Best ever two days of riding!

[cave weta]

Wednesday and Thursday before the rain came!

I took an Aussie guy though the Stadia and the Chelmsford tracks on the Neavesville and also my private tracks around the Jubilee Goldmines. He rode my KTM525- I was on my KLX250.
the 12km up from Puriri to the saw mill was a blast- the gate was locked so I knew that mid week there was little chance of any other riders being there.
We upped the pace and got there in no time at all!
the Stadia Stream track has been transformed recently into a wide flowing buldozer width track by Transfield Services - they have been in there upgrading power pylons. it used to be the track from hell- only one step better than Thompsons track over the Kaimai Ranges, waist deep ruts and bottomless bogs! We rode that section so fast that there wasnt time to get the camera out- it is so smooth and fast now yippee!
We popped out on to the road at the bottom and pootled along in the gutter like pedestrians to get to the gravel pit a few hundred metres down and then hit the Chelmsford Hut Track - I had fitted new tyres to both bikes the previous day and the track was just damp enough to get some bite all except those bits permenantly in the shade. Aussie dude has only ever ridden in sand so had no idea of clay. But all credit to him- we rode fast and he didnt drop it all day! (shit - nor did I!!!- thats a first!)
After the Clayfest I took him up to the top of Pakakarere Bluff

to where the old pioneer town of Neavesville sat. The track up there is getting steadily harder and harder to use - he the first rider that I have ever seen get up the last part in one go except for Daffyd Roberts on his amazing Christini AWD bikes! see below for a picture of the view and him coming down again

[cave weta]

Attachment 120103

Attachment 120104Well! that fist post was a little troublesome!- Im having trouble getting pics to sit where I put them - also its only accepted 2 of the 5 that I uploaded!!


anyway.. on with the story-

After the decent back down we used the ridge track to take us behind the bluff to the old hunters hut and took time out to show him the views accross the hauraki plains towards Huntly ( thats the previous photos)


we do lunch at the Ohinemui winery which overlooks the Karangahake Gorge Gold fields. Then a short walk through the walkways to show them just how intensive the goldmining was.
Relics are around every corner of the track!

Attachment 120092
Then we drove the last 6km transit to The jubilee goldmines where I sent him over a gully at tree top height and through a hill in the darkness.

[cave weta]

The Time was about 3.30 now - we had been riding since 8am. during our short trip on the road the sky had opened and dumped on our mountain!
Yee Ha- now the aussie would get his taste of clay!
although the rain had moved on by the time we got there, we still got soaked from the ferns and bushes alongside the tracks

[cave weta]

Grrr.. still having trouble with getting the right photos in the right place!
but here, I hope are shots of him in the old 1890s tramway tunnel. this was cut as a short cut to get the gold from the mines on one side of the hill to the processing plant on the other.



Coming next .... My day in the hills with the crazy Canadian (Laura CDA, a KBer) and the Erica superhuman American Chick!

[cave weta]

After the day previous I was looking forward to some less aggressive riding....
My two riders toady were Laura CDA from KB and a very quiet sounding american lady called Erica who had just happened to book for the same day.
(she had emailed 3 nz tour companies to get a ride and I was the only one who returned her calls!)

any way... Laura rides a slightly lowered DR650 in the streets of Toronto but has never been off road. Erica is a horse trainer who uses a quad on a flat ranch in Illinios and has never seen a hill or a clutch!
I took them to my easy-peasy beginner venue to try them out!

Erica being 5 foot nothing was on my little CRF150 small wheel and long lean Laura on a CRF230. As soon as we hit the grass Erica took off and climbed the big hill in the cornerof the feild- right on the top is the fence line with no flat area so she hopped off- dragged the arse around on the steep hillside then came down all controlled and confident on a nice balance of front and rear brake and engine braking. totally fearless!

[cave weta]

Well, after a bit of getting used to the clutch and the dewey grass I put them through the first small creek. Its only 6" deep at the moment but Laura got her knees wet- ha ha ! can't seem to get the photos to load but will keep tryingAttachment 120354

Attachment 120355

[cave weta]

Both Ladies were good enough riders to go up to the goldmines so we loaded the bikes and headed for the hills!

Its hard riding for a novice up there with loose boulders and ruts on the access track. I used some detours to miss out the nastiest A grade sections.
One bit that I cant miss out claimed Laura's bike- she was doing her best to stay out of the deep ruts on a down hill when she slammed the bike headlight first into a slot Attachment 120353

EDIT: well this sucks! these photos are really worth sharing and I cant get them to load! can any one tell me what Im doing wrong?- is there a limit on the amount of photos per thread?

[noobi]

I doubt theres a limit on photos per thread, you should just be able to open the attachments window and add them off your pc and then it should just put them on?
They look quite interesting so far...

[cave weta]

I hope these photos upload cos after Laura binned her bike we stopped for a drink and she went into a fit of laughter that has to be documented!

[cave weta]

Classic!Attachment 120123

i think she passed out!Attachment 120124

[cave weta]

I took them into the gold mines to meet the cave wetas and then took em home so they could wash my bikes for me!

[oldguy]

Interesting read, sounds like that all enjoyed themselves, got to be good for business, international wise, when these people head back to their respected parts of the world, and tell there friend and family, great chance of picking up more overseas travelers looking for something different.


note.. check the size of your attachment they may be bigger than allowed size,

file types and max, size allowed. jpeg/jpg/gif 768kb if you have to edit, make sure to save in the above file format, not in Bitmap (bmp)

[cave weta]

It' s a bit odd, I used the same proccess each time to add photos and different things happened each time as you see above!
some photos went in as thumbnails
some went in as attachments
some went in as invalid links
some went in as just a numbered code that does nothing when you click on it!!??

In the past when I have put up photos- I have uploaded them from my pc to photobucket then used the codes on there to upload to KB full size - without thumbnails. it works but is slow so I tried this way.
One stange thing is that each time I did it- it opened another upload window... I had 5 open at one time!- then when I started to close them it sucked out my already loaded photos leaving invalid links-
Maybe Im just too old for this technical shit!- fetch me a teenager!

[kezzafish]

cool stuff. Keep us posted on your adventures and keep up the pic taking. It's really interesting to see what others are getting up to. What's happened to Daffyd? haven't seen him on here in ages

[cave weta]

cool stuff. Keep us posted on your adventures and keep up the pic taking. It's really interesting to see what others are getting up to. What's happened to Daffyd? haven't seen him on here in ages

Daffyds business www.offroadimports.co.nz is keeping him busy but I will make sure that we are both Here next month!