Thursday 19th March: 800 km.
With the bike serviced earlier in the week, I left home near Alexandra shortly after 8:00 am and had a brilliant ride north through the Lindis Pass. Only very light traffic and hardly a cloud in the sky. There were a few bikes heading south around Tekapo, mainly BMW GS1200s, and I figured they were doing the leisuely tour.
First fuel stop was in Geraldine, then on to Rakaia via Thompson's Track. I had read a thread on here about the gorgeous young waitress at the Cafe at Rakaia so that was my lunch stop. Either I chose the wrong cafe, or she wasn't on that day none of the waitresses were stunning. One wasn't bad, she was young but not gorgeous. However the food was first rate so I can't complain.
North on SH1 and I came across the first idiot driver of the trip. A few km south of Templeton and there was a line of traffic. A heavily laden ute towing a trailer was cruising along at around 80 kmh, which was a reasonable speed for the vehicle. Imediately behind him was a bus, then a car, I was next then a line of around 6 or 7 cars. As we came to a passing lane the bus pulled out to pass the the ute, and took the whole legth of the passing lane to complete the manouver, allowing only myself and 1 other car to get through, but still behind the bus. All the rest of the traffic was still held up behind the slow vehicle. Then only a few hundred meters up the road the bus pulls left into a bus stop. If I had have been one of the vehicles still stuck behind that ute I would have been cursing that bus driver.
Just north of Chrischurch on the motorway, I noticed my radar detector giving a strong Ka band signal, but almost no noise. "Here we go again" I thought to myself as this is the very spot my radar detector started playing up last Southern Cross. I stopped at the first rest area I came to and started checking all the connections. Unplugging each in turn to try and isolate the fault. I finally found the cause and started kicking myself. When I reprogrammed it to pick up K band (for the new speed cameras) I had turned the volume down while changing the program, and I had simply forgotten to turn the volume up again.
Onwards North, and through many sections of roadworks. One in particular stood out as I came up to a long line of traffic stopped for a red light at the bottom of a hill. After about 4 minutes the light turned green (away in the distance) and traffic started to move. Slowly I drew closer to the lights, and about 4 vehicles before I reached them they turned orange, then red. About half of the queue of traffic had managed to get through. We waited for around 6 minutes during which time a single car came in the opposite direction, then the lights turned green for our side once again. Almost 1 km up the hill there was a small section of about 50 meters of road works on the side of the road, and 100 meters further on was the light stopping traffic coming in the opposite direction. Two vehicles were waiting. For God’s sake! If they are going to use lights then at least have someone with some intelligence controlling them rather than simply relying on a timer for each direction.
A few kms north and I had a chance to practice emergency stopping in earnest. It was my own fault, but it shows how situations can change unexpectedly. I had been following a 4WD through a twisty bit, and I knew there were some short straights ahead. So I moved up close and to the right so I could keep a good lookout and be ready to gun it as soon as there was a clear straight. Suddenly the 4WD’s brake lights came on and the female driver swerved right into my path. I grabbed a big fistful of brake and pressed hard with my right foot, but quickly realised that I couldn’t stop in time. So it was off with the brakes, swerve hard left into the gap that was opening up between the 4WD and the side of the road, then hard on the brakes again. I stopped safely, alongside the 4WD on her left, at which point she drove slowly forward onto the wrong side of the road, and around the obstacle that had caused her to brake. It was a bloody road cone in the middle of the lane, so as I was closer to it I got off the bike and moved it to the side of the road. (more on road cones later). It was uneventful from there to Kaikoura and my next fuel stop. That coast road that used to be so great is almost boring now that it is limited to 80kmh. More uneventful riding up to Picton where I arrived shortly after 6:00 pm
Friday 20th March: 379 km.
I was booked on the midday ferry; however as I was already in Picton I decided to see if I could get on the earlier crossing. So straight to the check in and I arrived just as it was opening and enquired about getting on earlier. To my surprise the woman in the check in office claimed that the all motorbike spots were full and there was no chance. Even when I asked if I could go into the unreserved queue and take my chances she still said “NO, all spots are taken and there is a long list of campervans wanting to get into the unreserved queue.” So I waited in the park by the check in office and counted the bikes arriving right up to the last minute for check in. Once the check in deadline had passed I went back to see the rather unhelpful woman and had a conversation that went something like this:
Me: “I see the deadline for check in has passed and there’s only 5 bikes gone through. Have there been any cancellations or have some not turned up yet?”
She: “No, they’re all here, and there is no more room for any motorcycles.”
Me: “I’m sure that there are more than 5 dedicated motorcycle spots onboard, could you please advise the ship that there is a motorcyclist waiting here if there is room.”
She: “There is no room on board, but I’ll pass on that message.”
Me: “ Thank you, I’ll just wait.”
Shortly after that one of the loaders saw me there and asked why I wasn’t going on board. He was incredulous when I told him about there being no room. But a few minutes later, the lady from the check in office called me over and said they can squeeze on one more if I get going now! I got going. As I expected there were still 8 bikes spots vacant.
At 2:00 pm exactly, I pulled out of Wellington and started the trip north. Traffic was only moderate and slow moving, so it was a fairly slow trip with the 140 km to my next fuel stop at Bulls taking a full 2 hours. I kept to SH1, and just south of Taihape my radar detector warned of a cop ahead. OK, only 1 had his radar on, but there were 3 cop cars escorting a group of about 30 bikes south. They were mostly HDs and, of course, none of them waved. The Dessert Road had its obligatory cop cruising with radar ablaze, and the sun on the mountain was quite spectacular. I arrived at Katman’s place in Taupo, at around 7:00 pm. Many thanks for your hospitality Katman, it was much appreciated.
Saturday 21st March: 12 km.
No it’s not a misprint. Today the bike only travelled from Katman’s home to his shop where he fitted new tyres for me, then to the Taupo Gliding Club next to the Taupo Raceway. I did have 3 glider flights, but not in my beloved Jantar, it was out for maintenance. 1 flight in a PW6 and 2 different PW5s. 6500 ft over Ohaaki, out over the forest then back onto the southwest ridge of Tauhara was a fantastic afternoon of fun.
Sunday 22nd March: 420 km.
This was to be another short ride so I didn’t leave Taupo till 10:45 am. I caught up with a group of Ulysses riders just east of Taupo, and as they were setting a steady pace of around 100 - 110 kmh I just sat in behind them. This worked well until just after the high point on the Taupo – Napier road they unexpectedly reduced their average speed to around 90 kmh. I waved to them as I cruised on by. The intersection with SH2 was reached just after midday and I carried on north to wee place called Putarino where I stopped for lunch. There were a couple already there on Harleys who were just travelling home to Waikaremoana. I only stayed long enough to have a bite to eat then as I was putting on my helmet a familiar looking bike went past. I couldn’t quite place it, but I knew I’d seen it before somewhere. A short distance up the road I caught up and as soon as I was close behind I knew what bike it was. The number plate FZED1 sort of gave it away. So I followed Mangell6 on his FZ1 through to Wairoa where I pulled up alongside as he was stopping. This was a fuel stop for me as I wasn’t sure whether I would have enough to get to Gisborne. We carried on as a pair through Gisborne and on to Tokomaru Bay. Later that evening it was a mini KB get-together at the Tokomaru Bay pub as KoroJ and a few others were there as well.
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