Babes on Buells Southern Tour

**buellbabe** · 19th March 2007, 14:36

Ok this is from my perspective... Rashika will have more to sya and pics to add but I thought I would get the ball rolling while I have some downtime at work...
Bear with me cos its long and is gonna have to be posted in a few parts (like about 5!)
Here goes
Part 1

Well its pretty hard adjusting to working life again after doing 2,500 miles over the last 10 days in the South Island.
As some of ya may know I wasn't able to do the trip on my own bike cos my shock needed a rebuild so my good buddy AJ said I could use the 04 Firebolt that he had just bought from a guy up here in Auckland.
What a hero! He hadn't even taken the Bolt for a ride yet and was willing to let me hoon around the South Island on it and then deliver it to him in Wellington!!!!

Anyway the trip rates as one of the best holidays I have ever had.
There were 4 of us tiki-touring and we had an absolute blast. Deano was on a Ducati Multistrada, his lady Jocelyn rides an SV100, moi on da Bolt and my great mate Rashika on her Bolt.
It was just bliss riding with 3 other people who all had similar riding styles and were all into the same things!
All 4 of us are tequila fans so we had 'Cocktail' hour each evening with Deano making us primo Mararitas.
Ah yes sitting in the evening sun, glass in hand musing over the days glorious ride, anticipating the next days adventure... It really doesn't get much better!

**buellbabe** · 19th March 2007, 14:41

So here is how it went down... D, J & I left Auckland after work on Wednesday and rode south to Taupo then headed to Wellington to catch a 1.30pm ferry across the Cook Strait to Picton. The last hour approaching Wellington was not the best as the North Island decided to farewell us with a downpour but by the time we were riding onto the ferry the skies cleared again and our spirits lifted :-)
Then onto Blenheim where we stayed the night and showed the locals how to party.
Next day we rode to Christchurch (to hook up with Rashika), we had the whole day to get there so we just cruised, stopped at Kaikoura and later on stopped at a vineyard where we sampled a few different wines...
Friday night in Christchurch was a fairly quiet one and Saturday we rode with a big group of locals the long way (aka twisty back roads) down to Waimate for the March Hare Rally. This was the biggest rally I have ever been to and I loved every minute of it! Not sure of numbers but it had to be a couple of thousand easily???. It rocked! In fact it rocked so much that I only had about 3 hours sleep before doing another long-way-round ride the next day! I was shattered and seriously doubted whether I could make it! But of course I DID! I was just blindly following Rashika glad that she had gotten more sleep than I had!

**buellbabe** · 19th March 2007, 14:44

Balclutha was the stop that night, at Chez Scumdogs! I was feeling miraculously revived and needless to say we had a bit of a sesh...
Cheers Scummie, Chrissie Bimbo and Mangrove!
I could say more about policemen wandering around with no trousers on ...but I won't...
Then onto Invercargill the next night where we celebrated my birthday!
Yep! I could tell my this point that I was gonna have a good year!

**buellbabe** · 19th March 2007, 14:52

We rode down to Bluff at the bottom of the Sth Island and then along the Catlins coast (which was stunning) before heading to Te Anau where we holed up for a couple of days so that we could take a day to go out to Milford Sound and do a sightseeing cruise. Blimmin AWESOME!
Riding back up towards Queenstown the next day was bliss. I actually got a wee bit choked up while riding around the bottom of Lake Whakatipu cos the scenery was so stunning and the road was dynamite.
Beautiful Wanaka was the stop that night...around this time we decided that eating out every night was getting a bit expensive so we went to the local supermarket and bought a heap of cheeses, pate, dips, bread, crackers, smoked seafood etc...Yummo! and needless to say we had to replenish the cocktail supplies...

**buellbabe** · 19th March 2007, 14:57

getting very frustrated trying to attach pics... grr! They are NOT too big!
So here is the rest of the report and I will persevere with the pic up loading...

From there we went thru the Haast Pass to the west coast. Its a great bike road but there is a lot of tourist traffic on it and very few places to pass during the first really tight bit. I gave 1 camper van the 1 finger wave cos the wanker REALLY could have moved left a bit to let us pass but DIDN'T. A-hole!
In the Motorcycle Atlas we used as a rough guide it described the west coast ride as a 5 smiley ride... I would give it 10/10...I have done it a few times now on 4 different bikes and I never get tired of this stretch of road!
Stayed at Fox Glacier that night and of course did the tourist thing and walked out to the Glacier. It is advancing at the rate of 1.5 metres a week and tourists are advised not to venture right up to it (cos of rocks falling) but of course ya just can't stop some people and only a month ago some stoopid foreigner got airlifted out with a shattered leg...

Well we continued up the coast to Hokitika, did a stretch of road that is continuous 15-25kms corners! The Buell just ate the corners up and spat them out. Yee ha!
Stretched our legs in Hokitika, the place was packed cos it was the weekend of the Wild Foods Festival and all the loonies had come out to play. We were parked on the side of the road wondering what to do about bike and gear security when I realised that we were opposite the local police station so I went over and explained our situation and asked if we could park our bikes in their compound... The cop said no cos they were expecting 're-inforcements' to be turning up soon buuuut he said we were welcome to stash them next door at the 'police owned house'!!!! Great stuff! Nothing ventured nothing gained huh?
Well after a bit we continued on to Greymouth having met up with Rashikas man and 1 of his mates along the way. We all did a tour of the Monteiths Brewery... Fascinating and GREAT beer! Then we hooned out to 'the Blackball Hilton' for the night. It was hill-billy night... so party party party!
Well sadly we said goodbye to Deano and Jocelyn the next day as they were heading up to Nelson and beyond intending to do a spot of kayaking. I rode back to ChCh with Rashika, Dangerous and Crazy Bren... We went thru the Lewis Pass which is definitely on my list of favorite roads... Bush either side forming an archway and fabulous corner after corner... Sigh... Never get tired of that road either ;-)
Gave the bike a wash and then it was round to Mary Lous for 1 final sesh ;-) Next day I headed north on my own wondering if the back tyre was gonna last til Picton cos it was SHAGGED! I still broke the speed limit the entire way but kept all my accelerating as smooth as poss cos I am NOT kidding...the rubber was so thin in places the canvas was showing thru!
The COOLEST thing happened while I was stopped again at Kaikoura having brunch, across the road from me a pod of dolphins came into the bay and just stayed there frolicking around, somersaulting out of the water and putting on quite a display! I was glad of my dark glasses cos I got a wee bit weepy... Yeah I KNOW! I really must harden up!
Then sadly me and bike said goodbye to the South Island and landed at Wellington where, even sadder, I had to say good bye to my bike...oops! I mean AJs bike. Handing the key over to him was bloody hard to do cos I had become very attached the the Firebolt!
Flew back to Auckland the next day and was greeted with enthusiastic love by my critters, that took some of the sting out of my holiday being over.
Picked my X1 up the next day, serviced and with rebuilt shock :-) yeeha :-))))) I found myself laughing as I rode it home cos I felt like I was riding a trailbike after being on the Bolt! Jeez! Gotta lower the handlebars!

So now I am saving hard for my next tour and...contemplating a new bike...
Shock horror! But I'll tell ya why in another thread...

**buellbabe** · 19th March 2007, 15:05

I GIVE UP!
Why is it taking forever to up load these pics??? Bugger this... I will try again tomorrow morn cos i am off home now!

**scumdog** · 19th March 2007, 20:47

Great write-up BB, the pic of the 'cop bike' turned out O.K. too!

Glad you did your ride when you did - the weather over the last 3-4 days down here has not been too shit-hot (bloody wet'n'windy!!) for riding.

**buellbabe** · 20th March 2007, 06:35

well here goes with some pics

**buellbabe** · 20th March 2007, 06:36

and some more

**Rashika** · 22nd March 2007, 16:50

damn thats an awesum bit of writing chicky!
yeah I know... I'm slack...but I have been a little busy, buying another house, selling mine amongst other things, I WILL get something up and posted soon. maybe this weekend... if I can push someone else off the net

**dangerous** · 22nd March 2007, 20:56

Man, who let that dodgy looking bugger loose behind the bar

Awesome write up Bb and it was a bloody great ride back from the Blackball Hilton were we stayed, I forgot I took my old Kat on that trip to the coast and back.
Crazy Bren is BrenChCh and Mary Lou is SuzyQ partnered up with Thunder, aint KB a grand old place.

**Rashika** · 23rd March 2007, 05:22

well this will have ta be brief cos I aint got much time...

Things to remember for future:

1. Stick to pack racks, panniers tend to fall off, esp off Italian bikes

2. When hunting for said panniers dont forget to take money card with you when you fill up in the middle of nowhere...or else you will have to go back for it

3. After 250mms of rain the ideal way to get to Milford is by... bus!

but the pics are damn AWESOME!

4. Bluff has one ICREDIABLE view from the lookout

5. Tuatapere has a nice cop...

6. It rained, it rained, it rained, the average rainfall was well maintained. Well, Te Anau lived up to its reputation! And the Cordura did too!

7. Haast pass is a damn nice piece of road, yep 5 smilies from me! Altho I loved it all the way up the coast as well, weather was great, and that prob helped too.

8. Hoki wild foods Fes price is a bit of a rip, prob worth it for the whole weekend, but not for a couple of hours. Much better spent listening to some cool band from South America, even bought their CD!

9. Wheres the Cops???????????

10. 100kms an hour speed really DOES save you some petrol!

thats it, will post some pics...

Lindus pass, Tarras, Roxborough (outside the park I played in as a kid!), Clutha River near Balclutha

**Rashika** · 23rd March 2007, 08:17

bug splat

hmmm...hiding??

Kaka point

The whole bunch of us at the waterfall...

ahhhh pretty!

**Deviant Esq** · 23rd March 2007, 09:02

Great writeup Buellbabe, good reading! Shame the pics weren't a little bigger, but they're still great pics! I think Crazy Bren suits Bren more than bren_chch... but then, I remember hooning to Akaroa with him once with TygerTung... he spent more time on the rear hoop than with both on the deck! Bloody nutter...

Nice CBR900RR though... does he still have it?

Mary Lou feeling a bit better on that SV then?

Sounds like a good time was had by all - great stuff! Scummy's hospitality live up to its reputation?