… with the land and especially with the  roads! Sooooo marvelous, and it was just the two very short ride outs you can do in 2 hours starting in downtown Wellington.

Nina and I went for two ride outs this week. The first one was on her birthday. Although we missed the sun by maybe 2 hours, it was still gorgeous. I am fairly certain, that this is going to be my new “Hausstrecke”. It has what feels like a thousand curves, nice and steady. The best part? One, I repeat: one intersection for 37 km! Ah, wonderful.  Due to the weather, we only took one short rest and a hand full of pictures. I am certain though, this will not have been our last trip there.

Download file: short_daytrip_wlg1.gpx

Today, we went all the way along the eastern shoreline of Wellington. From Oriental Bay to Owhiro Bay, always following the coastal route. We had sunshine and perfect temperature for riding, beautiful! At Lyall Bay, we had lunch at an amazing burger joint / fish’n’chips. It had several vegetarian burgers on the  menu – and those we ordered were delicious. That makes me rather certain that we will come back here several times throughout the summer.

Then came my personal highlight of the day – an assessment which is not shared  by Nina. From Owhiro Bay you can follow the coastline westwards, but after 1km the asphalt ends and the Red Rock Walkway starts. Kind warning signs tell you that from here on, only 4WDs and Motorcycles should carry on.

Right from the start, you get probably as much off-road as the Transalp is capable of handling. Too much, if you are going there on 80% street tyres (Michelin Anakee II) and fully loaded 2 up. The short river crossing was great and safely doable 2up, but the deep beach sand posed to much of a challenge. After we  dropped and Nina decided to walk along the sandy bit, it was ok though.

Anything after that, packed gravel, lose grave, water and deep pot-holes are OK for Rocinante. Unfortunately, after about 1 km, we encountered a landslide that forced the road back down on the beach and into more deep sand and we decided not to press our  luck for the  day.

The second time on sand, I decided to follow the common advice and try going a bit faster. It turned out, that it didn’t do much good in the end. We dropped a 2nd time and I decide that semi-street tyres plus paniers plus pillion is maybe a bit too much to take on during my first experience with deep sand 🙂

Download file: short_daytrip_wlg2.gpx