South Island Bike Tour 2010

South Island Motorcycle Tour

January 2010

Monday January 11

Left home about midday and headed to Wellington.  Stopped at a motel in Johnsonville for night to catch the ferry to Picton next day. 

Bikes on the ferry ready to tie them down, pays usually to take your own tie downs as quite often there is not enough

  Another guy was travelling on the same ferry that was riding a motorbike, he had just picked up in Tauranga.  First stop was Blenheim where went hunted down a cushion for Scott’s num bum, got a piece of foam from an upholster’s. From Blenheim we headed to St Arnaud, this was not such a good idea as the road was dead straight, the guy on the ferry suggested we went this way, we shouldn’t have listened, but never mind. 

A stop to clean off the bugs

From here we headed to Murchison where we stopped for a bite to eat and another couple of guys on bikes were there.  They had come over on the earlier ferry and had gone around Queen Charlotte and up to Motueka then down and said it was a good ride so we decided we would put that in at the end.  The weather wasn’t looking too crash hot on this side of the island, so we headed back across to the east coast via the famous Lewis Pass – alpine riding at its best – sweeping bends and stunning mountain scenery with lush native forest.  We stayed at Hamner Springs where we had booked a motel at the information centre in Murchison, that was “within walking distance of food” think we needed to ask how many metres that was. Its always good to get somewhere to stay within walking distance so  you can have a shower etc, then walk out to get something to eat and not have to hop back on the bikes again looking for food.   Anyway  had great Thai food.

Next morning headed down to Culverden, Waipara, Amberly, Oxford, Mt Hutt, down thru Geraldine, Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo

 

 

cloud covering over Mt Cook, Twizel, stopped at Omarama for fuel and a milkshake.  Next was riding the Lindis pass to Tarras then up the Clutha River to Wanaka.  Lucky to get accommodation as the place is full of people and cycles for a annual triathlon.

Visit Warbirds Museum which is a must on Scott’s agenda, but he was disappointed as a lot of the war bird planes they used to have on display are no longer there, as they have been sold. 

Then the Toy and Transport Museum, which was well worth a visit.  Any toy, or car, truck, motorbike, lawn mower, fire engine etc etc etc you can think off, it is there.





Any model of car you could name would be there



All sorts of motorbikes



 From Wanaka we headed back along the Clutha River, down along Lake Dunstan to Cromwell.  Next stop to see the Clyde Dam, ride thru the township of Clyde,

Clyde Dam

Clutha River

Balclutha Bridge

Parked outside our accomodation-looks more like a toilet block

then onto Alexandra, Roxburgh, where they grow the apricots.  Headed on down to Lawrence where we fuelled up again then went back a bit  and took the Tuapeka West Road then on down to Balclutha for the night. 

From Balclutha we headed down round the Catlins on the Scenic Southern route, didn’t take one turn and went to Waikawa then had to take the gravel road to Fortrose.  On thru Invercargill, still hadn’t had breakfast and there were no obvious cafes on the route we had taken, so had breakfast at Riverton.

Lake Manapouri

  Then it was up to Manapouri and TaAnau for the night. Did the cruise to the glow worm caves on Lake Te Anau. Had crayfish at a pie cart and muscles and chips, got talking to a German guy that had been into Milford for the day and he didn’t get back till about 7.00pm so decided we would stay another night at Te Anau and go into Milford next day.

 

We headed off on our trip into Milford Sound with beautiful sunshine.   Fiordland is a million hectares of remote, primeval beauty.  Waterfalls tumble hundreds of metres into pristine forested valleys and fiord’s mirror surfaces reflect majestic, towering mountains.  The scenery is stunning with snow capped mountains and is like stepping back in time. 

Any bike ride to the South Island, you must ride out to Milford, it is stunning

Even in January therer was still snow-waiting to go through the tunnel

Waiting on the green light to go through the tunnel

We got there just before midday and a cruise was due to leave.  We were lucky enough to get tickets there and then  and boarded the boat to cruise out to the Tasman Sea.

Mitre Peak is world famous and this is my good shot of it

Leaving the base at Milford

They say you should be here when it's raining, there is twice as much water in the water falls, but also more likelyhood of the road out being closed as well

This cute little seal was sitting on the rocks calling ot for its mama, they assured us that its mother would be back, I sincerely hope so

The boat backed in under this waterfall

  On the way back stopped off at an underwater observatory to view the fishes and corals 20 meters under the surface. 

Another shot of Mitre Peak

And stops on the way back out

 Had dinner at a bistro that night and bumped into the two guys we first saw at Murchison.

Lake Te Anau

 

A new day and we head off again toward Mossburn and up toward Lake Wakatipu, fueled up at Frankton then up through tree lined Arrowtown and over the Crown Range to Wanaka.  We ride along the beautiful Lake Hawea then Lake Wanaka along the Haast River.

Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka

 

 

Stopped at the bridge for photos and bumped into the two guys again. 

Haast River

 Rode long with them till about Fox Glacier where they decided to stop and we carried on.  The reputed ‘best motorcycling in the world’ along through the Haast Pass and  West Coast.   As we approach the Glacier Country the twisting roads are demanding but provide magic motorbike riding.  We rode on up through Harihari, Ross and stopped for the night at Hokitika.  Got in quite late as had ridden about 650km that day, got a nice room in a hotel overlooking the sea and got dinner at a Pizza Place that had just got into the Lonely Planet Guide.  Real good pizza too.

Hotel in Hokitika

Spent the morning visiting  Shantytown showing past gold mining, sawmilling etc
Shantytown Heritage Park is set on 500 acres of native rainforest. The town and surrounding buildings consists of 30 shops and buildings to explore.

 

Next day carried on north to Greymouth, then stopped at Punakaiki (Pancake Rocks) for the obligatory tourist photos.  DOC have done a great job here with the paths and tracks to get around the whole area.

  Next was Westport then we headed inland again over the upper Buller Gorge toward Murchison up the Motueka Valley Highway to Motueka for the night. Next morning went up the Takaka hill 25 km of corners up the hill and back down the hill, to Takaka for breakfast. So much fun riding this road if you can time when the campsers etc are not going up. 

 Next is back through Motueka, on to Nelson stopped at the sea for a bit.  Rode into Cable Bay and stopped at a place for a drink that have a 1.6km flying fox.  Stopped at the Pelorus Bridge to watch the kids jumping off the rocks into the river, then on around Queen charlotte Sound to Picton for the night. 

A ferry leaving the port at Picton heading to Wellington

Picton Ferry Terminal

Picton

We had been keeping a watch on the weather and rain was coming, so the best idea was to head home.  Jumped on the ferry next day, met a girl motorcyclist that was heading up our way.  Went up through Wanganui as we could see rain up through the Desert Road.  Had a good run home, only a few spits of rain.

We road 4143km over 10 days, some days we did 650km per day.

Boarding the Ferry back to Wellinton

Many roads in the South Island still to ride