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It will be a week or so before I get some pics up probably but someone was asking what route I took from Hamilton to Awakino so here that section of my ride is.
Well bugger, that didn’t work.
Anyway, I had a need to get away for a ride and wanted to capture some new rides for the website.
Christmas day I packed up the bike and decided on a direction from Hamilton based on where there wasn’t like to be much traffic, South West it was to be.
Boxing day morning and I was off, until I got to Frankton where I discovered my oil cap had blown out somewhere, I’d been working on the bike right up to New Years eve giving it a huge birthday and I can only assume I didn’t tighten the cap up properly. Oil had spewed everywhere up the right side of the bike and was continuing to blow out so I rode home again with my boot over the exposed oil filler hole.
We have a garage full of Suzuki’s so the son’s GN250 made the required sacrifice and I was on my way again. @NordieBoy, do you have a oil filler cap in the emporium? Suzuki NZ don’t have any and can’t get one for several weeks, I could also get a bling one if the RMZ450 uses the same plug, I’ve enquired http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/motorbikes/parts-for-sale/exhaust/auction-826636673.htm.
First stop was Pirongia West Road, a new one for me. Pirongia West Road offers huge views over Kawhia Harbour and the surrounding countryside and was a great find for another Waikato ride.
At the end of Pirongia West Road it’s a short run down to SH31 where you come out right besides the Oparau Roadhouse, a handy fuel stop.
The bike fence opposite the Oparau Roadhouse
After gassing up, a couple km’s inland on SH31 bought me to Harbour road, which later turned into Kawhia Harbour Road. I still also enjoy road riding and this was a fun road with lots of corners. I was blown away when I got down to Kawhia Harbour about how stunning it was, the views over the water were fantastic, unfortunately the road was too narrow to stop for a pic.
At the end of Kawhia Harbour road it was left into Te Waitere Road and at the end of that left again into Taharoa Road, followed by a right into Marakopa Road whch funnily enough takes you to Marokopa where I stopped for a burger at the store/takeaway/library, all of which was jammed into 2 rooms the sum total of which might have added up to an average bathroom in size.
Marakopa
Mangatoa Road
Continuing to head South I took Mangatoa Road until I came to a 3 way junction where I chose to follow my nose, this took me over the tight and twisty Pomarangai Road, another fun ride.
You know any road signposted like this is going to be an interesting road
Pomerangai Road
Reaching the far end of Pomarangi Road I realised I had taken a wrong turn so had to back track the way I had came, such a trial to have to ride such a get road again, however this is where my day went a little askew…..
Due to a vehicle coming the opposite way on a tight right hand corner, and as the road was so narrow he took up all of it. As soon as I touched the brakes the front wheel locked and slid out and down the heavy camber, pitching me onto the ground and the bikes front wheel ended up jammed under the front of the car.
There doesn’t seem to be any real damage to the bike apart from some new scratches and the forks being twisted in the clamps and not a lot of visible damage to the car, but a stone guard behind the front bumper was torn off and possibly a few plastic mountings for the front bumper.
After swapping details and a quick check of the bike it was off again with the next stop being Waikawau beach. Access to the beach is via a hand carved tunnel built in the 1800’s to transport sheep to boats in the harbour. You can ride through the tunnel and onto the beach but I didn’t today as there were quite a few people around.
Waikawau tunnel
Inside the tunnel
Waikawau beach
Beach access, it can be a bit dodgy and is harder than it looks
Should have one on the grenaded engine. I’ll have a look (it’s at the Olde Emporium).
The day was getting on so it was time to find a spot to camp. I have an app on my phone that will give directions to the nearest DOC campsite to your location (NZ DOC Finder on Android) but that didn’t turn up anything closer than about 90 km away.
After gassing up just out of Awakino I headed up Taumatamaire Road hoping to find something and 6km in I was rewarded with a nice spot elevated from the road and hidden from view by the combination of height, a small depression and thigh high grass. Camp was set up and dehydrated curry put on the boil.
Taumatamaire Road
The campsite and the view behind the tent
Dinners on
The sun setting over the Tasman Sea in front of the tent, the lights of New Plymouth could be seen twinkling under the distant hills in the center of the photo after the sun set.
Nice roads – I drove from Raglan to Kawhia yesterday through Te Mata and the Raglan Kawhia Road- can’t wait to do that trip on a bike sooner rather than later.
Nice report Eddie. I’ve been wanting to do this route for ages, looks a goodun.
Nice stuff mate…
Good work Eddie.
Some of those road names seem familiar from earlier this year.
I’m off to Smugglers Cove and Fletchers Bay up the Coromandel for 5 days, in the car with the family this time. Day 2 will be done when I get back.
The next morning I packed up and headed on up Taumatamaire Road. The campsite had been great, only 1 vehicle went past in the 14 or so hours I was there and that was 5 minutes before I left. They couldn’t see me anyway.
Looking down into hidden valleys on Taumatamaire Road
Back onto SH3 at the end of Taumatamaire Road and a couple of km’s north I turned South again through Aria and onto Waitewhena Road.
Waitewhena Road comes out at it’s South End just North of Ohura, one a thriving mining community and now almost abandoned. The only shops were 2nd hand junk shops opposite each other, it’s wide main street with 20 foot median strip a line of boarded up buildings.
From Ohura Huia Road which turns into Roto Road took me through to Otanui.
Huia Road
Roto Road
A left at the end of Roto Road and then the first left after that brought me onto Kururau Road.
Otanui
Out of Otunui on Otunui North Road, which turns into Ararimu East Road and then later into Opotiki Road.
Ararimu East Road
The change from Otunui North Road to Ararimu East Road is unnoticeable but as the road changes from Ararimu East Road to Opotiki Road the geography changes almost instantly as you pass the sign indicating the change from open and flowing to narrow and bush clad.
This brings you out on SH4 about 8km North of Taumaranui.
After gassing up me and the bike in Taumaranui there was one last stop on my plan. PiroPiro Flats lies near Waimiha between SH30 and SH4 on the West side of the Pureora Forest. The 18km ride gravel in leads to a a large DOC campsite popular with mountain bikers as there are a lots of mountain bike tracks here. There are also quiet a few unmaintained roads to explore and a bit of a challenge loop, plus some roads that have completely grown over and may or may not be passable on 2 wheels.
I didn’t get any pictures of the doc site but it could be a good site for a overnight camping adventure rally.
The start of the challenge loop
This looks nowhere near as steep as it was and the large humps in it don’t show up. I turned around just after this due to having full luggage on and the track getting quite rutted. Apparently it took 45 minutes for a young fella on a 2014 CRF250 to do the full loop.
From PiroPiro Flats I did a quite run North and was home mid evening, knackered but happy.
All of the gravel roads featured in this RR will be written up with downloadable GPS tracklogs and pics in the North Island tracks section over the next week or 2.
Nice Ed. Do you have a map log of your entire trip that you could post up in this thread? Good to see the entire ride on one map.
Try this. The route went anti-clockwise. I didn’t turn the GPS on until Pirongia which is under the blue 33 box at the very top center of the pic, and I turned it off again at Te Awamutu.