2012
Some of these
pictures have links to other related pictures.
Thursday 22 March we
travelled to Tina’s in Amberley via Kaikoura it was a great ride but Rhondda
was suffering from lack of rider fitness due to the fact we had not been on the
bikes for some time prior to this trip so it was good to stop for a feed at
Kaikoura. Click on this picture for
On arrival at
Tina’s we went for a walk on the beach.
That night a number
of Tina’s friends arrived to stay so we had a dinner and after a few wines
collapsed into bed.
Friday 23 March
Tina and Michelle took all of us in two vehicles to
We called in to see
Michelle’s Villa in
While in the City
we visited a shop specializing in Whisky as there were a couple of the ladies
that were whiskey drinkers and we found one from the Isle of Sky so we bought
it to have a drink on Granddad.
We then went to the
part of the city where shops had been set up in shipping containers, the set up
was great and buzzing with people entertained by buskers so we had lunch there.
But the sad state
of the city was everywhere.
Saturday 24 March
Tina’s party was hilarious, as always it was nice to catch up with old friends
and meet new ones. But a quote from and old friend
was ringing in our ears. “Beware of Whiskey and wild, wild, women”!!!!!
Sunday 25 March we
left Tina’s and rode over the
Click on this picture
We stayed in
Murchison at the
Monday 26 March the
ride from Murchison to Kaiteriteri started off with wet roads and cold weather but as we
got closer to Motueka the temperature improved and the roads dried out. We had
not travelled Highway 6 for many years and were surprised at its bad condition,
we had forgotten about the storms that had hit the area a couple of months
prior.
On arrival at the
Click on this picture
Tuesday 27 March
the front tyre of the Harley was worn prior to leaving home and “Short Arms and
Long Pockets” had mulled over changing the tyre prior to going but thought it
would make the trip. However a close inspection revelled
that the front tyre was showing separation of the rubber. So it was ring the
Suzuki dealer in Motueka who had an
With the new tyre
we headed over the Takaka Hill to
We are to stay 3
nights at Des & Steph Malloy’s “The Nook Guest house” and visit the Malloy
bike museum. We were to meet our friend Jeff who immigrated to
Des with Steph have
travelled extensively and by motorcycle to many parts of the world. On Des’s
last ride Beijing to Arnhem, “The last Hurrah” he rode a 1965 650 Panther Motor
Cycle with another iconic rider Dick Hurdeman riding
a 1955 Norton 600 and Des’s son Stephen in a backup van. Check out this
link: www.thelasthurrah.co.nz/
The doors to the
Man
The entertainment
at Des and Steph’s place was excellent they are lovely people. It is a “Back
Packers” or you can rent a house made of straw or a house bus or stay as we did
in the “Back Packers. Others were staying, a Girl from
Des showed an
appreciation of
It was decided that
we have a dinner that night together. Steph supplied the salad and a bottle of
wine we supplied fresh fish and a bottle of wine the Germans supplied,
“Blackball” Salami, German bread and wine and the “Hamburger” supplied another
bottle of wine…… needless to say it was a good night with these adventurers
swapping yarns and experiences. This for us is what staying in these sort of
places is all about meeting people that we would never meet if we staying in a
motel and getting an insight into their travels.
Wednesday 28
March Golden Bay we rode off to check out Jacques Cousteau’s first boat.
What a
fascinating time that was, it’s parked in a marina and serves Coffee but our
favourite was the iced chocolate. The owner was a young fella living on the
boat making his living on selling his coffee. The boat obviously had an
interesting history and had been sailed out to New
Zealand by an Englishman who had bought it in UK
We rode
around to Wainui inlet but due to the devastation over the land and the roads
and the state of the road works we decided not to continue to Totaranui. We
passed houses crushed by land slips and valleys covered in mud with the roads
washed out in many places.
Here a house
is buried in mud.
We then went
to the township of Takaka for lunch it had been twenty years since we
had travelled to Golden
Bay
Click on this picture
There was
one danger however at that was the young fellas in old beaten up four wheel
drive utilities, Toyota’s and the like driving recklessly in any direction on
any side of the road at any speed without any regard for pedestrians and
others. As it was lunch time they would roar up (Usually with a broken exhaust)
to the local convenience store, come to a shuddering stop leap from the cab
leaving their vehicle at any angle to the road and buy a pie for lunch and if
another of their mates went by they would show off by accelerating hard to make
as much noise as possible yelling profanities at each other while gesticulating
with one finger extended from a clenched fist. It was hilarious but we did fear
for our parked bikes that were hemmed in by these vehicles.
We were
waiting for Henry, Chris, John and Annie to arrive on their bikes with all this
entertainment going on around us. Once they arrived, we travelled back to the
“Nook” our back packers, as they were staying in the more salubrious straw house
where they off loaded their gear.
We then
headed out to Farewell spit to view the area and wild life, on the way we
stopped at Café/bar/restaurant called the “Musselinn”
that brewed its own beer near Onekaka, it was interesting with local made
chocolate and other stuff for sale with an excellent entertainment list for
nights.
Annie
fancied the cell phone tree at the café.
We rode on
towards the spit when we spotted the two biker Germans walking down the road so
we stopped for a chat. He was doing some photography and we told them where we
were going to so they decided to come along too.
At Pakawau there is a Café on the National park land with a
viewing platform and strong binoculars. The people in the café were very
informative of the history of the area and its wild life.
We then rode
to a museum at Rockville that turned out to be in an old dairy factory. The
stuff was pretty hohum but worth a donation to have a
look.
Our main objective
was to see the “Langford’s Store” Bainham. This store registered with the
Historical trust started in 1928 and has been maintained in its original
condition since. Unfortunately we arrived too late it was shut so we headed to
Collingwood for petrol.
Collingwood
was another surprise twenty years ago most of the building were in derelict
condition but this time they had been restored and the town was very nice with
flowers in the main street and the shops and buildings nicely presented.
That night
we had dinner at a good restaurant at Pohara just a mile down the road from the
Nook. The food was excellent but South Island
prices are up there. However we wound up the Maitre
d’ as we wanted a table with a view of the sea and had her squawking away that
she did not want us to site close to some steps. It was very entertaining and
we sat where we wanted too much to her frustration. Afterwards it was back to
the Nook for some bourbon and coke we had been saving for Henry to share.
Thursday 29
March we all rode to the Jacques Cousteau’s boat for coffee and then onto
Wainui for a look before the others headed back to Nelson.
We had lunch
in Takaka and walked the main street enjoying the sights. After that we rode to
Pupu springs.
Then onto
the “Grove” That was a conservation area of old trees and amazing rock
formations. We walked through a gap in the limestone rock to overlook farms in
the valley below.
The birds in
the area were not afraid of us, there were some fantails that would land on a
branch within 50cm of us and flew between Tony’s legs at one point we thought
they would land on us.
We checked
out Rocklands Road to see our friend Jeff’s property but we could not place it
so we went to see Rawhiti Cave and found it was on a farm that was once owned
by friends, at that point it was getting dark so we returned to the Nook and
had the best Pizza we have ever eaten at the restaurant at Pohara.
Friday 30 March
in the morning going over the Takaka hill to Nelson we heard a lot of squealing
and came around the corner to find a pit-bull dog with a good sized pig clamped
by the neck with its jaws, this is an awful sight as this pig was suffering and
there was no hunter in sight to finish the pig off quickly. It was not nice to
leave the pig like that, Tony would have liked to have got off the bike and
kicked the dog but there was nowhere to stop and anyway he was likely to be
bitten himself.
Our motel
unit in Nelson was excellent our objective was to join Motorcycle friends and
members of the Ulysses Club for the club AGM. Colleen had done the booking of
the accommodation for our group so we were surrounded by a number of friends
and Ulyssians attending the AGM. The motel was in walking distance to the venue
and City Centre so it was a perfect spot to be.
Click on this picture
Once
we unloaded our bike we went to see WOW, “World of Wearable Art” basically an Art Museum
so all items including the cars and motorcycles on display had to have an
intrinsic art content in their design that made them more than just a car or
form of transport. We could take picture of the vehicles but not the wearable
art, this was not allowed. The costumes were an amazing collection, funny, unique
and the skill and imagination to put these together is out of this world, the
cars were a real bonus, Tony soon scooted off to see them while I looked at the
costume displays. The standard of presentation of the displays was outstanding.
http://www.wowcars.co.nz/
This 1937 Cord sums it up in the way it is presented and the way it has
been restored. The restorer of this car saw something in it I did not see as a
teenager as an acquaintance had one and I looked at the car and thought it was
a poorly made car with ill-fitting body panels painted in a drab green, but
seeing it like this it was stunning.
Click on this picture
This MV
Augusta was the stand out bike.
Friday night
was meet and mingle at the Venue, we had a meal
beforehand at the motel with the group at a cost of $11 a head. Good food with
a couple of drinks and good company then headed to the venue.
OMG!!!!
The Ulysses
Club AGM each year has a raffle of motor-bikes and if you win there are twenty
motorcycles to choose from so it is very popular. On display were many classic and
chopper bikes. This Gold Wing was one, a 1970s bike in mint condition.
Saturday 31
March, we decided to play hooky and not go to the AGM in the morning. We went
to the local market and bought some stuff then went for a ride around town, we
had a look inside the Cathedral with nice stain glass windows and then rode to
the beaches.
Saturday
night the club had its social party and the raffle for the motorcycle with some
minor prizes was drawn, we had a very nice dinner and the two musicians were
great playing till 1 o’clock and had the place hopping. It was a chance to
catch up with friends from around the country.
Click on this picture
Sunday 1 April we set off in the morning to the Aircraft Museum at
Omaka Air field, near Blenheim. This museum has been set up by Peter Jackson,
the displays straight out of Weta workshop no boring
static planes lined up they were hung from the roof put up in trees and the
amount of stuff he had from the first and second world wars was fantastic. The
most interesting being the Red Baron and Herman Goering displays. The stuff
included their uniforms and log books it was amazing and included the black
cross off the Red Barons FOKKER TRIPLANE'.
It was not the Maltese Cross that was depicted in the movies as this cross
changed to a straight black cross during the War.
The following
picture is not of the red Barons Fokker but a Etrich
Taube. To fly this plane the Pilot distorted the wings by cables.
Click on this picture
One
exhibit depicts the death of Manfred von Richthofen on 21st April, 1918. The Baron had
been mortally wounded by ground fire while pursuing a Sopwith
Camel at low level, just as another Camel was trying to attack from behind.
Barely able to hold onto consciousness, the German ace managed to crash-land
the crippled aircraft before he died at the age of 29 years. It was found that
the bullet was from an Australian soldier killed him.
Then there was the
Herman Goering collection he was an Ace of the Great War amongst the
collection are his own log books. There is also information of his later
involvement in the Second World War and amazingly here on display is the cap he
was wearing when he was captured by the Americans in 1945.
The extent of the
collection of stuff from other Aces from the First World War was surprising
including German, American, Russian, British Empire
and French.
Outside there was a
newly restored Chinese Yak undergoing test flights. With a number of other
planes both real and mock up.
Alongside
the air museum was a Classic car Museum
which was interesting as it had cars assembled in New Zealand
After four
and a half hours it was time to ride to Picton for the 6 o’clock ferry, we had
a calm crossing and got home around 10.30.
Lined up for
loading.
On board ready to
ride off.
We had a really
good break away