South? No!

I got a new NZ driver's license last week. It's a really horrible picture, but, I transferred my California Motorcycle endorsement to my NZ license. Yay! Which means I'm 100% legal for next weekend. What's that you say? What's happening next weekend? Well, I'll tell you. It's the second semi-whenever motorcycle weekend getaway for men warily eyeing that thing sneaking up on them in the rearview mirror that looks suspiciously like middle age. That thing. We're ditching the South Island and it's crap weather and heading North for a couple days. We're going to head up to Taranaki, where, at the end of a little road called State Highway 43, there's a little town called Whangamomona (Wh is 'f' in Maori). Doesn't sound too exciting? What if I tell you that SH43 is about 150km long, and usually takes three to five hours to drive it and when I say that Whangamomona is small, I mean small.




So traffic? Not so much. And one more thing, what if I told you that no one calls it SH43, it's the "Forgotten World Highway". How does this sound?

"Built on colonial bridle paths formed in the late 19th century, the highway is remote and mysterious to the extreme. "A bit upsy downsy" is how one local resident puts it - a classic New Zealand understatement to describe a road that hugs the rugged contours of the land to provide a natural roller coaster experience"

Sounds like Oh .. Hell .. Yeah. Only 4 bikes this time and one of them is a fully restored Indian so I'm not sure that really counts. Since Shawn can't ride since his accident, he's going to drive, so we have a chase car for gear and luggage. I'll have a camera this time and I'm gong to try to rig something up to get some 'bike's-eye' footage. Also, since we do have a chase car, I'm going to take my Powerbook and jot down my thoughts as I go, so I'm not trying to remember what happened months later. Shoud be fun. I get to keep going as long as I keep coming home in one piece so keep yer fingers crossed.