The slightly longer way home

[redkiwi]

Here's a bit of a yarn about my trip back from Wellington to Auckland after picking up my new TRX. The weather has just turned to shit, but when it clears up again I'll give the bike a clean and do photos of all the fancy bits on it

As I'm sure most of you are not very familiar with New Zealand here is my route in GoogleMaps.
http://tinyurl.com/dayonetrip
http://tinyurl.com/daytwotrip

I've put the cool roads in bold in the write up so you know where to look, there is Streetview available for most of the journey so take a look for yourself at the fun I got up to!

On Tuesday I flew down to Wellington, my mate Jim kindly picked me up from the airport and took me up to Motomart to pickup the bike. After completing the required paperwork and transferring the money across I was on my way.

As I was staying in Paraparaumu for the night with a family friend I had decided that Paekakariki Hill was going to my way across. I left Motomart, and without checking my directions which I had written down, headed up SH2... all the way to Upper Hutt! I got there and thought 'fuk, im sure that the road across was before here'. Sure enough I saw a sign saying Akatawara Road up a head and knew I'd gone to far. By now the sun was behind the hills so I checked my directions and shot back to SH58 and then rode straight past the turn off for Paekakariki Hill. This didn't become apparent until I was in Paremata and now riding up the coast. The sun was well and truly setting now so I didn't bother to stop and ask the locals for directions up the hill and instead shot through to Paraparaumu where I had beer and a nice curry waiting for me!



I got up at 6:35am - I don't usually do early mornings. By 7:15am I was now on my way North, first stop Levin. After picking up a FZR250RR headlight for the bike I shot up SH57 to Aokautere and then took Paihiatua Track across to SH2. This was my first real chance to put the bike through it's paces with some twisty roads. Initially, it was shit, not because of the bike, because of me. I haven't ridden a sports bike properly in about 9 months and have mainly just been commuting on my old CB650. It took me the first half of the road to sort my lines out and get used to having a hammering 850cc parallel twin delivering the ponies the the rear wheel. By the end of the road my wrists were somewhat sore from engine braking power that I just wasn't used to, but I now had a fair idea of what the bike could do when I was in the right headspace.

From here I stopped in Mangatainoka for a few photos of the Tui brewery before getting on my way for breakfast with my friend in Dannevirke. After some delicious Pancakes and a great coffee at 'The Vault' cafe I headed back down to Woodville and took Saddle Road up over the hill past the Wind Farm. What a cool road! It's nice and twisty, and then all of a sudden you come around a corner and the big spinning wind turbines seem to take over the skyline, i looked out for telly tubbies but didn't see any. Those turbines really are quite big!!!





I continued on through to Fielding via Bunnythorpe and caught up a few of my cousins on their lunchbreak at school. Just before I was about to leave a fat and stumpy teacher came out and told my cousin she 'shouldn't be out on the street hugging wierd aliens'... I guess the teacher really was from another planet. I fired up the bike which got the attention of around 50 or so students so I was very careful not to make a dick of myself as I left, though I couldn't resist giving it a handful to show the retard that went by on a mini chopper what a real bike sounds like.

I 'supercruised' at about 150kmh along the back roads from Fielding to Marton, then across to Wanganui. Filled up with gas and headed for SH4. About 5km out of Wanganui there was a sign saying "SH4 - National Park : CLOSED".
SHIT! I stopped and spoke to a road worker and he said that the road would re-open in 15 minutes, so I pulled over and waited. Soon enough I got the all clear and after passing two cars that shot away before I could put my gear on and get on the bike I had the road to myself.

I did all of SH4 through the Parapara's and through to Raetahi without having a car going the same direction as me. I had the road pretty much all to myself for 96km!!!
As you can see from the photos the weather couldn't have been better. The only clouds in the sky were contrails from airliners!







I then took SH47 and SH41 across to Turangi and then up the Eastern side of lake Taupo to my mate Steves workshop, I stayed at his place for the night.

Total distance for day one: 516km

[redkiwi]

After spending the night having a good chinwag with Steve we we're on our way back into Taupo to his workshop so I could get on my way. By this point I had been persuaded by a friend to go to Rotorua and ride with her along SH5 to Hamilton as she was heading to Auckland. I was slightly pissed as my planned route was going to mean avoiding main Highways until I arrived in Pukekohe. As it panned out SH5 wasn't so bad, although a little bit too straight for my liking. We stopped in Hamilton for mean feed of Sushi - this was why we couldn't go 'my way'... sushi.


Determined not to have to take SH1 back to Auckland I had a quick look at a map at the petrol station before we left and found a better way home. We headed out to SH23 out towards Raglan, and then turned off onto Ohautira Road up towards Waingaro before taking SH22 back through to Pukekohe. As it turned out parts of these roads weren't in the best condition but as we were just passing through at about the speed limit it didn't cause us any trouble, and we we're able to enjoy the ride home much more than just sitting in traffic along SH1.

[redkiwi]

Some extra pics

[redkiwi]

The last pics from Day One

[Jak]

awesome ride! You lucky *"%^*!

Great pics too

[ekoja]

That would have been a great ride.
That last pic of the road running down under that viaduct, I scared the poo's out of me once going down there in a semi just a gear too high,
and running out of brakes at the bottom. I just scraped around the corner. however with the obligatory change of underwear carried on regardless, with the smell of hot brakes fading as the miles wore on.

[redkiwi]

Haha, yeah that corner at the bottom does seem to last forever. The worst thing is that it is in the shade until about 3pm, so if you come around their too hot you can easily end up sliding out on cold/wet/icy roads in the shade - the temperature change from the sun to the shade at the bottom was VERY noticable.

I have to say that watching the vids posted of some roads in Spain that people are raving about - compared to most NZ roads they seem quite straight! The only thing that I'm jealous about is the road surface! "We just don't know how lucky we are!"

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

well done Thats what we all enjoy about buying our TRX's Those days when we get to escape and and the adventure that unrolls before us. And yes so lucky with the road surfaces.. but thats half the fun ... ENJOY...

[sandmacker]

I remember some of those roads when I lived in NZ . Unfortunately I didn't have a bike then . Nice bike