Bluff to Blenheim

We still can’t believe our luck. The sun is still shining as we leave Bluff and head
back to Invercargill where we make a stop at Haynes Hardware shop. Here lying in state are Burt Munroe’s bikes, the World famous Indian and his Velocette. We all posed for our photos along with a few other bike enthusiasts who had made the pilgrimage. While the boys got down on hands and knees to worship and explore the inner workings of these machines us girls headed off to the kitchen department which had much more appeal but we all resisted buying anything. Not having a great deal of vacant space on our bikes did have something to do with that.

We carried on the Southern Scenic route stopping in Riverton for lunch and a look around the shops. We regrouped at Tuatapere. There is a neat art gallery here and we were hoping it was open so we could go in and drool over the beautiful landscapes the artist paints but it was not to be so we all just peered in through the closed windows.
The ride through to the Manapouri/Te Anau turnoff was, despite some serious crosswinds, at times an awesome ride. A great opportunity to wind open the throttle and have a blast on a road mixed with straights, hills and bends. Everyone was smiling at the rendezvous point.

Lake Manapouri was to be the next stop but somehow it all turned to custard so we carried onto our destination at Kit’s place a few miles out of Te Anau. We dined out at a Chinese Restaurant which was very nice. Only Hugh had to put his tent up, Kit found the rest of us places to sleep in all sorts of wonderful cosy places. Marty and I had the summer house. We could lie in bed and watch the stars and even better was lying there watching the sun the come up. Luxury!!



Our first day here was a pretty lazy one, but we did venture into town later in the afternoon and met the Frana, Lady Mayor of Southland and her husband Murray. Lovely people. Murray built himself a sailing boat. A real beauty and he took us out on the lake for a wee jolly, dropping Beate, Kit at I off on the other side so we could walk part of the Kepler Track.

While we were busy doing this Maree and Josie were enjoying the spoils of Milford Sound.

They had made an early start and taken a bus trip as the weather report for the area was not good and riding there in the rain would have been miserable.
We had a BBQ that night dining on venison steaks and fritters supplied by our friend John.
They were beautiful.

We said our farewells to Kit, Tim and Beate the next day and headed off to
Queenstown to stay a couple of days with son Mike. A nice easy ride to Kingston, where we saw the Kingston Flyer and had a coffee. It is a very scenic ride from Kingston to Queenstown as you follow the lake around.

Finding Mike’s place was quite easy but he wasn’t home when we arrived so we were locked out. We spotted an open window which led onto what we thought was Mike’s bathroom so Maree being the smallest got the job of
breaking and entering. Only trouble was it wasn’t Mike’s flat and the occupant got quite a surprise when a strange blonde woman appeared in his flat. Luckily he let her out the door and didn’t make her climb back out the window. Further investigating and we discovered Mike’s bedroom window was open so with Marty’s help Maree was hoisted onto the roof and made to scramble through yet another window. Success we were in and raiding Mike’s fridge. True to form there was no food but a good stock of beer. Payback time!!
Mike had a real treat in store for me.
Four piles of washing just begging to be done
so I spent the morning attached to the washing machine doing ours and Mike’s laundry.
We all walked up to the Gondolas in the afternoon and Marty, Mike and his


mate Phil all went on the luge. Poor old Marty got left in their wake and the one time he did get in front they nearly took him out so I think he decided safety was better than tangling with those two.



It was such a beautiful day we decide to take a cruise on the Earnslaw to


Walter Peak. It was so peaceful and relaxing on the lake it was a shame it had end.
Mike insisted we have a Ferg Burger for tea. They are huge, even if you get a small one but very very tasty. We caught a taxi back to the flat as none of us fancied the uphill climb and spent the evening telling tales with Mike and some of his friends, until they departed for town at about 1am to party on. We were all glad they had gone so we could go to bed. Are we getting old or what?


The plan was to spend another day here but the weather forecast was not looking good so Marty made the unpopular decision that we move on. (we would thank him for this latter)
Josie and Hugh went on ahead as they wanted to have a look around Wanaka. That left
Marty, Maree and I to follow up the rear. The ride over the Cardrona Mountain Range was as awesome as ever and no ride is complete without a stop at the Cardrona Hotel. The bikes turned themselves in here. Fortified we headed off to Wanaka to meet Josie and Hugh and then headed off around Lake Hawea and through Mount Aspiring National
Park which has the most stunning scenery and roads made for motorcycles. We stopped at Haast for gas. Hugh dropped his bike here when he tried to take a short cut to the gas station after missing the turnoff. He broke his clutch lever, a couple of indicators and got a real good lump on his knee which would give him a fair amount of grief for the rest of the trip. We decided to press on and spend the night at Jacobs Creek but it is just a name on the map there is absolutely nothing there. We found a small country motel about 30km south of Fox Glacier so booked into a family unit for the night.

Hugh got the double room at the opposite end of the house as like Tim he can snore quite well. There were a few jealous people when it was discovered that he had mirrors on the roof and doors. He certainly didn’t wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed so we don’t quite know what he was up to during the night. He said his knee kept him awake………

We are still managing to keep one step ahead of the rain. An early start saw us at


Fox Glacier mid morning. It was a little disappointing as it looked quite dirty and not the lovely white and blue I was expecting. Had a brief stop in the township when we spotted friends Mal and Cag. They were doing a reverse Sth Island trip and were on the homeward leg to Kingston. They said the weather hadn’t been so good the way we were headed and that there were some not so good road works ahead. Always good to know about those.


Made a quick trip out to Lake Matheson. This is the most beautiful lake. On a clear day you can see Mt Cook’s reflection in it but not today. Mount Cook was in cloud.
Josie Maree and I went for a walk to a lookout point while Marty and Hugh coffee’d and smoked in the café. Their respective hips and knees weren’t up to walking.

Lunch in Hokitika and then onto Punakaiki. Hugh guarded the bikes while the rest of


us did the coastal walk to see the Pancake Rocks. More coffee and cake and feeding the local
Weka before heading off to Westport for the night. This 60km felt much longer and we were all feeling a little weary by the time we got there. Mare and I volunteered to get the groceries while the others went and booked cabins at the local camping ground. Just as well they did as we got the last two cabins.


It was decided to make an early start in the morning and get to Nelson early afternoon and thus ensure we miss the rain. It is an ever present threat now. We never made it out of the camp ground. Josie’s bike packed up so we had to call out the AA. They took their time arriving and it was nearly 2 hrs later before we got on our way. It turned out that the vacuum hose had come off making starting impossible. The Buller Gorge is a magnificent ride no matter which way you do it. We stopped at Inangahua to have a look at the earthquake display in the local hall. The earthquake struck in May 1968 and caused massive damage and loss of life. Even the river bed moved. Some of the stories of survival and rescue made very moving reading.

We had our packed lunch at Murchison and then left for what we thought would be a cruisey ride to Nelson. Wrong. Disaster struck about 15kms out of Murchison. After speeding through some rather rough road works Marty found himself with a very flat rear tyre. No cell phone coverage here so I headed back to Murchison to organize the

AA. The others continued on. I found the AA garage but he couldn’t just go out I had to call the AA call centre who would then call him. It took them ½ hr to make the call!! Two hours later we are on our way again. The others were not to far ahead as about 30km past Marty’s breakdown spot Maree’s bike stopped and they had to get the AA out from Nelson to pick her up – after Josie went in search of a phone. Hugh stayed with Maree for a while but tobacco withdrawal forced him to leave her alone but not before he warned her not to talk to any strangers.

What a day. It was 6pm before we all arrived at Bob and Claire’s. We were all glad we were members of the AA and a joint decision was made to make the next day a maintenance day.

And so it was. The boys got busy on the bikes while we girls took ourselves down to the local swimming pool for a bit of exercise, then onto a lovely little café and then a stroll around the shops. By the time we returned my bike had a new rear tyre as did Marty’s, Maree’s bike was fixed and Josie and Hugh’s bikes were being given the once over. It had been a busy morning for us all.
The afternoon was spent visiting a friend and seeing his great motorcycle collection and then down to the Wearable Arts Museum to have a look at the wild and wacky worlds of fashion and more classic cars and bikes.
While I took a nanny nap and Maree visited the local gym, Hugh and Marty were busy on the internet searching for ferry crossings. The best they could do was an early morning crossing the next day so an emergency meeting was called and we decided to head to Blenheim and spend the night with our friends Roy and Sue rather than leaving here at 5am in the morning. So we said our farewells to Bob, Claire and Josie and headed off. Josie had decided to spend a few more days there and continue the journey home with Tim and Beate who were having a very wet ride.
My new tyres were a bit hairy on the hilly windy road out of Nelson but were quite ok by the time we reached Blenheim – just on dark.
So we find ourselves back at the top of the South Island ready to return to the North with its busy roads and over abundance of speed cameras. We will be back South as there are still more roads here that need exploring.

Dunback to Bluff

We arrived at the rally site, an old school camp to discover that our request for a two man cabin had been lost in cyber space, as had Tim and Beate’s so we were sharing a cabin. Not a major problem – except for Tim’s ability to snore so suitable bribes were offered to Josie and Maree and Tim and Beate moved into their cabin and Marty got to spend the weekend sleeping with three women. Don’t believe anything he says about having a dull boring life!!


Day one of the rally was pretty cold and miserable so we all decided to make it a
rest day and laze around the camp. Beate and I went canoeing and managed to find a few blackberries to munch on along the bank and later in the afternoon small group of us went for a walk so that we could have dessert without feeling guilty.

The sun returned the next day so the girls plus Hugh went on a bit of a sight seeing ride leaving the others behind to supervise the repairs being done by Ivan to his
rather sick Vincent. We headed to Moeraki Boulders via Trotters Gully. These huge
marble like stones lying on the beach make quite an impressive sight at low tide. We stopped in Morakei Township for coffee at an ‘award winning’ café only to have the waitress forget to give all of us our change. Luckily once the caffeine had hit Josie realized so we all queued up for our change. No apology was offered so we decided we wouldn’t be making a return visit there anytime soon.

We headed off to Shag Point in the hope of seeing some Fur Seals and we weren’t disappointed and were lucky enough to see some babies playing in a pool as well as adults fighting and jostling for the sunniest spot. We were offered some fresh blue cod by some local fishermen (actually woman) but as none of us had a suitable carrying vessel we had to decline. There was no way I was putting unwrapped fresh fish in my topbox!!

The afternoon ride saw us all head inland to a little town called Naseby. A beautiful road, sweeping corners, great scenery and next to no traffic. As we arrived the boys were just coming out of the local pub. They had come up earlier to a friend’s workshop to get a repair done on a part from Ivan’s motor. We had enough time to have a coffee before heading back to Dunback. Naseby has just opened the only ice luge in the Southern Hemisphere and is proving to be very popular. Maybe we can try it out next time we are there.

It was great catching up with everyone at the rally but it was time to push on with our trip. After much discussion about which route to take we decided to go via Macraes Flat and the Middlemarch Road, regroup at Outram then head to Mosgiel and back onto State Highway 1. We had all studied the map and decided that this route was all sealed so everyone would be happy. We either all need stronger glasses or lessons in map reading as a few kilometers after we turned onto the Middlemarch road it said “Gravel road next 25kms”. As we each passed the sign we all thought of Josie and wondered how she was coping. We caught up with her, Beate and Maree about half way through and all were making slow, steady progress. At the summit the mist rolled in and there was not much visibility so all eyes were on the gravel in front. We discovered later that had we gone onto Hyde and then turned towards Middlemarch we would have had seal all the way but we would have missed out on some truly stunning scenery. We were all getting low on fuel by the time we reached Outram but despite it being a long weekend not a gas station in sight was open so we headed to Mosgiel with fingers crossed that those with small fuel tanks would make it. They did so with oil and fuel replenished we all headed towards Milton where we had a planned lunch stop. Hugh and Josie were a little late arriving as they had missed the turnoff for Invercargill and found themselves heading towards Dunedin.


At Balclutha we turned towards the coast so we could follow the Southern Scenic route to Invercargill. We had a straight run through to Papatowai as the weather was looking a bit foul. Our first night in tents and our first night of RAIN. We did

however manage to get in a nice walk along the beach and up to the store to get our fish and chips before the rain arrived. We had a hilarious night in the camp kitchen
trying to do a crossword found in the fish and chip paper. Other campers cooking their meals even offered answers when ours became so weird and off beam.



The rain had disappeared by the morning so Josie, Maree, Beate and I headed off
before the others as we wanted to go and have a look at the Cathedral Caves which are only accessible at low tide. We got there only to find that they were closed as the weather and sea conditions were too rough and the caves were inaccessible. Disappointing but nothing we could do about it so we headed to the nearest café which was at Niagara about 10kms down the road. (these pics of the cave were taken on a previous visit by Marty and I ).

Recharged we set off for Curio Bay and the Petrified Forest. This is a unique
example of a fossilized forest with imprints of fallen trees and ferns from 180million years ago. Like the caves it is only visible at low tide. Occasionally you can see the endangered yellow eyed penguin but it was the wrong time of day for us. The best chance to see them is at night when they come into nest. From the lookout we could see the others having lunch at Popoise Bay so we rode down and joined them. Last time Marty and I were here we saw a pod of hector dolphins surfing in the waves but we weren’t so lucky this time.

Tim, Beate, Marty and I decided that we wanted to ride to Slope Point, the most southerly point on the South Island. The gravel road leading to it put the others


off so we agreed to meet them at Bluff later that afternoon. Derspite a couple of hairy moments we all made it safely to the lighthouse and had our photo taken for prosperity then made the final push for Bluff and a celebratory drink with the others. It has been a great ride so far. Marty, Maree and I stayed with friends in a Bluff while the others camped in the local campground. We had to force ourselves to eat the fresh paua and blue cod that Paul and Margie cooked for our tea. A tough job but someone had to do it.




Paul is a Tugboat Captain (actually I think his title is a little grander than that)and as he had to take the tug out that night to reposition a cargo ship he invited us along. Marty declined but Maree and I went and had a great time although I didn’t particularly like climbing up and down the ladder to get on and off the boat. Maree being ex navy found it a piece of old doddle.

So far we have traveled just over 2200 miles and tomorrow we begin the return journey.