White Island – visiting an active volcano

At the best of times, I would have really enjoyed this trip. I mean how often do you get to walk around on an active volcano? Unfortunately the boat ride from Whakatane was really rough, with waves reaching heights of a meter. Apparently they can get up to 10 meters but 1 meter was bad enough. I was violently sea sick throughout the ride and super queasy even after we disembarked. The island was stunning. We wore masks to protect us from the strong sulphuric acid smell. Looking into the volcano itself was a little bit disappointing because it didn’t contain lava, but also exciting because active volcano!!

The boat ride back wasn’t a whole lot better but I managed to sleep through most of it. It took me the rest of the day to recover. I was supposed to go to Rotorua that evening but unfortunately I had to extend my stay in the shitty hostel to recover from the dehydration.

 

Riding the East Cape

If I had to pick the one ride which was the highlight of my entire trip, I would probably pick the East Cape ride. Oddly enough, it was the one that I was a little apprehensive about because it was a lot of kms to cover in one day and was also reputed to be one of the most remote with very little civilization on the way. In the end, this turned out to be the most appealing part of the trip. My route went from Gisborne to Whakatane via Te Araroa. This meant I would have to bypass the direct route via the gorge which is also supposed to be a good ride. It would have been a perfect loop if I’d had more time.

The route that I did pick was lovely, quiet and serene, and full of twisties! I was probably the only person on the road going north, which meant that I could just stop the bike in the middle of the road and take photos for once. I made a couple of stops in Tolaga Bay to see the longest wharf in the southern hemisphere, at Tokomaru bay to get lunch, and Te Araroa for some coffee.

In Te Araroa, the heavens burst open and it poured down rain. I stood outside the café until the downpour subsided, unsure of how long it was going to last. It wasn’t the most exciting place to stop at for the night so I decided to push through the rain and keep going. Luckily, the rain stopped in a few minutes and the sun peeked out again! Good decision made! The rest of the ride was fantastic too. Waihau Bay was stunning and a sweet place to stop and fuel up. Then all the way to Opotiki which had mostly shut down by then. Whakatane for the night in a bit of a shitty hostel. I booked a spot on the crossing the next morning to White Island – an active volcano off the coast.
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Napier to Gisborne

This morning I left Napier for Gisborne. It was a relatively short ride of around 200 km, although I took the inland twisty route which meant that I was riding for a good four hours. Today’s ride was one of those where I truly felt like I was riding through the Shire in Middle Earth with all the lush green rolling hills for as far as the eyes could see. The inland road also had the advantage that there was almost no traffic and I rarely saw more than a car of two in the space of a half hour. The road was a cornucopia of colors –  hedges and meadows in every shade of green, copses of white and silver trees, leaves tinged with red and gold heralding the first signs of autumn. And the road… it undulated, climbed, descended, a motorcyclist’s dream with mostly perfect pavement. I also saw quite a few animals – sheep, sheep dogs, cows, horses, deer, hawks, little black birds with white tipped wing…

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Napier

This morning I left from Wellington and hit the road after a two day break. The ride started off with a bit of a hitch as I realized that I hadn’t correctly downloaded the section of the map that covered all of the lower North Island. I managed to pair my phone to my Sena and got directions from my Maps app instead. *whew* It wasn’t really needed after I had gotten out of Wellington since the directions were pretty much – take Highway 2 all the way north.

It was a bit jarring to be on the freeway after so long. Luckily it ended quickly and I was soon in the Rimutaka hills. As usual, my fear of heights kicked in and I rode absurdly slowly on those really cool roads. Ugh…

Then some mostly good riding in beautiful rolling hills country. At times it felt like riding through the Shire. No photos unfortunately.

At about the 200 km mark, I started to get exhausted as usual. My stamina really really sucks. I stopped at a cafe and got some coffee and took a bit of a break. These breaks really help a lot because when I got on after, I felt pretty refreshed and ready to go faaaast.

After days of riding in the South Island with almost no traffic outside of the touristy areas, it was a bit strange (and annoying) to be stuck behind trucks and slow moving cars and having to keep pass them. Some of the semis pull over to let traffic go past them but many do not, which is really annoying.

I reached Napier at around 3:00 PM and checked in to a YHA right on the beach. The downtown area had really cool art deco architecture. It was also really warm and sunny and a really lovely afternoon to be outdoors.

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Picton to Wellington

Today I wound up my travels on the South Island and got on the ferry to Wellington in the North Island. My ferry was at 1:15 PM and we were instructed to get there at 12:15 PM. I decided to go a bit earlier and got there at 11:45 AM. This worked out well because I was at the front of the line in a big group of motorcyclists who were returning from a rally in Queenstown, and not so good because the ferry was running late and I had to stand there for almost an hour.

 

 

 

When they signaled to us, we rode towards the ship and were guided to park in special motorcycle parking. This involved wedging the front tire into a triangular metal structure and using tie-downs to secure the bike on both sides. I didn’t  have any but one of the riders lent me one of his, and the ferry provided another one.

Bike secured, I walked up to one of the decks and found a spot to sit down. Since securing the bike took so long, I wasn’t able to snag a window seat. I was also super hungry exhausted by this time so I missed most of the interesting part of the ferry crossing as it wound its way north through the Marlborough Sounds. By the time I felt well enough to go outside, we had already crossed into the ocean. In the distance I could see mountains with windmills on them.

 

About 3.5 hours later, we docked in Wellington. Then ensued a bit of a scramble to get to the bike.

I rode off and was met at the docks by my host Jeff Vickers who had come to pick me up on his wife’s GSXF. I followed him out of the docks and for a moment felt overcome by a pang of deja vu and homesickness as I felt like I was exiting the downtown Seattle ferry terminal but in reality I was in a totally strange city! They both looked so similar…

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