I'd love to say that we woke up bright and early Saturday morning, but with me getting to the hotel near enough to midnight as to not make any difference, and the glass (OK, glass-es) of Johnnie Walker that I was forced to drink after I got there, it would be stretching the author's credibility, to say the least. We got up around a quarter to whenever, failed to shower, got into gear and scooted down the road at least fifty or sixty yards to a cafe for breakfast.
See? It says right on the roof. "Cafe". I'm going to editorialize for a minute just to say "see that black and silver CBR1000rr in the front of that picture? I neeeeeeed one of those. Except I need the Repsol paint job. Like this one"
need ... NEEEEEEEEED
Sorry, where were we? Yes, breakfast. So after, what else, eggs benedict, you think I'm going to put the traditional British "big brekkie" in me? Please. We hit the road. Next stop? Lunch in Hanmer Springs.
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Only about 130 km, should make it there by lunch time easily.
Now, I'm going to veer of again and say that New Zealand's South Island is god damn motorcycle nirvana. It never really gets that cold so the winters don't eat the roads. It's completely devoid of people and by extension police. It's jam packed full of the most amazing roads to ride on. On top of that, it's gorgeous.
That's about forty five minutes out of Kaikoura. It's beautiful, right? There's only one problem with the South Island ... it rains like a motherfucker. I swear to god it's the rainiest god damn place in the entire universe. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. It had rained early in the morning, so when we left Kaikoura the roads were damp, but not bad at all. Just out of Kaikoura you get up into the hills, and it was fairly wet up there from the lack of sun on the roads, but it wasn't unridable. You just had to be careful. Remember, this was essentially the first time I'd ridden anywhere in about four months so I was already being careful. It was overcast but only spritzing now and then so we thought that we were going to get lucky. Hell, when we turned onto SH7 north, it was downright pleasant. Finally dry enough, and a straight enough, but not too straight, road that the two of us on sportbikes could really stretch them out. Holy moly the last 25 minutes before lunch was just awesome. SH7 was empty so D and I hauled some serious ass up to Hanmer Springs. Twenty miles of wicked fast long sweeping turns, Yee-haw. Which, in retrospect, was a good thing. I'd rather do 180 km/hr on a dry road than 100 km/hr in a fucking downpour, which is exactly what happened the second we pulled in to Hanmer Springs for lunch.
So, that got a lot longer than I expected, and it's late so I'm going to leave it at that, and you all (again "mom") will have to wait for the next episode. Same bat time, same bat channel.
so, like why do you NEEEEEEED a bike with that particular paint job?
ReplyDeleteI can image it being fun. If you get bored and want to toodle around another country, I recommend Greece, particularly the Peloponnese, (the blob south of Athens and Corinth). Very little traffic, once you get away from Corinth. The roads are distinctly reminiscent of Doddridge Co. With no road signs. Again, rather like Doddridge Co.