will be a nice ride, just a heads up, watch for a lot of melted tar, between Taupo, and Napier.
have a great ride,
cheers,
Bob
Fair weather rider
will be a nice ride, just a heads up, watch for a lot of melted tar, between Taupo, and Napier.
have a great ride,
cheers,
Bob
Grumpy Old Bastard
1100km in just over 28 hours. Including overnight in Masterton. About 15 and a half hours of road time. Which included gas stops, coffee stops, bum denumbing stops and such like. Me bum bones still hurt a bit...
Route as per map.
Some interesting bits. The hill section of Taupo Napier was really melty and shiny. And full of traffic. Trucks and trailers, tractors, motorhomes (grrr), boat trailers etc etc. But not enough to stop a couple of bikes, complete with pillions from ignoring yellow lines when overtaking everything on the road...
Only scared myself once on that bit...also overtaking. But not over a yellow...just ran short of room, kinda.
So Route 52 itself.
The section from Waipukurau to Weber Road was "interesting". Parts of it were fine, but, as one of the locals at the gas station said, some of the roads were "minor"...understatement of the year so far. Minor goat tracks more like...including the one in this photo...
I got to this intersection, not having a clue where I was and the GPS told me to turn up this road...I said "WHAT? That's a goat track!" But it insisted...as you can see, the road is cut out of the rock cliff face. It felt pretty narrow as well and had bits of rock all over it and signs warning of rock falls as well...I could see they weren't kidding. Plus there was a million foot drop off the right hand side. Made me pleased to be on the inside, being as how I am pretty height phobic.
Fortunately, after the climb it tamed down a bit. But some of this part was very narrow, very twisty and seemed to have fallen trees around every second corner plus a fair number of marauding sheep running loose as well...the local farmers apparently don't worry about keeping their stock inside the paddocks...so a pretty slow section.
From Weber Rd onwards it's a pretty cool ride, at least as far as Pongaroa, here...
Just before Pongaroa, I met a truck coming the other way loaded with wool bales. Which were in the process of falling off the truck - the stacks had come adrift and there were a couple hanging way out off the side of the truck, just snagged by the rope. Just past him, around the corner, were two bales lying on the side of the road where they had fallen off...
South of Pongaroa is a hill which is again, narrow and winding and marked by yet more fallen trees and wandering sheep..
Eventually reached Masterton, got into a motel and soaked in the spa bath for half an hour.
Home via National Park on day 2. Interesting road between Pahiatua and Palmerston North...
Rest of it was just getting home so I could fall asleep for twelve hours.
. “No pleasure is worth giving up for two more years in a rest home.” Kingsley Amis
she said she would !!
As mentioned previously in thread, I did Middle rd down to Waipawa then on to Waipak followed route 52 to Weber rd & took this through to Dannevirke to see what is was like....
I Used to jog but the ice cubes kept falling out of my glass
Grumpy Old Bastard
Might do that next time...Originally Posted by insomnia01
. “No pleasure is worth giving up for two more years in a rest home.” Kingsley Amis
Hardcore Biker
Nice trip.
Nice ride report.
Well done.
PS - nice pic of bike too.
Ride it until the wheels fall off...
They call me Mr Fahrenheit
Big thumbs up!!
Nice report, glad you had fun and stayed safe.
Keep on chooglin'
Highway Biker
[QUOTE=slofox;
And yes, Mom - it probably will be norf on day 2...[/QUOTE]
If you're heading north , ya gotta have a look at Otaika valley road & then the twin bridges road - both are some serious bits of biker real estate. Done them twice in the last month & they are awesome in either direction. Would lead nicely into the Mangamuka's then round Ahipara and back down through Waipoua Forest. Have just comeback from 6 days up there and we had an absolute blast - Misred carved up the twin bridges yesterday !!!
If you don't know where you are going , any road will get you there ............
His Excellency
Paihiatua track is the shizz, if there is no traffic
Grumpy Old Bastard
I did this route last New Year. Used to live up there, so have a little knowledge of the area...I think I put up a video of the Waipoua section on YouTube IIRC...
. “No pleasure is worth giving up for two more years in a rest home.” Kingsley Amis
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