gijoe1313 and Gremlin invade the Mainland!

[oldrider]

Will keep an eye out for you if you are in our territory, could hardly miss you in that "loud" camo outfit!

I am enjoying your trip, hope your guys are as much as me. Cheers, John.

[Gremlin]

and make sure you ride the buller gorge at some stage..great road!

Yep, done the Buller Gorge already. Unfortunately it was a little damp, and raining in some places, but still a fantastic piece of road as always.

Where are Tuesday's and Wednesday's routes? I just happen to have those days off work.

Tuesday-Thursday, we're based with McJim, and it will be day rides. One is Milford Sound, another is the Catlins (and hopefully meeting that coppa of the south - clothed). Nothing specific for the other, maybe you have suggestions? What we do on which day depends on what the weather is in the areas.

Always good meeting KB'ers, especially when you're not going to see them regularly

[Gremlin]

Yes readers... today I found his limit... well, not his endurance for riding, but the surfaces he was able to ride on. I'm sure he'll rabbit on about how its my fault (soooo predictable ) but I never forced him down the beach... urrr... did I say beach, I meant stone, to the potential photo spot.

Well, he followed me, except he changed the plans a little, when he wanted to see the soft sand up REAL close... I look in my mirrors, to see a rather stumped gijoe standing looking at his bike. This causes me to stop, which makes me lose my own momentum (He even said he thought... if you get stuck too... then we're really stuffed).

By the time I had got out of the sand, turned around and found some stones to park on, he had already tried to lift his bike without success. Very tempting to take a picture of his baby lying in the sand, but priorities. First the bike is lifted, THEN pictures taken. GiJoe is not happy at his poor decisions, leaving me howling with laughter on the beach, and choking on my drink.

His enthusiasm now somewhat diminished, we leave Okarito, and head to our next stop, Franz Josef. Check in, bags dropped, a late lunch consumed (skipped breakfast) and we headed out to the Glaciers. Access roads were used to get closer for photos and then it was on to Gillespie Beach. Lots of gravel riding, great shots and then we returned to Franz Josef for dinner and the backpackers.

Great moments for the day:
- GiJoe delaying our start by a good half hour to look through a store (he has even admitted fault)
- GiJoe saying he had a great day, when in reality, we covered around 300km (the re-adjustment is back on track)
- When heading out for the glacier ride, I said yep, we're going, and he was ready in minutes. He then had to wait for half an hour while I uploaded extra routes to the gps, packed the gear away, got geared up, equipped the bike etc. I then mis-placed items, meaning it took even longer to get going. That poor little pootler was soooooo frustrated

Tomorrow is a longer day, we're travelling to Invercargill to meet up with McJim, around 6 hours and 500+ km of riding (not including stops).

He's still muttering about filling his sand with bike, urrr, bike with sand

[Gremlin]

Here's another 3 pics... yay for 3G in Franz Josef... you wonder how people survived when back on dial up.

[trump-lady]

looks soooooooooo good. Great Pictures....poor GIJOE. You shoulda got the pic though lol

[EJK]

Beautiful!

Thats the spirit GIJustin!!!

[gijoe1313]

The day started with so much promise, I would be looking forward to more riding and in places that I had and not been before!

The stay at Jade Mountain was pleasant the night before, there were three Israelian ladies kicking up a ruckus in the dorm. They were doing all in wrestling and the noogie noogie to one another! Very funny and Gremlin and I was bemused. Happy times.

This day, I shall skip past all the usual quips, asides and homilies I am accustomed to making. The lack of riding milage that I normally do was today punished severely by the Biking Gods - I was responsible for my poor Big Ol'Hornet apparently binning into the sand, even though it was stationary at the point of horizontal impact with the ground

This certainly put a damper on my day and I could only replay the event over and over in my head. I couldn't really get into the rest of the riding after that! Very unusual for me. Once again, I chose to ignore the blatant warning my inner voice and intuition (okay, one of the many voices that clamour for attention in my head )

The conversation at Okarito beach began as I recall many days before, Gremlin was insistent on showing me the maps and get me to look at that place. I must have already known something was up as I was determined not to even look at the place!

As we pulled up to the place of my latest riding fiasco with Gremlin, we spoke something along these lines ...

Gremlin : "Do you want to ride across there?"
gijoe1313 : "No."
Gremlin : "Oh come on, it will make a great picture!"
gijoe1313 : "This is a bad idea."

And thus it went, he roared off on his Katoom o'doom making a mockery of the usual slippery substances that is anaethema to two wheeled riding steeds.

All during this time as I throttled on following him ... (:slap ... my mind was screaming in technocolour and multiple alarm bells "I have a bad feeling about this" A classic Star Wars quote. Then the next thought on my mind was a statement that I have oft used and even mentioned to Trump Lady. "Always do what you fear most to do, confront your fear you must" (yes, more Star Wars) and this was a definite leap of faith. So of course, me being me - I did the classic Avanti! And proceeded forward, to live and die by my words!

Anyhow all was well until I got to the aforementioned spot whereupon my forward velocity and egress resulted in a delineated non-progessional physical moment, which terminated with my poor Big Ol'Hornet slowly toppling over.

It was officially tired already from the demands of my usual pootling and was now rebelling at the idea of anymore nonsensical riding moments!

I was holding the bike up for what seemed an eternity. I even had time to look over at Gremlin ... his back ... as I laboured to keep it upright, my left hand slipped and ended up punching the horn button, a low wailing note as it berated me for being a plonker of an owner!

Now, I am not a weak man by any stretch, I was nonplussed at why I could not keep holding my cherished pride and joy up ... things were slipping, sliding and in the end, it was a slow motion slide into the usual daily fare of KB postings!

The stupid packrack which zeocen, Gremlin and others said I must have was the final straw that placed my baby on the deck I truly do not understand why people say they have to have all this frikk'n gear. I only wanted to bring one light backpack for the two weeks of my travels. Tomorrow, I will be bunging a lot of the stuff I brought into a courier box and sending it back to Auckland! (this of course, was against my usual intuition of always travelling as light as possible and in the first two days of my journey, my initial thoughts were of course correct!)

Anyhow, Gremlin once he had stopped laughing came over to help. The rest is kismet and destined to be placed into the "One of the many stupid things I have done in my life and will keep doing" chapters.

As for the Big Ol'Hornet, it started up just fine, I got it back to the hostel in Franz Josef just fine (and after taking it through twisty gravels - as a tribute to Trump Lady).

The tramp to Franz Josef glacier was a quick stroll for me, I utilised hiking techniques I had read many years and practised long ago to propel me past the milling throngs to gaze upon the gifts of nature bestowed upon New Zealand for safe keeping. Photos quickly taken and then a quicker ride to Fox Glacier. A chance encounter with Carla, a southern KBer was cool and Danny from Botany Honda was of course a great illumination to me. I had an epiphany at that glacier.

I was given the middle ground of high highs and the low lows at a level that makes biking so special to us. The people, the places and the events that we take part in is what gives us some sort of order in the chaos that marks our time in this physical plane, as our global sphere hurtles its way through the cosmos and the minute motes of molecules that are assembled in the ways that allows us to experience our impact in our spatial-time continuum.

It's life Jim, but not as we know it.

I envisage that there will be more preposterous situations and even more ludicrous postings to be had before the end of this trip! I have found Gremlin to be an incredible source of strange and weird happenings. With the combination of our erratic, random and seemingly strange energies, there never seems to be a dull moment, hardly ever a serious moment and above all .. the opportunity of more riding.

Gremlin rides like a demi-god, for such a young lad he has a wealth of experience of riding and plays his black beauty of burnished brazeness like a virtuoso. I am content to ride in his wake and behold the mayhem he oozes on and off the bike!

This is ninja log 5 signing off ... today is a new day to ride! (and by the biking gods, I hope this is a more than 500km day! They have been few and far between for me on this trip! I had aimed to do 1000km a day for 14 days!)

To recap :

1. Get rid of the excess luggage
2. Get rid of the packrack when back at Dorkland
3. Smack Gremlin, zeocen for recommending packrack
4. Ride more. Ride, much, much, much more
5. Smack myself
6. Repeat steps 3 and 5 repeatedly
7. Do step 4 as much as possible

Anyone who gets to this point is to be congratulated!

[Swoop]

(the re-adjustment is back on track)

Do you think it is possible to get him up to the stage of an 11am wakeup???

P.S. The Israeli ladies were probably doing their combat PT, since they will be on standby for Gaza!

[Gremlin]

Do you think it is possible to get him up to the stage of an 11am wakeup???

Unfortunately, the chances of this are looking slim...

The alarm rang at 0730, like always, except I turned it off, looked towards his bed... empty, oh well rolled over

He comes in, says I should get up. Apparently he woke up at 0500, went back to sleep, woke again at 0530, felt energised so went off and had a walk and shower, all before 0700, so he just hung around.

I came out of the shower around 0830, to find him all packed and ready to go. Right now, he's not showing the anguish as usual, but I bet me surfing KB and emails etc is killing him on the inside, as I am carefully not showing any visable signs of being ready in 30 minutes...

[gijoe1313]

Well, I see Gremlin's last post and the preceding ones have started to validate my conspiracy theory. It is a plot by KBers to throw an anchor around my pootling ways.

I woke up early to satisfy my wanderlust, I resisted getting on the Big Ol'Hornet for fear if I started riding, I would never return back for Gremlin

But I realise all things happen in life for random purpose, synchronocity and all that. Gremlin is my touchstone where I need to learn some lessons from. What, I am not entirely sure ...

In turn, I am sure I am Gremlin's touchstone for him to learn some from lessons. What, I am not entirely sure ...

The time is now coming close to the agreed departure time of 9.30am. He is still in cargo pants, casual shirt and bare feet :slap:

Never mind, at least sometime there will be some riding involved ... I do so love to ride

Riding? Yes?

Riding? Yes?

Riding? Yes?

This is the conversation I have just now had with Gremlin.

I think you get the gist of the theme ...

[zeocen]

If you have had the packrack earlier and learnt to ride with excess luggage like any SANE tourer, you would have been fine in every single time the "pack rack" failed you.

Yeah, I put it in quotes because we all know you failed the pack rack.

LRN2TOUR, if you take the pack rack off when you get home I'm just going to come by at night and put it back on :P

[madbikeboy]

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (Camo Ninja fan)

[portokiwi]

Great going soo far guys. Look forward to the updates. I cant belive how far the glacers have recided back since I did that trip on the bike (mind you that was way back in 1990) have fun.

[Swoop]

Well, I see Gremlin's last post and the preceding ones have started to validate my conspiracy theory. It is a plot by KBers to throw an anchor around my pootling ways.

Quite untrue! "Pootling ways" are a North Island phenomenom (boop doo da loodle).
Their powers in the South Island are innefective. You must learn different powers... possibly those that contain plenty of "rrrrr's" so that you will be held in high esteem when in Gorrrre!

[Jantar]

Tuesday-Thursday, we're based with McJim, and it will be day rides. One is Milford Sound, another is the Catlins (and hopefully meeting that coppa of the south - clothed). Nothing specific for the other, maybe you have suggestions? What we do on which day depends on what the weather is in the areas.

looking at the weather forecast, I would suggest Catlins/Riveria of the south on Tuesday and Milford on Wednesday.

Wednesday looks like fine at Milford till mid-afternoon.