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Part way we stopped in Pongaroa for a drink at the pub and to chat to some Canadian cyclists. From here there is a 60 km loop road into AA beach. All but 20 are paved and the rest is good gravel.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4649/...b01fd26a_b.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-21 at 22.28.06 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4712/...95b60851_b.jpgFILE2360 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4768/...92c60c79_b.jpgFILE2361 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4648/...dcbc67b6_b.jpgFILE2370 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4655/...ce2b99f9_b.jpgFILE2371 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Arriving to the beach we had a snack and while we were watching the waves a furry sea lion hopped out onto the beach.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4748/...1a11158a_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4604/...76969062_b.jpgIMG_1929 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4714/...24f77877_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-83 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4662/...9b3b99c8_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-80 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4708/...cc9a7693_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-81 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4713/...7a93c770_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-84 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
This is how you tow your boat in New Zealand!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4612/...d9ce2e88_b.jpgIMG_1920 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4602/...98a600f8_b.jpgIMG_1921 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4770/...62727ea8_b.jpgIMG_1936 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Riding back to the 52 from the north we had to retrace 15 km and then made for the Pa Valley and then the Mangaone Valley roads and arrived to Pahiatua at 630 to the home of HU Hubb members John and Sarah. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4668/...202b0064_b.jpgFILE2392 (1) by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4705/...6ec89887_b.jpgFILE2398 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4747/...9a8a39e7_b.jpg |
Sarah and John have traveled a lot of Europe by bike 2 up and want some advice on crossing Asia to bring their BMW back from the UK where they bought it. They served up a huge steak BBQ for us and their kids Ben and Rebeca and we talked into the night.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4660/...ddceb080_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-85 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4653/...1ea434a5_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-86 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4711/...8bf6fc91_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-87 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Today the plan was to go to Castle Point (voted the best beach in NZ) and the weather looks clear for star tonight.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4604/...de7ed1c3_z.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-21 at 22.32.28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We headed back to the 52 and south 64 KM to Masterton for groceries and supplies. We then took the Castle point road to Langdale road and wound our way to the beach. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4672/...404d0bb8_b.jpgFILE2409 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4759/...618c9820_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4704/...5373ab2d_b.jpg |
The problem is it is a holiday weekend Saturday and as we expected when we arrived there are no spots and no where to free camp. We had a picnic lunch and retreated to Masterton in the 30 degree blazing sun.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4761/...9a713863_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-88 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4769/...99506d43_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-89 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We found a great motocamp just at the city limit and it has a nice grass field, amazing showers, and the best stocked camp kitchen we have ever seen. It was a 10 minute walk into town to get some cold beer. Then we had to hide in the shade a the sun was like a laser. Small world as Sarah's dad used to manage this park and she has even lived here. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4626/...b5fcc40e_b.jpgIMG_1942 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4650/...cbb4076d_b.jpgIMG_1943 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
It was after 2 and we made for Greytown (voted prettiest town in NZ) for lunch. We cruised the quaint main road and parked where there were several restaurants. We went into a nice deli to order and not 5 minutes later Sarah and Rebeca who were here for some shopping and saw us ride by! SMALL world. Crazy to meet 2 of the few people we know in NZ. Now we rode over the famed (for the number of deadly motorcycle crashes) Rimutaka road. It is a nice windy mountain road that guys on donor cycles try to race across and crash all to often. We managed all right at normal people speed.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4670/...c4179eee_b.jpgIMG_1950 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4602/...9f1c0030_b.jpgFILE2575 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4669/...d5a5d0f9_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-92 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4763/...293cf219_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-91 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Arriving to Mike’s home he had one side of the garage open for us, cold beers ready, and he cooked us up a fantastic beer can chicken dinner. We went over the south island map with him as well and he added quite a few local aid bits! We also booked our ferry tickets today. We had to go with 3 days from now in order to not have to go at 9 am or 8 pm. We booked with Blue bridge as they allow 2 motorbikes to be booked on one reservation, they had a 130 pm opening for the 3.5 hour crossing as opposed to 9 am or 5 pm), and it was 50$ cheaper. They are north sea ferries and not as nice as the ones run by the competition Inter-island.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4718/...cfbf03a9_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-93 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4705/...8968a42b_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-94 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It is not very nice out today so for our tour in the city Mike took us in the car. We headed into Wellington city and visited the Te Papa national museum, lunched on the waterfront at Mac’s, then drove over to visit the NZ first world war memorial and museum. We headed back to Mike’s so Sara could cook us up dinner. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4756/...5231ed94_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-95 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Giant Squid! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4650/...c3952ed0_b.jpgIMG_1954 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
It is supposed to be a much nicer day today and we set out on the bikes just after 9.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4715/...029a5974_z.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4660/...0f5fa4ae_b.jpgFILE2598 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Leaving Porirua we did take the motorway until Johnsonville and then turned off onto the Ohairu Valley Road.. This is a very narrow and curvy road thru farm lands. We took a detour off to visit Makara beach. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4723/...f8c1e361_b.jpgFILE2607 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4763/...d9406143_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4711/...b848795c_b.jpgIMG_1964 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4657/...638010bd_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-96 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Next we crossed over the west of the suburbs to climb the steep road to the “wind turbine” lookout. This has a panoramic view over the city from the west.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4629/...8e4a23ab_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4696/...62e4d7a9_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4755/...f564b54e_b.jpgIMG_1967 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4724/...81fe34ac_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-97 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4667/...5cbf99b2_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-98 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
From here we rode down to the sea on Happy Valley Road and to Owhiro bay. The road here skirts the seaside and ends at the airport. Here we had a great lunch on the deck of the Spruce Goose and watched the planes take off and land.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4615/...9ef51753_b.jpgFILE2657 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4650/...bc21b049_b.jpgFILE2669 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr When you continue on the coast road you actually ride under the runways and along the coast with views of the harbor. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4678/...cd214cdf_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-99 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
There is a steep and narrow switch back road to the lookout at Mount Victoria.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4701/...1b5c7c16_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-101 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4662/...db9fb4ff_b.jpgNorth Island NZ 1-100 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr When we came back from enjoying the view Lulu would not start! Now when we arrived back from Vietnam there was a starting issue, but since then the bike started but there was a delay of a second when the starter was pushed. For the last 2 days it did not seem to be running “normally” or at least seemed to lack power, but the voltage meter was 14. We tried to jump the bike-no, we swapped out the battery from the 800-no, we jumped it with the new battery and started. So either the regulators or the stator! We luckily were less than 5 km and mostly downhill to get to Mikes shop Boyle Kawasaki. Glad it did not die on the hill like it did in Quito when I broke my toe! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4622/...8615d61a_b.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-23 at 22.27.07 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4672/...66b1e8ba_b.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-23 at 22.27.41 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr What nice guys. They immediately offered help, tested the battery (all good), offered to fix the bike, offered us a trailer….and beer. In the end Dan and Mike rode back home and picked up Mikes car and trailer and then came back for Lulu and Sara. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4661/...5e164f04_b.jpgIMG_1971 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Arriving home Dan got to work. First he swapped out the regulator and no luck.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4677/...977853c3_b.jpgIMG_1974 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4701/...a38b9448_b.jpgIMG_1975 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Next we open the engine and the stator is burnt totally and the wiring burned thru. Inside the case there was a 4 mm glob of what looked like solder freely floating (forgot to take a picture unfortunately). Poor job on the manufacture! It has only been in use since Kazakhstan (22,000 km ago!!). Not much we can do so we installed the new one and it is working well we think. The voltage reads 13.8 when riding, but 14.0 when in neutral. This is a new regulator and is Dan’s battery. The 650 was always 14.1! We shall have to see. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4622/...ba837d98_b.jpgIMG_1978 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4700/...5e9912c7_b.jpgIMG_1979 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4724/...2ae7a969_b.jpgIMG_1980 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4650/...cf34348c_b.jpgIMG_1981 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Thanks so much to Mike for saving us in a bad situation! This bourbon is well deserved . https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4695/...91ac21fd_b.jpgIMG_1983 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Today we are heading to the ferry across the Cook (as in Captain) Strait to the South island, but the sailing is not until 1330.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4745/...30d2f65a_b.jpg We headed out just after 7 and made for Mike’s favorite coffee and scone spot for breakfast. We then rode out to the Eastbourne Bays and then back and over the hills to the Wainuiomata Coast. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4673/...7493703548.jpgScreen Shot 2018-01-24 at 22.22.36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4670/...0f9bc9ba_b.jpgFILE2712 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
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