Me and a old (as in days gone by,and the other!) motorcycling mate thought we would go to the Burt. Reality strikes hard towards the end of November when we find that the ferries are basically booked out for motorcycles in the week or so leading up to the 5th feb. Probably not all helped by the retirement of the Aratere.
We were resigned to not go but I said lets just do our own thing a week of so later.
And so plans were hatched and my mate Darryl make some bookings based on his ride to the Burt a couple of years previous. The first booking was the ferries,3:30am Sat the 14th,returning on the morning ferry of the 24th Feb .We had left a couple of days in reserve and had both booked flexible return fares(more on that later.)
So the day sorta dawned as we arrived at the Interislander at the appointed hour .Was a bit drizzly. Only 3 bikes and about 25 assorted cars utes camper van and a ute/caravan combo. Straight away we were told that loading was running late,probably about 25 minutes So we sat,and paced and talked. Then he comes over and says they now running about 45 minutes behind so maybe go take a seat at the bike shelter.Not to good sitting next to a large diesel generator. Almost immediately he calls us over and says we can go forward to the ferry. We ride up the to the loading arrea and wait there for about 20 minutes while the little tractor units go back and forth with container on trailers. Oh Aratere where art thou!
We finally board tie our bikes down at a random spot(they ensured we had wheel chocks) and the ferry finally slipped its mooring at about 4 15am. Smooth sailing and we arrived in Picton at the correct time. Apparently there were only 57 passengrs on board vs 61 crew!.
Off to my sister in Blenheim for breakfast, Z for fuel(hiss) and Pak n Save for a few supplies. Then of to Berlins just west of Inangahua for our first night. had a stop at Lake Rotoiti and St arnaud for a quick bite and coffee. Was really busy at the lake with many many boats on the Lake.
From there just 123km to Berlins our first stop. We were able get the bikes locked up in a secure yard overnight then settled in for a couple of beers,chatted to a local biker with virtually useless left arm(collision with a van years before)eaten alive by sandflies before a decent meal
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Originally Posted by pete376403
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