The Green Badge Tour, part 1

This year, the annual conference/AGM of IAM NZ (http://iam.org.nz/) was due to be held in Porirua, just north of Wellington.  Several of us from the central north island were keen to attend and fellow observing team member Tony suggested that we should turn it into a "long way down, even longer way back" tour.  Great plan and 4 of us gradually hatched a route covering some of the north island's iconic twisty bike roads.  The Green Badge Tour gets its name from the badge that's awarded when a rider passes the Advanced Police Roadcraft Test.  All 4 of us had passed that long ago and had also passed the Observer (mentor) test too.

This is a map of the route, covering some 2100 km of fabulous riding roads.  With the exception of the Wellington area, it was expected that traffic would be pretty light in late summer, especially keeping away from major arterial routes where possible and so it turned out to be.

A route made in heaven

My 790 Duke isn't really set up for touring so travelling fairly light was the order of the day.  The regular small tailpack containing a few basic tools and puncture repair kit, with a 10 litre yachting dry bag strapped to it with a cargo net over the two.  I don't like wearing a back pack when riding but in this instance, I figured that I could put up with it.

Loaded and ready for action

Setting off from Coromandel early in the morning,  I stopped 70 km further south to pick up Tony (Yamaha MT10 SP) and we then met up with Lloyd (Yamaha TDM 900) and Rex (BMW 1200 GS) in Hamilton.  The end point of Day 1 was the Whangamomona Hotel on the famous Forgotten World Highway, some 380 km from home.  The general arrangement was that we'd swap the lead at gas or coffee stops and all 4 of us were linked with SENA comms.  It was quite amusing that on the open sections of road with fast sweepers, there was a fair bit of comms traffic, mickey-taking and so on.  However, when we got to the technical tight stuff, it went pretty quiet over the air waves - just warnings from the lead bike about potential hazards.  Between Te Kuiti and the turn-off to Ohura,  we came on fresh road works - wet tar overlaid with fresh gravel.  We picked the tar-coated stones out of the various nooks and crannies later on but a 1% er on a noisy H-D had to stop by the roadside and pick them out of his drive belt before it got shredded.

First stop after lunch was Ohura.  A small settlement with a massive main street which was once a coal mining centre.  Current population is less than 150 and the settlement is in a state of genteel decline.  No-one was about and a wry comment was made that the locals must still be in their coffins during daylight hours.

Rex, Geoff and Lloyd at Ohura.  A hot day and needing shade

The busy metropolis of Ohura - locals still in their coffins

A fully functional mailbox

The Forgotten World Highway is something of a rite of passage for riders.  A twisty, narrow road with an indifferent surface at the bottom of a valley and over saddles with a section of gravel 15 km or so long.  The scenery is spectacular but it's wise to either stop and look or keep your eyes on the road if moving.  There's minimal cell phone reception and if you make a mistake, you're a long way from help.  It pays to hold a fair bit in reserve.  Tony shot a bit of video on the more open part of the Forgotten Highway which I'm leading on.  His MT10-SP with crossplane engine and uneven firing order sounds fantastic with the speaker volume turned up and on full screen:

Courtesy of Tony

Stopping at the Tahora Saddle, the active volcanoes of Ngaruhoe and Ruapehu were visible on the skyline.

Wild country

Tahora Saddle with active volcanoes in the background (photo: Lloyd)

Yours truly at the Tahora Saddle (photo: Lloyd)

A quick photo stop at the Tangarakau river bridge.  The logs in the river show the power of nature when it rains!

Tangarakau river bridge - spectacular scenery

Logs in the river

A happy rider on tour grin (photo: Tony)

Before arriving at our destination for the night, a further stop at the entrance to the Moki Tunnel was warranted.  It was constructed in 1935/36 and is some 180 metres long - one direction at a time for traffic over a rutted surface.  We didn't see any wildlife on this occasion although on a previous trip, there was an extremely large feral billy goat with an impressive set of horns standing at the tunnel mouth.

Tony, Lloyd and Rex at the Moki tunnel mouth

Arriving at the small settlement of Whangamomona late afternoon, we settled into the hotel and enjoyed a cold one as temperatures were in the early 30's C.  The place was fair jumping with locals and some South African contractors who were laying more reliable power lines to the settlement.  A most excellent feed was had later that evening. We asked the owner about leaving the bikes behind the hotel as per past practice but he hadn't got room this time and said they'd be perfectly safe outside.  Robyn, the lovely lady who lived next door agreed, apart from the possible risk from a local driver who had too many under his belt running into them .  She offered space at her place which we gratefully accepted.  Rural NZ'ers are awesome!

The iconic Whangamomona Hotel - Lloyd and Tony

Chilling on the upper deck of the hotel - Tony, Rex and Lloyd

Hotel owner having a wash during a quiet spell

A walk to help dinner to go down was taken to get a few photos before it got dark.  Here's a selection.

Colourful shed in the main street

Chilling at the hitching rail - Tony, Rex and Geoff (photo: Lloyd)

Yep, it's rustic all right! (photo: Tony)

A wonderful day of riding, knowing exactly how your riding partners are going to react in any given situation.  Completely takes the stress out of group riding.  Another hot day forecast tomorrow for the ride down to Porirua.

Part 2 to come....

The Bay and Banjos Tour, day 2

Approximately 400km

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear.  I have that delicious stomach-churning anticipation of a day of fast riding in sparsely populated and largely wild territory.  A couple of the lads have stomach-churning due to overdoing it the previous evening and are looking forward to a big fried breakfast to settle things down (ewwww...).

Andy, praying for a hangover cure

Big John - makes the VStrom 1000 look like a toy!

We head off to the suburb of Taradale for gas and a pavement breakfast at a cafe.  Eggs Benedict for me and plenty of water as the weather is scorching hot.  Easy to get dehydrated on a long, hard ride in these conditions.  

 A lazy Sunday breakfast in the sun

 The next part of the route is deceptively called Gentle Annie.  The reason for its name isn't known to me, but it was probably named by an early settler with a perverse sense of humour!  Gentle it is not.  Approximately 150km of continuous bends through a bit of farmland but a fair percentage of it is through forests and native bush in really hilly country.  The road itself was only completely tar sealed earlier this year and there are big altitude changes as it dives down to valley floors and then over ridges in the Kaweka Mountain range. 

John leads off and sets a great pace as we climb away from the coast.  The road consists of continuous sweepers with a smooth, coarse chip surface, perfect for taking any chicken strips off a rear tyre - this is motorcycling Paradise!  Further up into the hills, the road surface is generally good but to maintain a decent pace in safety, good forward observation is critical to spot scatterings of gravel on the riding line and frost heaves in the high country.  It's hard to think that on such a beautiful day, this road is regularly closed because of snow in the colder weather but even now,  the temperature drop is quite pronounced at altitude.

Nearly 150 km of continuous twisties

 Kaweka Range high country - lonely out here

 We stop at a mountain river bridge to take some photos as the broom is in full flower and looks absolutely stunning.  There are big trout down below in the crystal clear waters.  After nearly an hour of riding, we've only seen a couple of vehicles and riding solo on this road with only patchy mobile phone coverage at best, having an accident or a breakdown becomes a serious matter; especially in marginal weather.

John, encouraging Andy to dive off the bridge and catch a trout!

 Crystal clear mountain river

Richard takes over the lead for the second half of Gentle Annie and the countryside slowly turns into high country farms.  The road is as twisty as ever and gravel patches diminish but everyone is still keeping a wary eye open for them.  Reaching State Highway 1 and up to Waiouru for gas, everyone thinks it's one of the best biking roads in the north island, but requires huge concentration if it's going to be traversed at pace.

Tongariro National Park active volcanoes taken from Waiouru

It's quite cool here in the high country and we head north west towards Taumaranui with John picking up the lead.  Everyone is on full alert as the Highway Patrol are pretty keen in this area and sure enough, the radar detector goes off and there's a cop a long way up the road booking a car driver.  We stop shortly afterwards near National Park village for some photos of the volcanoes.  Cloud cover is fairly well down, but that makes for a moody atmosphere.

Arty-farty shot of the volcanoes with red tussock grass

and an old cart in the foreground

A 3 metre high Kiwi made from gnarled branches - terrific!

We all refuel at Taumaranui and stop for a bit of rehydration.  We say our goodbyes to Richard who has to return home for work tomorrow which is a real shame as he's great company and a darned good rider too.  The next leg of the journey down the Lost World Highway needs full tanks as no fuel is available for the best part of 150 km.  This stretch is rather different from Gentle Annie.  The same tight bends but the road surface is more uneven, the road itself is at the bottom of a gorge and pretty narrow after the first 10km or so.

I lead off and we're immediately reminded that it's a road to be respected by the sign below.  There used to be another sign saying "Public Road - This Is Not A Race Track"  but it seems to have disappeared - more on that later.

A sobering reminder to take care

About an hour away from our stop for the night, it gets gloomy and light rain starts to fall.  The gorge walls are clad in bush and tree ferns and it's eerily beautiful.

Andy singing in the rain

Remains of trees swept downstream during heavy rain

Rivers rise fast in hill country

Wild, steep country

We travel along in light rain which has turned the 10-odd km section of unsealed road into brown slush.  All but one of the bikes are on sport touring tyres but there are no anxious moments.  The bikes are totally covered in mud and look like they've had a day at the moto-X track!  We're soon back onto tar seal and a bit further on, we stop at the Moki Tunnel which was built in the 1930's.  An impressive bit of engineering.

The narrow Moki tunnel

At least you can see daylight!

A few minutes later, we're rolling into the tiny, isolated settlement of Whangamomona and our stop for the night at the iconic Whangamomona Hotel, having seen precisely 2 other vehicles down the whole length of the highway.  Not a place to run into trouble.  The Hotel is a mecca for bikers, car enthusiasts and intrepid travellers and maintains its old world charm.  The current owners, Penny and Geoff Taylor are bike enthusiasts and currently own a brand new Super Tenere.  Every year, they hold a number of special events including Republic Day with all sorts of events including elections.  From memory, the last elected President of the Republic was a goat - I love it!!!!

The iconic Whangamomona Hotel

After being welcomed and shown our rooms, we have a well-earned locally crafted beer or two.  Nearly 400 km of continuous twisties brings on a real thirst, not to mention being half-stuffed!  We chat with a colourful local who gives us some interesting history of the people in the area and we tactfully don't ask about banjo ownership.  The local has his well-used utility vehicle (called a ute in NZ and Australia) parked outside.  It's clearly done stirling service for a couple of decades or so and is a perfect photographic subject in the remote surroundings.

A true country vehicle

Another patron rocks up on a gorgeous KTM 690 motard.  I've never seen one up close before and the engineering is superb.  Must be the perfect bike for a blast on these twisty roads. The owner is a really nice guy and as we chat, it turns out that he's the cousin of an old workmate and also worked for my old boss in another life.  The thing about NZ and it's 4.5 million population is that virtually everyone knows someone in common!

Superb KTM 690

Arty-farty shot in KTM mirror

After another beer or two and a superb meal, the eyelids are beginning to droop and 4 keen bikers are tucked up and sound asleep by 10pm, dreaming of the next day!

Day 3 soon......