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Tours and Tales
This page contains stories of some of my lengthy rides around the North Island of New Zealand as well as some anecdotes of the more noteworthy (mis)adventures.Enduro '07 is the story of my first off-road ride in over 20 years - Kimmy's Moto-X Park at Waikokowai.
Toy Run '07 is the story of the 2007 Cambridge to Hamilton Child Cancer Toy Run.
Cold Kiwi '06 is the story of my first ever trip to the Cold Kiwi motorcycle rally near Waiouru (Central North Island).
Hakarimata '06 is my first decent journey on my Yamaha XT225 - through the Hakarimata Range near Ngaruawahia.
Whangarei '92 - Hamilton to Whangarei and back - 1954 Zundapp Bella scooter.
Riding Tales 1 is a collection of anecdotes and reminiscences of various bikes..
Riding Tales 2 is a collection of more anecdotes and reminiscences.
Future Rides is a list of places I plan to ride - suggestions for more rides are welcome.
Those who want to get an idea of my journeys so far can look at this map - it's rather large and will open in its own window.
For years, friends and family have looked at me as if I were barking mad when I say I go to Palmerston North or Wellington via Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, Ohakune, Waiouru, Bulls etc.
The conversation usually goes:
"Why don't you just go down State Highway 1 through Taupo and Desert Road to get to Waiouru?"
"Because I hate Desert Road."
"Well, if you're going down through National Park to avoid Desert Road, why don't you just carry on down to Wanganui and get to Bulls that way?"
"Because I don't like the Paraparas."
And I'm deemed to be mad.
Finally, through the magic of the Internet and a delightful on-line map resource at maps.yellowpages.co.nz, I have found vindication.
When checking distances between our home in Hamilton and my sister's house in Sanson using the site's "Get Directions" feature, I was surprised to note that the "quickest" route passed through Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, National Park, Ohakune, Waiouru and Bulls. I was actually expecting that it would be quicker to go via State Highway 1 through Taupo and the Desert Road - such as I had been led to believe by my detractors.
I checked again, this time choosing the "shortest" route. The route then passed through Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, National Park, Wanganui and Bulls.
Tokoroa, Taupo and the Desert Road didn't factor into either calculated route.
Presumably it is the hilly and winding "Parapara Highway" - aka "the Paraparas" - that makes the shorter route take more time. I compared the distances quoted and learned that the route through Wanganui was only shorter than our regular route by 11 kilometres - scarcely a huge saving in petrol and wear-and-tear.
So, there it is: there was method in my madness after all.
The only major way in which our regular route differed from the suggested quickest route (ignoring a number of suggested quicker routes through towns) was that we usually depart Hamilton on State Highway 3 and pass through Ohaupo, Te Awamutu and Kihikihi to the northern end of Otorohanga while the route calculator suggested taking nearby Tuhikaramea Road and going through Pirongia to the south end of Otorohanga - the same route as I took when I went out for a bike ride one night. This alternative way of getting to Otorohanga was suggested for both the quickest and the shortest route.