GS Ride - getting to the start

So following months of planning the week finally arrived when those of us in the South Island had to make our way North in order to start at Cape Reinga.  David Caesar came up to Christchurch on the 10th, having sorted out the Water taxi issue when we got back to Queenstown.  The following morning we joined up with Jeff Louwman and Mark Taylor and headed to Picton for our 1400 sailing with Bluebridge.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we stopped for a coffee at my mum's place just North of Cheviot before proceeding to Kaikoura for lunch.  Hislops Cafe is always a great stop there with beautiful food.  Carrying on up the coast was interrupted when a bee flew up Jeff's leg (not sure how this happens) but resulted in a bit of a dance on the side of the road.

We pulled into Picton at about 1300, refueled and was directed straight onto the ferry where we were greeted by a relieved Stuart Calder (relived to see that we actually existed and were actually going to do this).  The ferry crossing was very pleasant but when we got to Wellington we were directed out a different way to where Garry was waiting for us so we just sat and waited and guessed correctly that Garry would figure it out and come find us.

Garry let us to his place in Upper Hutt where we were greeted by Jo and Veda (the dog)

who had sorted out a great bbq for us.  Ian Reed joined us for the bbq before heading back to pack (Ian needs lots of time for this as we were later to find out)



The next morning we set off with a run over the Rimutakas (a first for me) and then Garry lead us North on route for the Forgotten Highway (as I had never been there) and Wangamomona Hotel.  We had our first section of NI gravel when we headed through the Windfarm above the Manawatu Gorge.  This was a lovely ride through a huge windfarm.  We stopped for brunch at Beyond the Bridge Cafe before dropping onto the Gorge Road to Palmerston North and onwards to Stratford.

I had heard many stories about the Forgotten Highway but had no idea where it was or why it was 'Forgotten' but what a joy to ride this road, it was just fantastic with corner after corner and virtually no traffic.  We had to stop at the Whangamomona Hotel but alas no more passports were available as it seems they were discontinued once the locals had raised sufficient funds to seal the road in (the road north is still partly unsealed).

Our next stop was our night stop with Malcolm & Sue Sargant North of Hamilton.  We were all going to crash there and having ridden over 700 km we were glad to arrive.  Although we were a bit late Malcolm and Sue were fantastic hosts and put on a great spread for us, again a well stocked fridge added to the occasion.  Malcolm has the ultimate house/garage combination.

1/3 house and 2/3 workshop.  It was pretty full with quite a number of bikes and an MG.

We all camped in the workshop on various beds and air mattresses.


The next morning we had our first scheduled stop at Experience BMW but before setting off we were joined by Mike Amphlet from Hamilton.  We bid our farewells to Sue (Malcolm joined us on the ride to Auckland) and set off to take on the dreaded Auckland traffic.  We tried to stay together as best we could (a pretty poor effort really but by the time we came back through Auckland we were a well organised bunch).

We arrived at Experience to find a number of bikes there and Henry Plowright playing with some sausages.  Between him and Wayne they put on a  fantastic breakfast for everyone who turned up of which there were quite a few who came just to see us as they were not on GS bikes.  Many of the North Island riders joined us here so our numbers must have doubled.

We gave a brief chat as to what the event was all about and how we work the team to get us to our destination, Rosco's place North of Kaitaia.



As I had never seen Tane Mahuta we decided to head that way on the way North.  I can see why people go there, yes the tree is impressive but the road in and out was motorcycling nirvana, especially when we only encountered about five cars the whole way.  Just heaven.

The picture does not do it justice but you can tell Stuart was impressed.














We carried on through various back roads finally reaching Rosco's place at about 1900 where we were greated by a great reception from Rosco and Raewyn and a  some friends of theirs up from Auckland.  They had prepared a three course meal for us and Dora (a Hungarian visitor) was given the task of seeing who wanted some 'suup'.

The night ended with another group briefing on how Garry and I wanted the tour to work, especially the concept of Lead Rider, Sweeper and Tail End Charlie.  We were interrupted when Keith Dore (also from Christchurch) turned up having had bike problems near Hamilton.  Luckily he was 'loaned' a R1100GS while his bike (R80) was repaired.

Tomorrow the ride proper would start and we could not wait............