Category Archives: Motorcycle

Day 3 – The two sides of Aotearoa

Rain – lots of it. Last night on the ride here, all night and all morning. Plus grey skies and 300m visibility. We would not get our gear packed up remotely dry. The ride was also dodgy, the silt on the gravel roads becomes slick as soap.

Rocinante and our tent

Rocinante and our tent

So, a decision was made. Stick it out for one day, or at least until a pause in the rain gives us a chance to pack. And then, all went out again, when the DOC warden took pity on us and offered us a hut for a great price (budget is an issue for us now, especially in the “western world”). The hut was amazing! Warm, dry and enough space to spread our gear out to dry.

Te whenua also took pity and shooed the clouds away around 11am. It is hard to overstate what a difference the weather makes when one is so exposed to it all day. What set out to be a dreary and cold stake out between wet tent and cold public kitchen turned into a warm, sun-drenched dream.

The weather turned out to be so good in fact that we took off for 3 hours hiking the tracks around Waikaremoana Holiday Park. We explored some of the coolest waterfalls and had great vistas of the lake and surrounding mountainside.

Day 2 – Into the mud

 

After our 2 hour long brunch in Groove Kitchen Espresso in Napier, we took off again. This time towards Lake Waikaremoana.

Only picture of this day - to much rain.

Only picture of this day – to much rain.

Our brunch had included checking emails, voice mails and general stuff…one big damper happened but I am sure Flo will write about it at some point. On the bright side, my red rain jacket was finally found and will most likely be posted to Auckland by Brendan so that I can have it again. I dearly miss my fleece gloves at the moment which are in the pockets.

Back to riding in rain. The landscape is still beautiful, even with clouds hanging around hilltops and fog drifting in and out of street-level. I didn’t get the camera out much as I’m scared that the rain will damage it.

There was quite a bit of life stock around us including an escaped sheep that panicked when we got closer, tried to run up a steep bank and then slid back down because it was too steep. Luckily, by that point we had already passed it and it was able to relax again.

Wild or at least escaped goats also roamed the streets. One was especially sneaky and hid its great coat on a grey surface so we saw it quite late.

Wairoa was the last ‘bigger town’ so we shopped for dinner and breakfast tomorrow before going towards Lake Waikaremoana. The last 28km of the road are unsealed and with all the rain lately, it was quite a mess to ride it. The bike and Flo are covered in finely sprayed dirt.

We arrived at the DOC campsite (this time with hot showers, WOOT!) just before dusk, put the tent up in a hurry and hid in the warmer kitchen for a cooked dinner.

In a nutshell

We had a decent  list of kit that we wanted to get right for this big trip, and some things that were on our wishlist for a while. This has less to do with all these shiny new gimmicks that we eyed a couple of years ago and more with real gaps and improvements to our gear that we uncovered during previous trips. After all, we have been traveling for a while now.

Although we had some troubles, our decision to go for the Touratech Compañero suit was never much in question. My one fits nicely, but because it is not easy to get and Nina’s first try with the size was miles off, we decided to leave this till we stop by at Touratech Australia and try them on until the right size is found.

Now, about those nutshells: We had two contenders for helmets, based on recommendation and research.

Luckily, a local shop was stocking both of them. For New Zealand, that is like hitting jackpot! After the issues with the suits we did not want to go for anything without trying it on.

Let’s start with the Aventuro then: It is light – oh wow is it light. A carbon shell and full-on adventure helmet, neither one of us felt really comfortable with the shape. Maybe it is the head shape they are designed for or just that they are a bit more basic rather than comfortable. So, amazing helmet, but not for us.

The C3 pro (or C3 pro Women for Nina) on the other hand … ohh … heaven. It fits very snug yet oh so comfortable. The flip front is easy to use, we like chin straps with buckles instead of D-rings and we have not yet met anyone who owns one and is disappointed with it.

That was it, pretty much. Unfortunately, NZ has a real issue with getting Schuberth helmets in stock, so the store could not get us two of the same colour, even with a month and a half lead time. So with a heavy heart, the internet it has to be. This time armed with the right model and size though …

The trip, home to home on a coaster

map of the plan

Home to Home on a coster

I want to force myself into getting back to writing for this blog so that we are in the mood once we start our trip. It is so hard. I have a previous post called “never a writer”, and not much that followed.

There seems to be a reason …