Well, I decided that the L plate wasn't going to hold me back, so I packed the little GPX and set off on Saturday morning to Taumarunui with a friend on his Triumph dual-sport joining me part of the way. The weather was perfect, traffic light, and the road a lot of fun. We had lunch at the Whangamomona hotel, and then he headed back to New Plymouth and I carried onto Taumarunui.
Just after Tahora I headed down a dirt track to see the falls advertised on a sign, but one can only catch glimpses of it through the trees, so a bit dissapointed I headed back and took a few photos of all the wild pig skins draped over the fence for 50 metres or so. That was odd, because they were no more than a few days old and just seemed to be rotting there. (I see the Whangamomona pig hunt is on this coming weekend. Apparently they have over 70 entries so far according to the waitress/bar lady).
Anyway, so I continued and turned onto the Mt Damper falls road (a bit of gravel as well with sheep, horses and cattle in the road), but didn't feel like spending 20 mins walking to the falls and back, as I was a little short on time for making Taumarunui in the light. I turned back and arrived in Taumarunui at 5:30 pm and stayed over. On Sunday morning at about 10:00 took highway 41 to Pukawa. Lots of ice next to the road, and quite chilly (I'm thinking of getting heated grips). A few k's before Pukawa I had my first bird strike on a bike, - DriRider jacket 1, bird 0. I stopped to check that I wasn't covered in guts or something. Pukawa was nice, lots of neat houses. Weather was still great, so I headed back to Taumarunui, and had lunch there.
I then headed up north on SH4, and not far out of town an old lady made a u turn in front of me, causing me to brake and proceeded to turn back onto the road again blocking me. She looked like she was totally in her own world, and would probably have done it with an 18 wheeler approaching as well. I tried to indicate in the nicest possible way that she should use her eyes next time.
I turned onto route 40 to Ohura. This was also a fun bit of road with some long sweeping corners, as well as some tight ones. In Ohura I decided to turn West towards Ahititi. Almost all of it was coarse gravel, and I learned a thing or two about riding on gravel. The off camber downhill turns were no fun though, and that road took forever
Once the road became tar seal again, the sweeping corners were nice, but the sun was low in the sky and visibilty was bad, so I took it easy. On this road I pulled into a gravel driveway, came to a stop, and next thing I know I'm toppling over to the right, slowly putting the bike down onto its side, and me rolling over and back onto my feet againSo I picked it up, adjusted the mirror, checked the brakes and indicator and off I went again. The fairing, mirror, indicator, exhaust, bar-end and brake lever are a bit scratched, but that's all. Lesson learnt: make sure of your footing and balance before trying to put the side stand down. The ride home was pretty uneventful, except for spotting two cops having a "chat" with some bikers, and the cops rubber necking when they heard another bike approaching. Unlucky for them I was going quite sedately due to road works and bad visibility
So, 460km later and a lot of lessons learnt. Can't wait for the next one!Oh yes, and fuel consumption was about 25.5 km/l (72 mpg) for those interested. Sorry for the long post.
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Karma ... Justice catches up eventually !! 
okay, not that many years. I used to go stay on my Sister's farm at 'Mt Dampa'. We used to walk over the farm & up to the top of the Waterfall. What a sight. Even way back then, the plans were to make it a public road. I have never been over this yet. Was keen to know just what the road was like. Not a big fan of the metal stuff. 
I think you are great doing this long ride by yourself. I live in Tauranga & have been round the East Coast by myself. That was great. My partner & I intend doing the ride down to New Plymouth sometime. Still not that sure of the standard of the road thru Whangamomona. Having travelled it regularly all those years ago with big Sis, I wasn't about to do it on our bikes as eargerly. Keep up the good riding, they say, the more mileage, the better, to gain experience. Take care on the road.
Frustrated, John.
Originally Posted by swt 3
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