10,000km, 4 weeks, 2 islands...

[crazyhorse]

Sounds like a great trip

[Jantar]

Thought about it, especially considering I was feeling pretty good and could have riden some more. The next route is from Hokitika via Arthurs Pass to Sheffield, Oxford, Woodend and then Hanmer Springs. So if it is really crap tomorrow, I might stay here another day and then not have a day off in Wellington when I get off the ferry. I've got a really good book that I can finish off tomorrow if need be. That would in fact be like someone on holidays ie. sitting around doing F'all. Now wouldn't that be a novel idea!

I'm at work right now monitoring the front as it heads north. It has hit about 2 hours earlier than expected and is moving a lot quicker than first forecast. At its present rate the front will reach Hokitika in 3 - 4 hours and be all over by 4:00 am. So you should have a great day tomorrow.

[gijoe1313]

Fantastic! I'm glad you're enjoying the trip and getting in some serious road riding around some of the best places in New Zealand As my mate, Gremlin says, you got a good pace going on there - and the locals are blardy friendly to talk with.

Keep up the excellent travelogue and piccies. Makes me a hankering to go back down there again!

[gegvasco]

I'm at work right now monitoring the front as it heads north. It has hit about 2 hours earlier than expected and is moving a lot quicker than first forecast. At its present rate the front will reach Hokitika in 3 - 4 hours and be all over by 4:00 am. So you should have a great day tomorrow.

Beaut, that's the bonus plan. Thanks. I have been trying to get some detail on the front without much luck. So that has helped out. Normally in OZ I use the aviation weather forecasts (I have a private pilot licence so know how to read their heiroglyphics) as they are necessarily very accurate and detailed. But not much in that respect that I can find on the net for over here. Rain is an annoyance that I can deal with but the wind really sucks. It's like having a monkey on the bars. I rode from Sydney to Canberra a couple of months ago and there was some serious wind and it almost blew me off the road a couple of times. I can do without that.

[gegvasco]

Keep up the excellent travelogue and piccies. Makes me a hankering to go back down there again!

Here's a couple of others that I have touched up today.

[Jantar]

Beaut, that's the bonus plan. Thanks. I have been trying to get some detail on the front without much luck. So that has helped out. Normally in OZ I use the aviation weather forecasts (I have a private pilot licence so know how to read their heiroglyphics) as they are necessarily very accurate and detailed. But not much in that respect that I can find on the net for over here. Rain is an annoyance that I can deal with but the wind really sucks. It's like having a monkey on the bars. I rode from Sydney to Canberra a couple of months ago and there was some serious wind and it almost blew me off the road a couple of times. I can do without that.

Aviation met is available online, but access to the General Aviation Weather Briefing System (MetFlight GA) is through a valid CAA NZ Pilots Licence or a Part 149 Aviation Recreation Organisation membership number. http://metflight.metra.co.nz/MetFlight.php
When my son visits here from Darwin I let him use my login, and similarly when I visit him in Darwin I use his details for aviation met. (well we do share the same surname).

[gegvasco]

I reckon Arthur's Pass would be a great road when it is dry. Unfortunately, it wasn't today. Socked in the whole way up. Cold and wet for pretty much all of today's riding (360km). Couldn't see bugger all so no photos as the camera was well wrapped in plastic bags to keep the water out. Holed up in Hanmer Springs tonight. Heading through Lewis Pass tomorrow morning to Reefton, then Greymouth, then up the coast to Westport, then inland to St Arnaud for the night. Weather should be good so hopefully will have some photos tomorrow.

[gegvasco]

Couldn't have had two more chalk and cheese days riding.

Yesterday was from Hanmer Springs to the coast then Westport and then up the Buller Gorge to St Arnaud. What a glorious day's riding. The weather was pretty much perfect, as the photos show. The uninterupted run Buller Gorge will be one of the standouts of the trip.




Then today it was up to Motueka via some back roads, then up the coast to Port Poponga then back down to Nelson. By going to Port Poponga, this marked having been to the end of the roads at the north and south tips of the south island. The weather was absolutely crap all day with either drizzle or full on rain all day. Takaka Hill above Motueka was some pretty hairy riding given the cloud was low meaning the road rose into the cloud and visibility was down to about 30 metres. The road was really wet and given how windy and hilly the road is, it was slow going. I narrowly missed being taken out by a wanker in a Suburu who came around a corner too quick, lost the back end and ended up sliding sideways in front of me before coming to a stop blocking my lane. If I'd been 5 seconds further along that road either he would have collected me or I would have had to steer off into a ditch.

Tomorrow, after I dry out, it will be a short morning's ride to Picton to get on the ferry in the afternooon and then a day off in Wellington. Looks like I'm going to get saturated tomorrow as well. I must have used up all my weather luck in the first week of clear skies in the south of the south island.

[gegvasco]

Yet another bloody awful day's riding from Nelson to Picton. I had planned to detour at Havelock to do the Queen Charlotte Rd to come into the back of Picton, but the it was teeming rain for the whole ride from Nelson to Havelock with no sign of abating. So I opted for the straight route via Blenheim.

Ferry trip was very sedate given the weather. Even in the strait there was hardly a whitecap in sight and the boat only rolled a little, which was good as I hate ships. Then a quick sprint into town to stay at a downtown hotel. Note to all, don't stay at the Mercure in Wellington. What a joke. I've done a lot of travelling with work and have stayed in heaps of hotels in many countries and this was one of the worst I've seen. For instance, they only keyed my room key card for half of my stay so I couldn't get into my room without waiting in the queue at the lobby to get a new key. Showers that can't maintain a temperature. No spare powerpoints in the room. Lifts that won't let you out on the carpark level. Almost $40 a day for internet. And the cracker......a room service "all-day breakfast" that isn't actually available during breakfast! WTF!!! Then when I went to pay I must have been invisible because despite standing there waiting to check out and pay for the sub-standard hotel, the desk clerk looked straight past me to ask the person behind me who was next! Must have been the high-visibility motorcycle gear - proof that it does nothing to make people see you who don;t want to see you. Couldn't wait to get out of there.

Today was a run up the 1 then 2 then the 58 then the 3 then the 4 to Ohakune. Wasn't a bad day's riding although the sun only peeked through the overcast a couple of times. At least it didn't rain. When I was on the 58 cutting across to the coast, I took the Paekakariki Hill Rd that bypasses Paremata. This was an outstanding riding road. It rejoined the 1 from the top of the hill above Peakakariki and there is one great lookout at the top of the hill.

After that it was pretty ho hum until heading north from Wanganui on the 4. This was a great road with some interesting country. Some good sweepers through there. Once I got to Raetihi I cut across to Ohakune and then headed up the hill on the Ohakune Mountain Rd. This was great little ride until it ascended into the overcast just before the end and turned to crudd.

Tomorrow it will be north and then heading west to go around Mt Taranaki to New Plymouth. Hopefully the cloud will lift a bit tomorrow.

[Pixie]

Great posts.
Hope you get better weather

[gegvasco]

Well the rain abated but the cloud didn't lift. So it was a good compromise. I didn't get wet but the roads were still wet and remained so most of the day. Only rain was a bit coming into New Plymouth. From Ohakune I headed north to Taumarunui and then headed west on the aptly named "Forgotten World Highway". With damp roads, a little bit of the fun was taken out of the riding but the scenery was pretty good.



The section through Tangarakau Gorge was great, even if the dirt road had turned to mud with heaps of rockfalls after the rain. When I got to Stratford I pulled into the mian street for lunch and as I'm getting ready to get back on the bike, a car pulls up and a bloke yells out "ARE YOU AN AUSSIE?". Yep, I replied. "GEGVASCO?" Yep. Turns out it was Nadroj who just happened to be passing through and recognised the bike. What are the chances. I was only standing there for about 2 minutes.

After a quick chat and sorting out the evening's plans in New Plymouth, it was around Mt Taranaki. Unfortunately, the cloud was totally socked in so I saw nothing of it and got a little wet on the way in.

Thanks to Nadroj and Denise for a great evening's company in New Plymouth and an impromptu mini-Tiki tour of New Plymouth.

Today dawned fairly clear and I managed to actually see the top of Mt Taranaki at least. It was the start of a brilliant days riding. Thought I'd better make the most of it so I added some extra legs to the plan and ended up doing about 500km between 9am and 5pm. Which was pretty good going considering there was 40km of twisty dirt in there and about 3/4 of the rest was winding tarmac. From New Plymouth it was up the 3 to Te Kuiti then the Waitomo loop to Kawhia. Then the dirt north to Raglan, then the 22 to Pukekohe. Didn't stop for any photos. I ended up making into the southern outskirts of Auckland because unbeknownst to me, there is some sort of racing event on at Pukekohe, my intended destination, so I coulnd't get any accommodation anywhere in town. So now I'm holed up in a motel in Manakau CBD right under the airport flight path. Gotta love being back in a big city.

Weather looks good tomorrrow which should be great because it is a big day all the way to Kaitaia via the west coast.

[Hinny]

You might even get some good weather.
Don't get any extra taxes up Highway 16. The infamous Ginga may be on the case with all the weekend warriors doing their thing up that road.

[Gremlin]

Now imagine doing 1600km of sealed roads throughout the middle of the North Island in under 24 hours... we do that every October. You should come on back

[gegvasco]

Now imagine doing 1600km of sealed roads throughout the middle of the North Island in under 24 hours... we do that every October. You should come on back

You'd do Davo from FarRiders proud.

[gegvasco]

Another two brilliant day's riding down. It seems the NZ weather is either ON(in capitals!) or OFF. So far it has been nearly two weeks of glorious riding, then a week of total and utter crud and then almost a week of pristine riding days. Weather looks like it might stay like this for a bit as well. Here's hoping.

From Manakau, I headed straight up the motorway to get though Auckalnd as quick as possible. Being a Sunday morning, it was quiet as. Despite this, I somehow managed to miss the 16 offramp and clearly thump-up-bum stuck with the 1 - not the plan. From the last time I was on the NW Motorway coming from RNZAF Whenuapai (admittedly 15 years ago), it seemed the only Motorway in/out of the city. I realised I was a little off the 16 when I saw the sign saying "Orewa 3km". Quick exit, replan and I managed to get back on the 16 just east of Helensville. Then it was a great little sprint up the 16 to Dargaville. Didn't see any Police but there were heaps of bikes. While the scenery was nice, it wasn't much to photograph. So I concentrated on the roads and picking up the pace a bit. Still have (had) some chicken strips up to this point. The run through the Waipoua Forest was brilliant.

After a quiet night-in at a motel in Kaitaia that was lost to time, I embarked on the milestone ride this morning of reaching Cape Reinga. That would mark tip-to-tip of both islands. The weather came to the party which was a good thing as I was expecting a fair bit of dirt for the last 20km into the Cape. As it turns out, they are surfacing that entire stretch and only have about 5k's to go. The last 15km to the Cape is now all good quality seal. Given the conditions, I took the opportunity to walk down to the lighthouse for some photo ops. Why wouldn't you!



After traipsing back to Awanui, I turned onto the 10 and explored the Bays including Tokerau Beach, Manganui and Taupo Bay.

Then it was a quick run through Waitangi, without stopping because a cruise ship had disgorged about 1000 Europeans (ironic given the history of the place), and then onto the ferry to Russell. Where I'm holed up for a day off before the final 6-day run back to Christchurch via the Coromandel and East Cape. Feels like the home stretch. I ticked over the 7000th km today. That is in 3 weeks. Yet the hire company said I wouldn't do more than that in 4 weeks. Guess I'm going to set a new record for them as I have about 2000km to go by the time 4 weeks comes up!