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Published: November 25th 2007
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Waiting for the Ferry
All set up and ready to go Simon: 25th November
Well, I'm glad that I took the time to check out the back yard. Seven days of almost continuous riding and 4000+ KM covered saw myself and Jet circuit the South Island - and best of all: NO SPEEDING TICKETS!! (speed cameras excluded…).
This was definitely a whistle stop tour more focused on the riding and scenery than leaning about local history or buying souveniers. For those who ride, I'm on the Silver VFR 800 (comfy sports tourer), while Jet has the Blue CBR 600RR Movistar (a race bike not designed for comfort or fuel economy…)
Ive set out below the routes we took each day, and I think the photos really say more than I can about the landscapes.
Day 1: Bulls -> Picton -> Kaikoura ->CHCH
This provided me with a nice warm up run in to Wellington as I hadn't ridden for a few months. A flat crossing saw us kicking off the trip proper early afternoon in Picton.
Best road of the day - the Kaikoura coast, lovely twisty sections with short rock tunnels marred only by the odd rubber necking tourist too dumb to pull over to
the side of the road.
Day 2: Arthurs pass -> Greymouth -> Punakaiki -> Reefton -> Lewis Pass -> CHCH
After enjoying Karen and Matt's fantastic hospitality the night before we headed out for the Alps to check out the Pancake rocks of Punakaiki on the West coast. I wasn't exactly blown away by the rocks…they were nice but for some reason I was expecting perfect stacks of round pancake shapes.
Best Road of the day - too close to call between the sweeping views offered while climbing up Arthurs pass, or the cool twisty stuff running through the trees in the Lewis pass. We had a perfect finish to the day rolling back into Karen and Matt's for cold beer and a BBQ dinner just hitting the table :-)
Day 3: Ashburton -> Lake Tekapo -> Lindis Pass -> Queenstown
This one started with a quick zap to Ashburton for Jet to sort out a job interview and for me to pick up some bits and pieces which we were lacking.
Best Road - hands down my favourite of the trip, the Lindis pass. The road builds up through the McKenzie country to
Outbound on SH 73
Heading up towards Arthur's pass a wide open pass with great lines of sight, challenging twisty bits and just enough straight bits so the camper vans don't slow you down.
Day 4: Queenstown -> Bluff -> Te Anau (via SH 99) -> Milford Sound -> Te Anau
Queenstown saw us start the day early and head out from out backpackers. I'm sure it is a nice enough place, but without snow or the desire to jump off things the place seemed overpriced. Bluff could also up it's game too - a car park and a single sign doesn't do much in the way of self promotion…
Best road of the day - total no brainer, the Milford Road. The Homer tunnel looks like it was made by Fred Flintstone, and on a bike you get the full effect with a massive temperature drop and melt water dripping on as you ride through a core of living rock. We came through pretty late in the day so the traffic didn't cause us to slow down much, allowing us to ride as fast as skill would allow through a twisty road which spent a lot of time clinging to the side of a cliff.
Arthur's Pass
well, the start of it at least Day 5: Queenstown -> Wanaka ->Haast Pass -> Franz Josef
We were on the back straight now. This day saw us leave the eastern side of the alps for the west coast again. Over the pass was…you guessed it…rain, which was the first and only time we got wet on the trip. We pressed on with numerous grumbling from Jet about hopping back over to the Eastern side and parked up for the night next to the glaciers.
Best road of the day - the Crown ranges. No surprises here that it was another hill climb - this time with a sequence of about six or eight switch-backs with 15kph posted corners at each end.
Day 6: Hokitika -> Greymouth -> Westport -> Murchison -> Motueka
An early start saw us in Greymouth for brunch trying to outrun the coasts daily soaking, and we managed to lose the rain just after. From here spirits improved a fair bit, with Jet able to take off his ad hoc waterproof gloves - photo attached :-)
Best road of the day - I really enjoyed the Murchison to Motueka road. It provided a change from a the
The Pancake Rocks
...which only look a bit like pancakes tight stuff on the coast, and had a really nice sequence of long sweeping bends you could happily take at 110 K+
Day 7: Nelson -> Picton -> Wellington -> Bulls
Last day in the saddle, with really the only interesting bit being the direct road around the sounds from Nelson to Picton (IE no detour via Blenhein). We got another calm crossing then headed straight back to Bulls, unfortunately having to ride through Wellington peak traffic from 5pm onwards.
Best road of the day - Nelson to Picton which gave great views of the sounds. It makes you really work if you want to put some speed on, or will let you cruise through at your own pace swinging through the bends.
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