2009 Southern Cross: Miles of Smiles

**Jantar** · 31st March 2009, 20:56

Day 4. Thursday 26th March: 526 km

Fuel at Caltex, breakfast at MacDonalds, and I was on my at 8:00 am exactly. A group of five Southern Cross Riders passed just out of town, and I followed them for a while to Hatepe, but decided that I didn’t need to travel at 130 kmh when I had 5 hours to reach the ferry. It was a cool yet sunny morning and the views across Lake Taupo were brilliant. Approaching Turangi my radar detector started beeping on Ka band however I was legal, so I simply switched off the sounder and continued on my way. Three quarters of the way over the Desert Road I glanced down and noticed that the sounder was still turned off, and this is cop alley. I turned it back on and within a minute it alerted me to radar up ahead. Whew, that one saved me a small fine.

Just south of Waiouru I ran into fog, and it started to get decidedly cold. I came up behind a couple, Allen and Jennifer, on a BMW F650 at some road works and followed them as far as Taihape. The cold was starting to get to me so I stopped here to put on a jersey under my leathers.

I soon caught up with Allen and Jennifer a few kms further down the road, and stayed in company to Bulls where they stopped for fuel. Otaki was my fuel stop, and from here it was a good clean run through to Wellington and the ferry.

At the ferry check-in we were informed that the ferry was running late. So instead of leaving at 2:05 pm it was closer to 3:00 before we got underway for a very smooth crossing. We were fortunate to see a pod of dolphins crossing the ship’s bow as we approached the South Island and another pod feeding near the mussel beds inside the sound. The ferry made good time and 40 bikes were on the road again by 6:00 pm.

Another very comfortable and uneventful ride down the coast saw me arrive at Kaikoura around 7:30. As I parked the bike outside the Adelphi mangell6 came out, looked at his watch, and said “I suppose you’re going to tell me the ferry was late!”

**Jantar** · 1st April 2009, 08:40

Day 5. Friday 27th March: 640 km

Mangell6 and I had arranged to meet another rider, Paul, outside our accommodation at 8:30 am. We had our bikes loaded by 8:20 and were checking them over when mangell6 commented that his bike need oil. I decided to check my own site glass, and saw EMPTY!!!!

How could this be? We were parked on a slight slope but surely not steep enough to cause that. Mangell6 had enough to top up his own bike and I decided that I would buy some oil at the first fuel stop.

08:30 came and went, and no sign of Paul. Another ¼ hour went past and we decided to go looking for him. We found his accommodation, but there was no sign of his bike, so we headed on south. Mangell6 had filled up in Wellington the previous day and was sure he could get to Amberley. My previous fuel was Otaki, and my Vstrom was slightly thirstier than his FZ1. I was sure I could get to Cheviot, and just maybe Amberley, but that would be cutting it fine. At Cheviot I still had 2 bars showing on my fuel gauge so I pressed on and decided to use Greta as a decision point. If the last bar wasn’t flashing at Greta I would continue to Amberley, otherwise I’d stop for fuel at Greta. As we passed Greta the gauge was still not flashing so on we went, 10 seconds later it started flashing. I knew I’d be cutting it fine and when we did stop at Amberley I had less than 12 kms of fuel left in the tank. However at 17.3 km/l that was the best fuel mileage I had ever managed for that type of run. I bought some oil here as well, but when I went to put it in the sight gauge was showing an almost perfect oil level. I put a little in anyway (and a lot over the engine case) figuring that maybe it was just the difference between hot and cold.

Taking the bypass road through Christchurch, traffic was fairly heavy, nothing like Auckland, and we had a good run out to SH1, south to Rakaia, then Thompson’s Track. On that long straight road we could feel the wind gaining in strength. For most of the straight we were heading directly into wind so it didn’t affect us too much, but once we reached the end and turned more south it was side on and strong. We battled the wind all the way to Geraldine and lunch.

After the long straight of Thompson’s Track, the nice twisty road to Fairly was a welcome relief. We carried on to Lake Tekapo for our next fuel stop, and caught up with a rider from Taupo on an R6. We have to give this guy credit: He dropped his bike on the way to the start and did some damage to the plastics and to one engine case. He had the bike repaired, (roughly, but quickly) and carried on. The R6 would not be the most comfortable bike for this type of trip, yet he was still smiling and enjoying himself.

The weather ahead was looking suspect with bands of rain visible, and as I could see Mt Benmore in the distance I assured Mangell6 that we should be OK. Maybe some big heavy drops of rain near Omarama, nothing too wet, and fine from there to Lindis. That prediction was correct as far as it went. There were a few big heavy drops of rain between Pukaki and Omarama, then fine all the way to Lindis Pass. Once over the Pass though it was a different story. The sky was black and rain was the order of the day. We stopped to put on some wets and rode through the very heavy rain which lasted all the way to Cluden; a distance of 40 km or about 25 minutes. The road was still wet in places, but no more rain from there to home Alexandra.

**Jantar** · 1st April 2009, 09:38

Day 6. Saturday 28th March: 235 km

We left home just before 9:00 am and fuelled up in Alexandra. The temperature was around 6 or 8 C, I can’t remember exactly, but mangell6 was surprised how mild it felt for such a low temperature. I had promised mangell6 some twisty roads to make up for the long boring straights of the previous day. We had a good run over the hills to Roxburgh, then just short of Ettrick I turned right and led us into the hills of Moa Flat. A farmer with a sense of humour has built a moa out of old fence netting and wire, and placed it just inside his property on the apex of a 45 kmh bend. It’s in such a position that you only have a moment to glance at it or risk running off the road. I had warned mangell6 that we may see a moa in this area, so there we were cranked hard over to the right and I had my left arm out straight pointing at this moa. I paused briefly at the Edievale corner thinking “Left to Tapanui shorter, straight ahead to Heriot more fun”. The “more fun” road won out.

We rejoined SH1 at McNabb, and in Gore made a short comfort stop, then on to my next short cut at Kennington. A left turn through the settlement, then I overshot the road I was looking for. A quick U-turn, then on to join the Bluff road as we by-passed Invercargill completely. This only saves about 8 km, but it has no 50 kmh areas, no traffic lights, and no traffic. Through Bluff and on to the end of SH1 at Stirling point, we had made it all the way; only to be told that the books were back at the Eagle Tavern in Bluff. We headed back to Bluff, signed in, collected our badge, checked into our accommodation, then back to the Eagle for party time.

Once everyone had arrived, Lee Rusty called us all into the main bar for some important announcements. Among them was a message that came up on the large TV screen, “Allen wants to know” followed a short time later by “Jennifer, Will you marry me?” The silly girl said “Yes”

**mangell6** · 1st April 2009, 19:26

What a great ride I had through Jantars home county, oh and I am sorry that I doubted Jantars weather prediction as we came through the Omarama and Lindus passes.

The line up of some of the bikes outside of the Eagle was impressive.

**Jantar** · 1st April 2009, 20:32

Sunday 29th March: 339 km

I awoke on Sunday morning to hear some bikes already heading away. I only had a short day so wasn’t in any hurry. Packed the bike, collected the oysters I had ordered the night before, and on the road well before 9:00 am. Neither of the fuel stations in Bluff were open so I headed into Shell in Invercargill, then headed back east onto the Catlins road. It was a great ride on a lovely twisty road, despite the wind, and I even gave a toot as I passed Daffyd’s house in Papatowai. Approaching Balclutha I felt like a coffe, so I headed for Chez Scumdog to see if he was home. The car was there, so I knocked on the door, but no sign of life. Oh well, I put my helmet back on and was backing the bike out of his driveway when SD appeared. Apparently he had been on night shift the previous evening and I had just successfully woken him up. Just as well I did too as he had dancing practice that afternoon.

I left SD’s about an hour later and headed home via Clydevale and the Rongahere. Another quiet uneventful ride. 5654 km in 10 days so not even any really hard days either.

**xgnr** · 1st April 2009, 20:40

Originally Posted by Jantar

Day 1. Monday 23rd March: 620 km

... However by this stage I was following a bike with the unusual number plate STUUU. I took a wild guess that the rider’s name was “Stu”. I also noticed a KiwiBiker sticker on his rear mudguard. After trying to puzzle out who rides a BMW RS with the name of Stu I finally gave up guessing and decided that I’d have to wait to the next checkpoint to find out.

A few kms up the road we came to some road works and all stopped at the red light. Of course this caused us all to bunch up two abreast as we waited for the green. RichardC was on my right, so as the light turned green he took off immediately behind Stu while I was next in line. The road cones directed us into the right hand lane, but as we rounded the blind bend we were faced with the grader working the lane we were in. Bikes were desperately trying to change lanes when I saw Stu’s brake lights come on, his front end went down, and a cone shot out from what appeared to be under his front wheel. We were only doing around 10 kmh and from my perspective it looked like he was losing it. Suddenly another cone came out from under RichardC’s BMW, he hit his brakes then his BMW ran into the back of Stu’s. Both bikes went down. I was fortunate to avoid the melee and hit my horn and hazard lights as I stopped to help. Once we had the bikes upright we found that the damage was minor (but expensive) and we soon had both bikes rideable. I also learned that Stu is xgnr on KB.

Great start to the SCRR. Analised by a BMW RT... ouch.

Only had the 1150 for a couple of weeks after swapping it for the K75 (which was backed into by a cage in CHCH at the TT2000.... riding bikes is a hazardous occupation)

Now, for the record I did not hit any damn cones or "lose" it.

The bike ahead of me hit a (horizontal) cone that he did not see cos of the bike ahead. When I saw him bouncing around I braked hard as he appeared to be about to have a wee tumble. The guy following me failed to stop in time and hit me tossing me onto the road.

Finished the SCRR but ended up losing the pannier south of Whangarei along with my wet weather gear and other stuff. If you find it let me know

Nice to chat at the bar Malcom and thanks for the help

Cheers

Stu

**KoroJ** · 1st April 2009, 22:21

Nice read Malcolm. Good to finally meet and great to get other perspectives on the same ride.

**Xaria** · 2nd April 2009, 18:09

As always Malcolm a brilliant write up.
It is on my to do list, just not too close to the top

**Grant`** · 5th April 2009, 20:17

Awesome write up, sounds like a great trip!

**shafty** · 5th April 2009, 20:55

Great write up Jantar, up to your usual standard, cheers Malcolm

**xgnr** · 16th April 2009, 21:43

Originally Posted by xgnr

Great start to the SCRR. Analised by a BMW RT... ouch.

Only had the 1150 for a couple of weeks after swapping it for the K75 (which was backed into by a cage in CHCH at the TT2000.... riding bikes is a hazardous occupation)

Now, for the record I did not hit any damn cones or "lose" it.

The bike ahead of me hit a (horizontal) cone that he did not see cos of the bike ahead. When I saw him bouncing around I braked hard as he appeared to be about to have a wee tumble. The guy following me failed to stop in time and hit me tossing me onto the road.

Finished the SCRR but ended up losing the pannier south of Whangarei along with my wet weather gear and other stuff. If you find it let me know

Nice to chat at the bar Malcom and thanks for the help

Cheers

Stu

Final update

The new bike was almost a write-off... $8k worth of damage (OMFG) but been accepted now by Insurance and just waiting for bits to turn up.

Roll on the GC

**xgnr** · 1st October 2009, 19:36

Originally Posted by xgnr

Final update

The new bike was almost a write-off... $8k worth of damage (OMFG) but been accepted now by Insurance and just waiting for bits to turn up.

Roll on the GC

another semi-final update

After months of pain and Physio, I went to the Spinal guy today and it looks like I have a fucked neck as a result of this off. MRI tomorrow yay

**Gremlin** · 2nd October 2009, 03:16

Are we still gonna see you in a couple of weeks?

**xgnr** · 2nd October 2009, 22:14

Originally Posted by Gremlin

Are we still gonna see you in a couple of weeks?

awww how sweet

I really felt it today just doing the MRI thing. Lie down and DO NOT MOVE. Was in fuking agony after a few minutes. How the hell I will do the GC I don't really know

Anyways I will give it a crack and see how things pan out. Have adjusted the bars (again) lower seems to be better but maybe just see what panadol and Voltarin do along with a big ol' cup of "harden the fuk up"

See you there !