2009 Southern Cross Report by MaxB

**Highlander** · 12th April 2009, 19:59

Originally Posted by KoroJ

Nice one Max, Steve and I even managed to slip into one of your photos.

However, this is the 2nd SC in a row where you've tried to cut the story short. I feel we still have at least 1500Kms to read about and judging by your penchant for including Provinces and taking in magnificent vistas with circuitous stretches of macadam....that's probably more likely 1800 Kms.

Yup, after a ride like that unless you have to get back for work or family it just seems wrong not to take the long way home.

**shafty** · 12th April 2009, 20:51

Originally Posted by KoroJ

Nice one Max, Steve and I even managed to slip into one of your photos.

However, this is the 2nd SC in a row where you've tried to cut the story short. I feel we still have at least 1500Kms to read about and judging by your penchant for including Provinces and taking in magnificent vistas with circuitous stretches of macadam....that's probably more likely 1800 Kms.

Photo caption: "KoroJ, resplendent in his yellow M.O.W. raincoat, ready to mount his ST13"

LOL

**MaxB** · 12th April 2009, 22:03

Yeah, I held off naming names (at least those I knew) figuring that those that wanted to would make themselves known.

I have had a few requests to document my trip home, so I better get started.

**KoroJ** · 12th April 2009, 23:00

Originally Posted by shafty

Photo caption: "KoroJ, resplendent in his yellow M.O.W. raincoat, ready to mount his ST13"

LOL

Nah, that's my $13 Warehouse Wets! I bought it for 1 GC figuring if it only lasted the one weekend and I stayed dry, it was worth it......That was in 2007! Damn it was a good buy.

**MaxB** · 13th April 2009, 23:39

HOMEWARD BOUND

Saturday 28th – Bluff to Te Anau (216 kms)

The human body is an amazing thing. I did the rally with a broken thumb. It happened a few weeks previously playing sport with my son. I jury rigged a soft grip and a dressing that allowed some freedom of movement whilst fitting inside the gloves. My missus who is medically inclined showed me how to do my own dressing. Sweet. That is why I needed the painkillers and why I found it so difficult in the Mordor roadworks. By the Saturday it had healed enough to stop annoying me and I could look forward to the trip home.

My original plan was to crash in Bluff and go to the evening do. Whilst at the Eagle I was vaguely aware of a task I had to do but I was busy chomping on some venison. A few things made me uneasy, the weather was closing in from the West, rumours of price gouging were filtering back from Bluff motels and backpackers and every hour more and more people were leaving. I heard about 2/3 of the entrants left on Saturday arvo. Bogar had made it down on his first SCRR and was staying for the fun. So had the blue broken R6 guy. On reflection that was my happiest memory of the event, helping him (in a small way) out of situation where he was otherwise screwed.

I made a plan to leave the event and head out to Te Anau. I must admit that it was hard to leave the fireside and the company but once made I found it easy to stick to my decision. I went up to Invercargill for some chain lube from Super Cheap and to gas up. A quick spray and I was on my way.

By now the sun had actually come out but the very strong wind was driving the temp down. I was taking a favourite road from way back. Out to Riverton and up to Manapouri on the Clifden to Blackmount road. Parts of this road were unsealed when I first did it. But now it was part of the Southern Scenic tourist route and had been tarted up a bit. People some times ask why I have a bike like the ZZR – too big, too fast etc. Apart from it being a great luggage platform it shines on roads like SH99. Good visibility, low wire fences to see junctions (and through the corners) and fast sweepers are where a bike like this can be used to some of it’s potential. Time and place they say. Well. Yippee.

I still took it easy until Riverton, I like the place clinging as it does to the land around the estuary. Over the river bridge and the road opens out to Colac Bay, the surfie spot. After that the traffic dwindled to nothing and it was time to enjoy the ride. Zooming past the spectacular coast of Te Waewae Bay and the place where you can find gemstones on the beach was a highlight. On to Tuatapere past the campsite where that terrible attack took place. By all accounts it has pretty much stuffed tourism in this region. It is such a beautiful area. I wondered whether anyone would care if he ‘fell down the stairs’ in prison.

My dark thoughts receded as I crossed over the Waiau river and up onto higher country to Clifden past the old suspension bridge on the left and up the Blackmount road. Man it was seriously blowing fierce up this stretch. Only one thing for it, speed up. Then no worries, steady as a rock. I wondered how I would explain the arrowhead effect to a cop. ‘Well its like this officer, at 80kmh I’m being blown into the oncoming traffic but at (Insert Your Speed Here) things are way more steady’. It might be a case of taking the ticket but staying alive.

Anyway about 90 km and what seemed like minutes later I rolled into Manapouri. Down by the lakeside there are some new upmarket houses. Hope this doesn’t become another Queenstown because Lake Manapouri is one of the nicest lakes in NZ. About 10 minutes later I rolled into Te Anau and found my motel. I wonder what the American couple at reception thought of the scruffy biker bowling up and getting B&B for $99 when they had just paid $130 for a room? I was handed a card in Dunedin at the same chain and stuffed it in my tankbag. It turned out to be a Kiwis only discount card. Choice. That was my evening feed taken care of. As it was Earth hour they turned the lights off in the middle of dinner so I couldn’t see what I was eating. A charming French waitress named Gabrielle lit some candles for us. I was adopted as the person most likely to practice her English on. It was a struggle until a Pommie tourist took over. She was a French teacher. Problem solved.

I am a bit guilty of people watching sometimes and I noticed another older tourist couple tucked away trying to have an intimate evening. The first clue is that they were dressed for dinner, the second is that they were speaking in whispers. They were getting a bit frisky so my guess is that they had not been married for a long time or even to each other. Their night was interrupted by a hard case character who was a tour bus operator over from Otago. How could I resist? A couple of scotches later and we talked into the night on topics like stunt motorcycles vs monster trucks and the best engine: inline 6 or V8, Chiefs or Highlanders etc. Civilised conversation. Plus I got a heap of intel for tomorrow’s blast out to Milford Sound.

**MaxB** · 15th April 2009, 00:02

Sunday 29th – Te Anau to Wanaka via Milford Sound (518 kms)

I had an easy breakfast in the motel and pondered over the info I had been given. Basically the coaches run in tune with the Sound cruises. On a Sunday as long as I was away from the sound by early arvo I would have a clear run in at least one direction. I had to ask a business in town and they would tell me where the law enforcement was. It was getting like ‘The Amazing Race’ I was wondering if it was all going to be worth it. I fuelled up and was on the road at the correct time. The Homer tunnel happens about the 100km mark. The traffic light phases can be 15mins apart so going for a PB along this road is not big or clever. The further in I got the wetter than roads became but there was always a dry (read quick) line through. I caught up with 2 SCRR riders (red Bandit and black GSX1400 I think) at the tunnel but they were doing their own thing. I popped through the tunnel and noticed the seal the other side was soaked. I used the opportunity to rid myself of those pesky campervans all bunched in one glorious overtakable huddle. When I got to the Milford Sound car park the 2 other bikes were quite a way behind which is why a clear run on this road is so important.

I relaxed at Milford Sound and sucked up the scenery. I grabbed a drink and a bar and wandered around. The weather was closing in a bit and I stayed mindful of the advice to be away before the first cruises were over. The other two bikers looked like they were headed for a cruise. Fiordland is a truly wonderful place, one of our gems. I got my pics and got chatting to a tour guide. He told me he had left a promising career (a little similar to mine) to set up an Eco Tourism business from a base in Riverton. The amazing thing is how little he had to do to become ‘Eco’. The tour van was a luxury coach on a Transit chassis that ran on BioDiesel. The trick to convince the tourists is to have an ‘Eco’ explanation for everything. So his hotel power came from hydro, heating from renewable wood sources and the hotel itself was a restored older building. I must admit I found this a bit amusing until he told me how much he was making. One other point he made was that he was surprised to see bikes out this late in the season since the autumn snows should have started by now. Snow?? what is he talking about? Writing this now I can see that the snow flurries have started. I guess you have to recalibrate your weather brain when you live down here.

I headed out through the scenery up to the tunnel. There was no longer any fuel available at the Sound (there is to commercial operators) and I had used a bit getting there. So I had to be careful on the way back. I got up to the tunnel lights and it was on red. Then it started to rain and get a lot colder. Great. At least I had my Nordic jacket on and was toasty warm. I know I slagged off Dririder tank bags this year but this jacket really is excellent. It seems to have been designed by someone who actually rides in shitty weather. I have owned much more expensive jackets that are not as good.

The ride back was slower but I still overtook where required so I could travel unhindered. I came round a corner near Cascade Creek to find a hippy sat in the road playing a guitar in the drizzle. Luckily for him he was on the other side of the road. The other backpackers were up a wooden staircase waiting for their pick up but our hippy friend decided to put on a show. He had a multicoloured woollen pointy hat that made him look like a gay garden gnome. I gave him a serve with the horn. He moved a bit but was still in a position to be collected by the next coach from Te Anau. Maybe his pointy hippy hat gave him special powers of invincibility?

Onwards I sped, past a load of Asian tourists at a rest stop. I thought about arsing about but then realised that they were packing a lot of technology and most of it was pointing at me. I did want to get on YouTube for all the wrong reasons. So I backed off. Hunger led me back to Te Anau and a local bakery that sold venison pies. Yum. Then gas up and go. Even the sun had come out.

The detour into Fiordland meant it was Sunday arvo and I was still heading South East on SH94. Who care’s? Yet another brilliant Southland road. I like this place. Soon I would be hooking up with the link to SH6 at Mossburn and I would be heading north again. The 80 km to the Queenstown was packed full of cars heading somewhere in the last few daylight hours of the weekend. The closer I got to Lake Wakatipu and into Otago the worse it got. I overtook where I could but it was still slow going. I saw 3 cops on this stretch including 2 at the end of overtaking lanes. At least I got past heaps of traffic at the lights on the Kawarau bridge.

I went right out onto SH6 and joined the magnificent Crown Range road. I guess you can read about it in my previous SCRR 07 report. This time it was warmer and lighter and I travelled it slightly slower. There were heaps of campervans at the Southern end but they were dispatched with a twist of the wrist. You know the drill. Look above you to see if anything is on the road, blast past the campervan out of a hairpin and line up the next one. Soon I was free to enjoy the road. 50 km of sheer bliss. Down the hill into Wanaka and I found my regular haunt had closed down. I went down to the reserve that lies at the top end of town and just blobbed in the late afternoon sun. The lake and the mountains stretched out in front of me. I was like a cat on a window sill. I phoned my son and he booked a place on the net 300m from where I was sitting. That night in New World I ran into yet another SCRR finisher, a guy on a BMW from Auckland. Back at the motel I had a feed and spent some time chatting to my neighbours who were on the decks outside their units. One old fella had knocked off half a bottle of scotch with his wife and were sharing the rest. They were so happy with their lot I wondered if I would be that happy when I’m old.

**MaxB** · 15th April 2009, 22:34

Monday 30th – Wanaka to Hokitika (425 kms)

I awoke to the sound of gentle knocking on the door. It was my cooked breakfast. I discovered it was part of the price. It was then I remembered what I had to do. The end of year stuff for my business. Working on my holiday sucks. I finally cleared the decks around luchtime but it was obvious I would need to be near a bank tomorrow. That gave me Hokitika or Greymouth as my targets for the day. That meant the Haast Pass. Three of my five favourite roads in three days. I’m in paradise.

I set off around lunch time and was looking forward to a decent trip to Haast where the Fantail Café awaited. The road north was spectacular (I’m running out of words here). Around the top of Lake Hawea as the road dips into Mt Aspiring National Park something flashed across my path. WTF? It was too small for a deer, too big for a rat and it was not a rabbit or possum. It was a giant bouncing mouse aka a wallaby. I guess it was no bigger than a cat and was staring at me from the edge of the road. I slowed but there was no way of getting my camera unpacked in time. The Aussie import slowly hopped into a stand of trees above the road and vanished. In all my years of travelling round the Mainland I have never seen a wallaby. I work with a fair few Mainlanders and when I told them of my ‘find’ not one of them was impressed. They all had their wallaby stories, most better than mine. One had a wallaby fur hat. Oh well. To this jaded North Islander it was a great experience. We used to have them but I think they were put on an island and shot as spies or something.

I figured that they were too small to hurt me on the bike so I pressed on. I had a date with the Gates of Haast. Even the name sounds straight out of a Sci-fi movie. I did this road in a car not so long ago and it was crap. I mean really crap. The corners just don’t flow as well. I reckon a bike is the only way to see this part of the world.

The road was wet coming through the gates and pretty slippery although it was not actually raining. I passed a black beat up Nissan Stagea at one of the lookouts. By the look of the couple driving I would guess they were backpacker tourist types. A few ks down the road I was aware I was being followed. I got stuck behind a campervan on double yellows and the Stagea caught up with the male driving. All the passes I did legally were followed by the Stagea overtaking wherever he felt like to keep up. The double yellows were not so bad but the worse were the blind corners. He was over the centre line for a very long time each overtake. I tried to let them by but they would not go past and finally I spotted a council gritting bay by the Haast river and nailed it to get ahead. I signalled and physically left the road and stopped. He came past on the straight at about 160 kmh screaming the tits off the car. Good riddance.

I saw a campervan catching me up so I pulled in front of it and set off to enjoy the road. By now a dry line was available and I could press on a bit. Before long I had caught the Stagea but held back and watched. The problem was obvious, the lines through the corners were all wrong causing him to run wide on the exit. Sometimes it didn’t matter because he just straightlined left right combos whether there were double yellows or not.

In the last 15-20kms before Haast I will admit to being immature. I tucked in behind our hero matching his move for move (except I stayed in my lane). He wasn’t going anywhere. I made damn sure he knew where I was at all times. I wondered how he liked someone hanging off his rear fender. I saw the girl hitting him on the arm, I guess she had had enough. The pressure finally told and only a few ks out of Haast he pulled over. I managed to get a look into the car. There were shopping bags with a German store logo on them so maybe they were Germans?

I got to the Fantail and ordered my late lunch. No venison pies but they still had some nice stuff. As I was tucking in who should drive past and park but the Stagea. They saw the bike and then me and drove off. A few minutes later I was joined by the couple who had got engaged at the Eagle, Alan and Jennifer. They were on a BMW 650GS. It has a lot of goodies on it and was well set up for touring. We had a good chat but soon it was time for me to be on my way.

I was on my own again. I was travelling at a much more leisurely pace up what is my favourite part of NZ the West Coast. Almost every place has a special memory for me. Lake Paringa, Fox, Okarito. On this trip I was not going to stop at any of them. Shame. In fact the next stop was a fuel stop at Franz Josef. Before that I came across a rental car stopped on a one lane bridge so narrow the driver couldn’t fully open her door. A guy in a Westland council truck was abusing her as he had right of way. On the parcel tray was a German–English dictionary. I had to back up to let her out. Germans, eh?

The last 100ks to my motel in Hokitika was punctuated by roadworks. My ride was made more pleasant by yet another SCRR finisher on a BMW R1100GS. He ripped through the goat track roadworks like they weren’t even there. Maybe that is the perfect bike for real NZ conditions. I caught him in the open but as soon as the twisties got super tight or the road got really rough, he got past while my teeth were being shaken out. There were 2 cops on this bit of road. One was near Ross in a HiLux ute, the radar was on but I’m not entirely sure that they were going to catch much in that! A more familiar HP car was hiding in the grass on the straights into Hokitika.

Motel sorted walk, drink, food, more drink, bed.

**MaxB** · 16th April 2009, 01:30

Tuesday 31st – Hokitikia to Picton (390 kms)

My plan for today was to go up to Nelson to see friends and up to Takaka but in the first few minutes of trying to get some work done it became obvious that I was needed back at work. What pissed me off is that I had already ‘bought’ the time for the SCRR by working 60 and 80 hour weeks and I had a lot of time remaining. Then I had to rearrange the ferry so I ended up losing a day of my break. But I couldn’t bring myself to spend another night in Wellington because that meant leaving the South Island. Fuck it, I’m coming back to finish this holiday.

So I spent yet another morning working. Hokitika is actually a really nice place even the bank, post office etc are in easy reach. Everyone I spoke to was really happy. Maybe they put Prozac in the water?

So it was that I set off for Picton around lunchtime. The sun was shining in a cloudless sky. Up to Greymouth through more roadworks by the road/rail bridges and out towards Reefton on SH7. I was missing the Buller gorge and Punakaiki this time. They are roads best enjoyed when there is no traffic and for some reason there was plenty out today. I cleared out past the traffic by Stillwater and passed a truck stop that had the words ‘arm’ and ‘leg’ where the fuel price usually sits on the sign. My fuel stop was Reefton. I was offered a job here and it was interesting to see how well the town was doing. The cross on the hill denotes the Globe Hill mine area. I guess when you are in a high risk environment you need all the help you can get.

I wanted a Twix bar with my fill but the mature lady serving had never heard of them. I had to describe what a Twix bar was. Blank looks. I gave up and headed off for my lunch. I joined the Buller road at Inangahua and wound through the twisties for my lunch stop at Murchison. The lady owner of the café was from Huntly, I identified myself as a Chiefs supporter and scored an extra pie and coffee. I left refreshed for the 150km or so to Picton. Clip the edge of the Kahurangi National Park then up to Kawatiri and turn onto SH63 up the Wairau Valley. I cannot think of a road better suited to the big Ninja than this. There were even more roadworks on a stop/go sign. I made sure I was riding sensibly as I neared Renwick. Talking of which I missed Rapaura Rd in another set of roadworks and bailed and took the Old Renwick Rd into Blenheim then up into Picton.

At the town end of Wairau Road well inside the 50k sign lurked a cop car in HP colours. I was painted 3 times in 100 metres. Maybe he was bored. Maybe the end of the month was quota time. I guess it’s a cash cow, nailing tourists on this stretch. I got to thinking that most of the tourists will come from places with a far superior and safer driving standard than us.

Motel found quickly and I got to park the bike outside the unit. My last night on the Mainland.

**MaxB** · 16th April 2009, 01:33

Wednesday 1st April - Picton to Auckland (645kms)

Got up in time for the 8 am Blubridge. Roll down the hill in the rain to the terminal They took ages on the check in and I was left out in the pouring rain for 30 minutes with other bikes. A ZX14 and Busa from the SCRR were there but the owners were in the lounge. I was told I could get out of the rain there but even before I had dismounted we got the call to board. On the bike deck we were joined by a Concours and a Transalp.

The crossing was quite rough but all that meant for me was that the café was empty. The rain was drizzle by now and I could see clearing skies up north. I managed to find a place to stretch out and dry my gear and by the time we got into Wellington I was warm and dry again.

I was on the road by midday all kitted up and ready for leg 1. It was pretty overcast but never actually rained until Bulls. SH1 out of Wellington is a joke. It has always needed a motorway at least until Palmerston North. My only memories of this stretch are cops and roadworks, more cops and more roadworks until Otaki. Maybe it was the contrast to the South Island roads that made me so grumpy.

I got to Bulls and put that 98 biofuel in the bike. Straight up SH1 through the Manawatu and onwards. One tip is that if your average speed is affected by crowded roads then don’t get off the bike. So Taihape, Waiouru, the desert road and Turangi came and went. Actually the Desert Road was kind of fun because I followed this guy in a hotted up car. I kept back a bit and used him as a cop magnet but there were none. I got to Taupo in good time and lets face it the Lake is stunning and rivals the South Island for scenery.

McCafé for tea and BP for the Ultimate AND they had Twixes! So back to Auckland I went on a road I have travelled hundreds of times. Up through Tokoroa, Tirau, Matamata and Tahuna, Ohinewai and up the motorway the 60 or so ks to my house. I got a great welcome from the kids and the missus was out not expecting me home so early. I was glad to be home and the bike was safe and sound. Another Southern Cross under my belt.

Total kms for the trip = 6354

The End