New Zealand: North Island Motorcycle Trip

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North Island

While boarding the ferry, I met another biker, Laurie Hope from Nelson. He was on his way to meet a mate on north island to do a bike trip. We hit it off, as we are both bikers,and both from the IT industry. Laurie invited me to join him and his friend Max on their road trip. I stayed at the Museum Hotel in downtown Wellington, a beautiful boutique hotel that had recently been restored by a friend of Phillipa's , who was also a biker. Several of his bikes were on display in the lobby of the hotel. Phillipa tried to contact him to introduce us, but unfortunately, he was out of the country.

The next morning, Laurie and Mark, his friend, should up at the hotel on their bikes and we were on the road by 9:30am. We spent our first night in Mahia at Max sisters holiday home in, a beautiful town on a peninsula on the East coast about 400 km from Wellington. After settling in, we walked to the pub about a half a kilometer down the road. It was cool as we walked in to a strong headwind. I commented that at leeast we would have the wind at our back as we staggered home. Max corrected me, saying that likely we would we walking in to the wind going home. I didnt believe him, but as it turned out he was correct. Apparently, NZ being an Island between 2 Oceans, The Pacific and the Tasman Sea, has very unusual and constantly changing weather conditions. the changing winds have something to do with the rate of change of the land temperature versus the sea temperature.

The next day, we had a long rde ahead of us. aboutr 450 kms of very winding roads, to the Easternmost point of NZ, East Cape, and then North West to Ohope. To get to East Cape, we rode to a town, Te Araroa. From there it is a 20km ride to the point. The first few kms were on a nice paved road. However, all of a sudden it changed to gravel. Not just regular gravel, but freshly poured gravel on a narrow, crowned road. Now, if you are a motorcyclist, you can appreciate that riding a 250Kilo Touring bike (over 500lbs)on gravel is not the easiest of things to do under the best of conditions. I was very thankful that I took an off road motorcycling course this past spring. The skills I learned definitely came in handy. Although a little nervous, I kept the bike under control, until my friend Mark who was in the lead decided to stop in the middle of the raod to look at some horses. I tried to slow doen in a contolled manner, but misjudged the timing and skidded to a stop behind Max and dropped the bike. We up-righted the bike an had a good laugh about it and carried on without incident.

We carried on to Ohope, were Mark and Laurie's wives were there to greet us. They had pre-arranged for the girls to fly up from Wellington to meet them. They had an apartment booked, so I stayed at the Acquarius Motel down the road. In the morning, they swung by to pick me up to do a day excursion to White Island, the largest active volcano in New Zealand. The island is located about 50 kms North east of Whakatane. It is New Zealand's only active marine volcano and perhaps the most accessible on earth, attracting scientists and volcanologists worldwide as well as many tourists. This was perhaps one of the highlights of the trip. It was amazing to be so close toan active volcano - to feel the heat, smell th sulphur, sense to incredible energy arising frominside the earths crust. At one point, we were at the edge of crater and it was very difficult to breath- even with our face masks on.

After returning to the mainland, I said good bye to my new friends as we headed our separate ways. My motorcycle had been parked in a secure compound over night. I moved it around to my room which was on the ground floor. My bike was on the side stand, but I did not notice the down hill grade of the parking area. As I was putting the panniers (side bags) on, I pushed too hard and the bike went over. It landed on asphalt and much to my dismay, broke the mirror, cracked the protective cover on the engine block, and scratched the fibreglass pannier. I immediately lifted the bike (all 550 lbs of it) upright and assessed the damage. Fortunately it was nothing critical. I rode to the store and bought duct tape (red to match the colour of the bike) and a make-up mirror. After a minor operation I was back in business.

Coromandel

The next day irode upthe coast to Coromondel. Checked into a small motel, then walked up the road to the local pub to watch the finals of the World Cup Rugby. What a treat to be with the locals when New Zealand won the Cup in a very exciting game.

Next Stop, Paipua

Auckland

Lake Taupo

Wellington

Kaikua

Fairlie

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Photos

Mike, Laurie and Mark
My riding friends I met on the ferry crossing to North Island

Mike, Yvonne, Laurie, Judith and Mark
White Island