General Northland-Cruising on 110cc By darthrider November 20, 2014 Search Search for: CTA Title CTA Content Follow Us Join Our Community Leave this field empty if you're human: Only just started….a couple of posties wandering (and wondering) through the Northland. Daily updates of a 2 week ride. Read Also: Maintenance and upgrades BMW airheads are so easy to work on General two bikes for sale south island General Sidecars at The Distinguished Gentlemans Ride Auckland 2014 General Sinnis Terrain 125 General DRZ400e Tank, Seat lowering links WTB, and info General GoPro launches drone and new cameras General 'Amazon Tax' to be introduced in October 2019 Post Activity 152053 Share this post 0% Back to Top
OK….no more Northland… done with that one for now.
Of course, there’s a whole new world of roads and places to explore south of Auckland….and the Waikato district is a prime example.
It’ll also lead back to Hamilton and sadly, the end of this Northland caper.
Up and out early to make the most of the last day on the road….
http://goo.gl/maps/L4Ynu
Cruising down the Firth of Thames coast….the Coromandel Peninsula barely 20km across the water.
Once again, some big blackies up there make for spectacular skies, another morning that’s a GIFT.
We own the place; too…there isn’t even a single car in the distance somewhere.
Just about too beautiful to keep going.
The dreamy dawdle down the coast, basking in the early sunshine, finds an abrupt end in the twisties of the Kaiaua Rd. cutting across the foothills of the Hanua Ranges towards Mangatawhiri.
Well….who would’ve thought??
Crossing the main SH1 Highway, the little settlement of Mercer looks like it was chopped clean in half during construction…a handful of neat, little houses on a hill feel semi-rural…
Watch out, dinner on road!
…while the western side of the highway is a grubby industrial site with a petrol station and some Greasy-Joe’s half stuck underneath the highway-terrace.
Who would’ve ever thought that amongst that sorry-looking lot is a fantastic cheese shop??
What a discovery…let’s grab some bits for breakfast, then find a cafe or something down the road…
Next place on the map seems to be Pukekawa…right underneath that mountain of black cloud….and DOWN it comes!!
Apart from a small Primary School and a car repair joint, Pukekawa doesn?t seem to exist….
…let?s run from the rain and head for Tuakau, which definitely is a bigger place than anything further south.
Waikato River Bridge near Tuakau
The cheese turns out even better than what it smelled in the shop
… the cafe in Tuarau puts on a monstrous bacon + egg roll that?d make any half-baked cardiologist turn in his grave…and all that sets us up nicely for a deliciously slow afternoon run down the gravel roads of the Waikato, savouring every minute.
There?s a mountain of memories flooding in at the sight of the sign to the Klondyke Rd., the name alone suggests Alaska, pioneers, rough bush, adventure and all that…and it?s got a bit of all that to it, as we found out a few years back on the Hobbits + Bobbits ride.
This time we go past and pick the next one turning west, Ponganui Rd., which will hopefully also lead us along the ridges.
And it well and truly does!! WHOOHOO!!
Come along for a cracker of a ride!
Ponganui Rd.
Typical Waikato
Somewhere along the ridge it turns into Brien Rd.
Oooh boy…it’s a humdinger.
Magic country!! I wonder, what?s in those cracks and crags…
Staying on the ridges heading south….and shedding a silent tear for not having enough time to run up and down ALL those roads which tie into the ridge…there’s a promise of a week’s worth of exploring just around here!!
HOW GOOD IS THIS
Run, baby, run….Christmas isn’t far away.
The exhilarating ridge-run stops at Kaawa, where it’s back into the valleys and onto a tar/gravel mix south on the Richardson Rd., Dixon and Waimai Valley Rd. for a last gravel-fling across the Otorahea Trig Rd. , then the dogleg into Hamilton….scuttling some old and busted pieces of riding clobber amongst the piles put out for the local hard-rubbisch-collection.
It just all fits neatly.
OHHHH MYYY GOOOOD….MY TIDDLERS ARE BACK!!
It’s nice to be missed, innit?
The man who made it all possible!! A HUGE THANK YOU!!
We owe you big time for an unforgettable fortnight in one of NZ’s best kept secrets.
A big thanks for 2 brilliant, little bikes that proved simply PERFECT for that sort of “snooping around” the backblocks, didn’t let us down between ploughing the sand and ploughing the gravel, the grass, the rocks, the mud…and now you finally know where they took us, too.
See you back in Melbourne, buddy….SOON!
I reckon, in the end even the GoldenBoys turned from oval-to-round…..sort of.
(or I just got used to the flickering horizon at 50kmh).
Northland, aye??
Resources:
As always, no GPS and chargers and wires and stuff for this old dog.
Maps exclusively from the New Zealand Automobile Association (NZ AA).
The touring map series provides maps with every single road (seal and gravel) by name.
Simply brilliant! Extremely accurate!
We purchased the Northland lot online and had them mailed out to Melbourne within 3 days.
http://www.aatravel.co.nz/maps-and-g…oadmaps-table1
Excellent info about finding some of the gems, locations, walks, caves, lookouts and endless other interesting stuff via the NZfrenzy Guides, either download pdf files or have the printed version mailed out within a week.
http://www.nzfrenzy.com/
Hope, you enjoyed the yarn and the ~560pics…. maybe bringing across some of the soul, the mood, the character of the place….aside from the simply brilliant roads and places, people and endless little surprises along the way.
Need time out? Need a real good break? Need a ride? Need to tell the world to kiss your arse for a week or two??
Go Northland!!
Bloody Pronto!
See you for the next one… when this bloody tune jams up my head again… and the feet start twitchin’ real bad….and the VisaCard is about to go through the wringer ! Life’s too farkin short to miss out, HELL YEAH! Let’s ride!!