January 2009

We had a lovely family Christmas this year. Even managed a photo of all the Hewlett boys together.

We have been out and about a bit this year. Having had quite a few visitors over the holiday period helped.

New Years Eve was spent quietly at home, but New Years day we rode up to Whangarei to collect a top box I had bought for my new (for me) BMW. We stayed the night with friends then rode down to Auckland where we spent the next couple of days with more friends. Due to an altercation i had with a quiche dish before xmas, resulting in a infected leg I couldn't go swimming so we walked and had an icecream instead.

We did the Karangahake Gorge walk which is really lovely. There is a lot of gold mining history here so is always very intersting.

We took some English friends on a bike ride around the Coromandel Peninsula and showed them our beautiful harbour as well. We never get tired of these places and the more we show them off the more we realise how very lucky we are to live where we do.

Last week I went tramping (hiking) with my girlfiends. Again we are very lucky to have the Kaimai Ranges right on our doorsteps with its many tramping tracks and huts if you want to stay overnight. We just did a 6hr day tramp that took us to the top with spectacular views of both the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato.

Marty is busy getting the race bikes ready for our big three day event at the beginning of February. It will be the normal last minute rush I think, but that system has worked well in the past.

We have still found time to go fishing but the fish are still proving to be very hard to catch. We did manage to have fresh snapper and trevalli for breakfast yesterday morning and will be having fresh snapper for tea tonight.

Life isn't too bad at all in our little piece of paradise.

Still Fishing

It was a little hard to catch anything the other night with a pod of Orca floating around the harbour all night, but I did get one snapper with my new rod and reel. It was delicious.

Sunset in Paradise

We haven't ventured to far from home lately. The weather hasn't been that great and lots of things have needed to be done on the orchard in preparation for the arrival of "THE BEES".

Fishing has occupied a few nights but we haven't been that successful as yet. The new rod and reels we treated ourselves to this week should help. We figure we have to catch about 30kg of fish to break even!! Marty now leads the catch tally having caught a snapper and a trevalli.

We came home from a hard night of croquet to see this beautiful sunset from the backyard.

Gone Fishing

No rain, very little wind so last night seemed like a good time to go fishing. It was but nothing much was caught. By the end of the night I was leading the catch tally with one starfish!!

Not to be deterred Marty was up at 4am this morning beavering away in the kitchen and a few minutes later he appeared at my bedside with coffee and museli. By 4.45 he was knocking on brother Tony's window giving them the wake up call as they had said they would be going out early as well. The moon was still out as we left the ramp and headed out into the harbour.

It was pretty chilly standing in the water holding the boat while Marty parked the truck but the knowledge of dry socks and hot coffee on board kept me strong. (Actually it was a combination of coffee and cocoa as we had run out of instant coffee - it tasted pretty good though)

We anchored at Marker 13, one of Tony and Adrienne's a favourite spots where we threw out our lines and watched the sunrise. It was glorious.

Tony and Adrienne hauled in a few small Kawhai while Marty had a fight with a very good size stingray. At times we could see it flapping on the top of the water. Eventually it broke the line and disappeared. As he didn't land it in the boat it didn't count towards his tally. I however managed to land a small Kawahi so I am still in the lead.

I think the stingray scared off all the fish as things went pretty quiet after that. Tony and Adrienne motored off down the harbour to try their luck trawling for kingfish while we motored over to Flat Rock to try our luck there. Being on the top of the high tide meant we were just floating every which way and with not so much as a nibble we decided to head for home.

A lovely way to start the day. We will be out again tonight as the tide is just perfect to get the change of light.

Maybe this time we will come home with a fish for dinner.

A GS Weekend

It didn't take us long to pack up and leave home once lawns were mowed, vehicles made operational and me doing a few days back at work to earn some play money.

We loaded up our new toys and headed off to my brothers place in Onga Onga. The first stopover on our journey to Lake Ferry to attend the NZ Vincent Owners Club Riders Rally.

(For those non Nzers that may be reading this try looking at this map to see where we went)

www.backpack-newzealand.com/mapofnorthisland.html

By the time we reached the bottom of the Kaimais the heavens had opened. Marty stopped to put on his wet weather gear but I decided it looked clear in the direction we were going so decided to trust the riding gear I had on. A decision I regretted fairly quickly. We stopped at a little museum cafe just south of Putaruru (my home town) where we met up with our friends John, Heather, Tim and Beate.

Caffined up and wet weather gear on we set off for Taupo. We arrived a little before the others and had ordered our lunch when they arrived and said they'd decided to continue on to Tarawera and have a venison steak sandwich for lunch. We ate then carried on in the rain to Tarawera where we once again met up with our fellow travellers and joined them for a coffee. They were less than impressed with their lunch and we were stunned to find a small pot of perc'd coffee cost us $10. The rain continued to fall but at least my new gloves were proving to be waterproof but not so my boots. They were offering no resistance at all but my possum/merino wool socks were doing a great job of keeping my wet feet warm.

About 30 odd km from Tarawera we turned off St Hway 5 and took some really neat little backroads that bought us out at Fernhill where we turned onto St Hway 50 and had a straight run to Onga Onga. We thus missed Napier altogether which was great!! And the added bonus that when we turned off we left the rain behind us and had lovely dry roads. We arrived at Onga about 4pm to a very warm welcome from Reg and Holly (the dogs). Reg was ready and waiting with his stick for anyone who was silly enough to throw it for him.

Trish had cooked up a storm and Andrew (PA here after)excelled on the BBQ so no one was left feeling anything but full.

A wet night and showery morning meant that the chosen route south through the backroads was shelved and we took St H'way 2 stopping at Ekatahuna to regroup as we along with Trish and PA had gone into Waipukurau to do a small bike repair on Marty's PD. He couldn't get the bit he wanted so a piece of welding wire was used instead.

The back road from Masterton to Martinborough is a magic. We were all raving about it when we sat down to a very late lunch. Had time permitted I think some amongst us would have turned and ridden it again. From Martinborough it is a 30km ride to Lake Ferry along a pretty straight piece of road. Marty and I decided to ride out to Cape Palliser before checking into the Hotel at Lake Ferry as the weather was looking a little gloomy and we didn't fancy climbing to the lighthouse in the rain. It is a lovely scenic ride out to the Cape with about 8km of gravel road thrown in for a bit of extra fun. The grader was busy doing it's thing when we went up so it was little like riding on marbles.

The climb to the lighthouse is 262 steps straight up. We made it and were rewarded with awesome views. We saw a few seals - some Marty got up close and personal with.

We stopped at the small settlement of Ngawi on the return run and inspected the line up of bulldozers on the beach. These are used by the locals to launch their boats.

By the time we arrived a good number of others attending the rally had arrived and were supporting the bar. There was a glitch with our room booking so to cut a long story short we were upgraded to a motel room in the local campground at no extra cost.

Next morning after checking out the whitebaiters, numerous coffees we headed off towards Taihape. At Martinborough we left Trish, PA, John and Heather to have brekky and Marty, myself Tim and Beate headed off to Pahiatua and Phil's house. A crowd had already gathered there looking at his broken Vincent and offering the normal condolences and helpful advice. A small band of 7 bikes left from here and went up to look at the wind farm. The gate was open to the observation point so we were able to get a birds eye view of these blots on the landscape.

As I wasn't as fast as the leading bunch we missed a sharp right hand turn they made coming into Ashhurst so we followed some neat little back roads that eventually bought us onto Kimbolton Road where we thought we might meet group again but no such luck so we stopped in a little town called Cheltenham and had lunch. Marty's pie had been in the pie warmer about a week and was inedible and the ham in my sandwich must have been off as I by the time we arrived in Taihape I had a good dose of the runs. Fellow riders Bob and Claire spotted us here so we teamed up with them and had a magic ride on backroads we hadn't been on before, eventually meeting up with St Hway 1 at Ohingaiti. It was a short stroll from there to The Gretna Hotel in Taihape. we were first to arrive so after dumping our stuff in our room s we headed into town to try and find a coffee shop. 4pm and all shops are shut so we had to settle for coffee in the BP station. At least from there we had a birds eye view of everyone arriving in town.

Had a great night in the pub. NZ beat the Poms at netball (thrashed actually) and Trish and I had a win on the pool table. The locals then challenged us but like an Olympic relay team we replaced ourselves with better players who almost won!!

We had a farewell breakfast with our fellow travellers in a local cafe before beginning the long ride home. We rode with Bob and Claire as they were beginning their Nth Island holiday. No backroads today just a cruise up the main drags. It was bloody cold along the Desert Road and fresh powder snow was clearly visible on the foothills. It was about here that Marty discovered he had left his scarf behind at the pub. Not really a big deal only it was the first present I ever bought him way back in 1975 when we met. Is this the beginning of the end?
Lunch in Taupo where we caught up with John and Heather and one of the few Vincent riders on the rally, Neil from Whakatane. We continued on our way with him as we were making a detour to Matata to catch up with friends there before heading home.

The weather stayed fine till it came time to leave Matata but half way home the sun was trying to shine on what was left of the day. Arrived home about 6.15 having covered some 450km for the day and about 1500km for the weekend.

Both new toys performed well although mine does have a wee clutch problem that needs looking at. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips this summer.

Post Script:
The Pub found the lost scarf and it is currently on its way home via the post.

New Toys For Summer

Marty and I have bought ourselves a couple of new toys for the summer. Be great for the gravel roads we plan to ride . Marty didn't want to be in the pic with his bike he thought it looked great without him.

Blenheim to Katikati

We spent our last night in the South Island with our friends Roy and Sue with whom we had stayed on the way down. It was early to bed for everyone as we had to be up and on the road by 5.30am. Luckily for us Roy starts work early so there was no chance of us sleeping in. It was a rather chilly ride to the ferry terminal in Picton and we were all glad of our warm gear as we stood in the queue waiting to board the ferry. We were the only bikes on the boat but there were lots of camper vans. We had a smooth sailing which is always nice. Maree was leaving us in Wellington to return home via Stratford and as she didn’t know her way out of Wellington she was to follow us till we signaled her to go left while we carried on, but she had other ideas and left us at the first opportunity. We all watched in disbelief as she peeled off but we had no way of turning around to retrieve her so we just hoped she would eventually get herself onto the road north.

I found the ride over the Rimutaka’s a bit of a challenge. It is a motorcyclist’s dream road with its tight bends but the recent rain had made the road a bit slippery in places so I was a little more cautious than Marty and Hugh. We stopped in Featherston for lunch. The only café open wanted an arm and a leg and none of us had any to spare so we had to settle for a good old kiwi pie. I texted Maree and she had made it out of Wellington alive and was well on her way to Patea.

The original plan was to go out to Cape Palliser, but Marty was in “going home” mode and it was forgotten about. Something to do this summer!! We stopped in Ekatuhuna for gas then Dannevirke for an ice cream. We arrived in Onga Onga about 4pm. My brother Andrew and his wife were still at work so we helped ourselves to their beer and sat in the sunshine enjoying the antics of their two donkeys who mistakenly thought we would feed them. The carry on they made when Trish and Andrew arrived home was hilarious.

We are a Cape away from being home and Marty can’t wait to get there. It’s like being on a horse that won’t go where you want it to on the outward journey but when you turn for home there is no stopping it. He has always been like this so I guess I should be used to it. We headed off at 8.30. We wanted to make it to Te Araroa and make the pilgrimage to the Lighthouse thus completing our Southern Cross. We had a good ride up to Gisborne where we stopped for lunch. A nice little garden centre café.

Just south of Tologa Bay we discovered that my bike was leaking oil so we had to have a stop to see what the problem was. It turned out that my oil sender unit had died. The temporary repair done in Nelson had failed. Bought some oil at the gas station in Tologa Bay at very exorbitant rates but we had no choice. We arrived at Te Araroa without any further problems. We had hoped to camp the night here and go out to the lighthouse to watch the sunrise but there were no camps here but there was a paddock we could camp in half way to the lighthouse with water and a long drop there – all the mod cons!
So after a feed of fish and chips we bought a few beers and headed out to the lighthouse. The road was 50/50 seal and gravel and one horrible one lane bridge with the deck having the old style layout of a plank of wood each side and a drop in the centre. Not a good one to get wrong on your approach. As it was still light we decided we may as well climb the 500 odd steps to the lighthouse. Hugh’s knee was still sore so he elected to watch the bikes while Marty and I went. We made it in under the stated time but were both quite red faced and tired by the time we got to the top. The views made it all worth while. A celebratory kiss and hug as we completed our first Southern Cross.
The climb had taken its toll on Marty’s hip and he didn’t fancy camping so it was decided to ride to Hicks Bay and get a motel unit for the night. Hugh led the charge. It was only 7km from Te Araroa. Unfortunately Hugh was expecting to see bright lights and goodness knows what else and sailed straight past the turnoff. We thought he knew of a suitable place so never attempted to stop him. Wrong he had no idea where he was going so we ended up riding in the dark arriving at the Waihau Bay pub about 8.30pm. missed I was shattered but did have just enough energy left to have a couple of rums before hitting the sack. The pub has been bought by some big property developer and the cheap backpacker accommodation we were staying in will soon be a thing of the past. The locals aren’t happy with the idea but, as in all cases these days, money talks and local people and their lifestyles count for nothing. It seems odd that the developer is keen to push ahead with his plans. A similar venture just up the road at Te Kaha had gone into liquidation as very few of the up market apartments had sold. Worse still, the locals have been effectively banned from their local pub because of the new dress codes. No longer can you call in for a pint before heading home after a days fishing unless you have some good clobber to change into.

We awoke to sunshine for the last day of the trip. A straight run home. We waved goodbye to Hugh in Whakatane, called into see Pauline in Matata and rolled up to the house at 2.30pm. Total miles ridden 3836. A great trip but boy oh boy do the bikes ever need a good clean.