....................DAY 2. Nooooooo! The alarm went off at 0530 and dragged me from my coma! Up up and away, I got dressed, packed the luggage panier, extracting the day’s supply of bananas and water for the top-box, checked the tyres – 42psi on the button, exchanged the summer gloves for winter ones out of the wets and fuel panier, tidied the topbox, snacked, had a nice hot cup of tea….and we were gone at 0630. I thought it was bloody winter as scooted ...
I hit the sack at 2100 on Thursday night, worried that it was too early to go to sleep, but I went out with the lights, only to be rudely awakened by the alarm at 1230. Excited to be on my way after a couple of months of plotting and planning with screeds of emails between Jantar, Gremlin and myself, I dragged myself from the bed with a groan, scrubbed up, boarded the already packed and prep’d Enterprise and scooted the 10Km down to the Bluebridge Terminal….where I waited, with the 10 ...
Hi There My friend has a Truimph Scrambler 2007 which fell over during the recent quake. The fall has bent the handlebars. Does anyone know where to pick up a new or second hand one. The Truimph dealership in CHCH is out of action for the time being. All help appreciated. Cheers Lee
Christmas this year, as it turned out, was a time to ride…and what a great way to finish the year! The Maori Tennis tournament is held in Hamilton between Christmas and New Year and last year I didn’t go because I needed to paint the house, but this year I needed to do my duty and support Ann by taking her to this event….not because I love Tennis, but, it is in the Waikato. After a cruisy Christmas morning, we took the opportunity to visit her parents in Moumahaki, ...
The slowest NZ traverse ever. [3] Cape day dawned fine and warm - we headed in to Awanui and fuelled up for the final leg north. Northland was looking more prosperous than our collective memories of 15-20 years ago, and the road improved the closer we got to Cape Reinga. There was about 15km of gravel but it was formed-ready-for-seal gravel and the new-ish top end of SHW1 sweeps over hills and around bends as if designed by a biker. The Cape itself has been truly DoC-imated: large ...
The slowest NZ traverse ever. [5] Returning to the correct route without further mishap, we headed up the amazingly wide gravel of Styx-Patearoa road. I wondered ruefully if the heavy rain that drenched this country the day before would have made much of Dunstan Trail II as nastily greasy as 'our' puddle... It turned out OK, I was probably more cautious but rain held off (though we did have a hail shower) and I was pleased to see the Clark valley woolshed and gravel under our wheels ...
The slowest NZ traverse ever. [4] On Sunday 12th December we left Westport and rode south, via the coast road, Moana and Arthur's Pass. Our destination was Timaru so Ruth could catch up with a museum exhibition she had assisted with over winter. We cut through Lake Lyndon Road popping out right at Rakaia Gorge Bridge where we had a spell; nearby tourists expressed amazement we had ridden over gravel, I accepted the implied complement to my great skill... In fact the loaded DL was ...
The slowest NZ traverse ever. [1] In January, pillion partner Ruth and I set off on the Wee-Strom to get to Cape Reinga, somewhere I had never been which made it a suitable goal for our first decent motorcycle trip. Yesterday we returned from Bluff, completing a New Zealand traverse of sorts. Here are some memories of that ride. Between Westport and Nelson we encountered what proved to be the wettest weather of the whole northern trip, made more intense being stuck behind ...