly hoping there wasn't any tourists wanting to drink with true blooded kiwis.

Thankfully there were none, just a group of Vstrom riders from Nelson. To celebrate the first time in several days that we weren't socially obligated to drink, we went out and got a doz.

[3L4NS1R]

BTW, how is your mate doing? Is his bike rideable again as well?

Got his plaster off, now its just the long process of rehab and physio. I picked his bike up for him from the fixer of bikes. $3100 all up for repairs.

When I grow up, I want to be a dealer of aftermarket fairings. Turns out there's a bit of money in it.

[Pedrostt500]

Good travels young sirs.

[3L4NS1R]

Escaping the sandflies and trying to find cell phone reception were our main motivators to get out of Haast. Sure, nice town, good people, wouldn't want to stay there too long. So we found the petrol station, filled up, and jumped back on the road.

Now, being an army officer, I pride myself in my ability to gauge direction and bearings. Navigation is drilled into any soldier, and is a core competency that any military person must become fluent with if he is to go anywhere in his career.

So it was that two officers were absolutely stumped when they emerged from the dense jungle lane to find the road continuing .... south. Somehow we had taken the wrong road. To be perfectly honest, we hadn't actually realised there WAS a wrong road to take. So the bikes were turned around, the map consulted, and Haast was reentered after a 1 hour, 97 km detour. After filling up again, we relocated SH6, and cruised.

Our plan for the day was to get to Greymouth, as this would give us a good day to explore around the Nelson area, something that had be recommended to both of us. Our detour south had cost us an hour, so we pushed through the normal photostops, trying to make up for lost time. Ultimatley we ended up in Fox around lunchtime. Here a chain adjustment was made to the GN, and we made our way out to Fox Glacier. We walked right up to the glacier, braving the numerous warning signs, fording the rivers, and dodging the falling rocks (seriously, there would be a sizable fall every 5-10 seconds).

On the way back, it was decided that our bikes needed to see the glacier too, and that the shingle track would be fine for even the road faring GN.

This plan lasted about 30 seconds into the track, when we were told to turn around by a courteous DoC officer. Being rebelious youths, we did what came natural. We obliged, and instead took photos of our bikes in a rock field next to the car park.

We carried on up the highway to Franz Joseph. I must explain, almost everyday of the trip we had managed to cheat ourselves of a decent breakfast, usually due to late starts and quick exits from backpackers. So we had become accustomed to having oversized lunches. The downside of this is that we would have oversized mid afternoon slumps.

Our pub lunch along with a cheeky pint at Fox managed to hit the spot just as we got to Franz Joseph. We felt f*@ked. It was unanimously decided that we would spend the night in Franz Joseph, so accomodation was found, and we were about to enter our assigned dorm when Danger stopped me, and reprimanded me for not having a doz under my arm. So we aqquired the liquid bread, and promptly found we were sharing a room with 2 aussie girls, an irish, and a guy from sweden. It really sounded like the start of a bad joke. They were all game for a big night, so we hit the bar/s of Franz Joseph, returning for a quick sleep the wee hours.

[gijoe1313]

I think this thread of yours should be renamed "Doing the SI by the dozen!"

Good hard riding there mateys!

[3L4NS1R]

Due to our failure to do our planned kms the day before, we faced a long day ahead of us. Farewelling our new friends, we hit the road at a reasonable 0900. The KLX only needed a quarter of a litre that morning, and the GN had managed to keep it's tension in its chain over night. The day was set to be a stunner. Unfortunatly the sheer length of the day ahead of us set a grey cloud, dampening our sightseeing moods, and sapping our photographic fervour.

About the biggest highlight of the day included a quick peek at Mt Cook's summit, however it's fleeting showing was too quick to get a shot of it. So you'll have to take my word that we saw it.

The second biggest highlight was observing a rather humourous creek sign. It was too good to pass up a photo, even for our travel-weary minds.

The third highlight struck just before Greymouth, when my bike turned a very significant number, for which we had to pull over and celebrate. I apologised to the KLX for not having a cake for it. Instead I rewarded it with a quick top up of oil and a triumphant wheelie.

We reached Greymouth by lunchtime, and realised we weren't close to half way. This cast an even larger cloud over us. However, one bright point came to surface, in that this was the first time I had ever seen Greymouth without overcast skies.

After a quick visit to the Monteiths brewery (it would have been an insult to the entire trip had we missed it) we pushed on through to Nelson, gritting our teeth and sucking up the soreness from our undersized motorbikes, arriving in Nelson at a very respectable 1900.

For the first time on the whole trip, there was no dormatory accomodation available to us, so we settled for a two bed room in the YHA, stinging us nearly double what we would pay for a dorm, and attractive european girls weren't even provided!

Keeping true to the tradition and heritage of the tour thus far, we finished the day with a hearty steak and a couple of quiet ones at the local bar.

For the first time, we actually looked forwards in time and realised we would need a decent sleep, for the next day, the last day, was to be our longest day by nearly 200kms, and we would need all our wits about us to keep on the road.