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First of all, thank you all for coming along, you guys were fantastic riding buddies.Also, thank you Colin for meeting us and showing us your playground. I'll kick this off with one photo to set the scene, but I know that at least one of you has already done a report, so maybe we could use that and then fill in the details with the remainder of the photos.
We managed to leave pretty much on time, as advertised, from BP Papakura. While we had plenty of time available, we did want to be in Awakino by 2pm.The night before Henry P. had decided that he wanted to join us for the ride and sure enough he was there and ready to ride on a brand new F800GS, the twin of Peter GT’s bike. He did have a dual purpose tyre on the front, but the rear was pretty much road only.It was decided to stay on the main roads to Raglan and take the gravel from there to Kawhia. Henry decided to take the lead and I promptly ate his dust for this short gravel section. We had a quick morning tea in picturesque Kawhia. No photos from me, but some may turn up later. Shortly after heading off, Henry decided to head home again via the gravel. Probably a wise choice, in hindsight.The rest of us took the very pretty route around the Kawhia harbour and across the newly repaired bridge. I’ll have to do this route again soon, as I couldn’t get enough of the scenery.Soon we where in the valley that led to Marakopa. Again very scenic. Well, let’s face it, you won’t see many pictures of ugly locations in this report.Marakopa is a small beach settlement that has managed to remain untouched from consumerism. You get a good view of it from the top of the hill. Steve B. took me through there about 5 years ago, when a lot of the road was still gravel.
A bit further on we finally found some more of the rapidly disappearing road surface. Here it was so good, you could break the speed limit and not worry too much about the gentle curves the road made as it meandered through the valley.
As we were on schedule, we decided to check out Waiakwau road beach, another jewel of the Waikato.
However, this one has a twist. The beach is only accessible through a tunnel, and if you miss the sign, you have to somehow turn your bike around at the other end.
The next leg took us all the way to Awakino, with a quick refuel stop just before, that brought back some memories and made my left leg tingle just a little bit.As we parked up, we spotted Colin’s R1100GS outside the pub. Its owner was sitting inside and enjoying a quiet drink with a new found friend. We were glad to see him, as he had generously offered to show us around his neighbourhood. After checking in and a quick meal, we were on out way again.First up, a freshly graded Kiwi road, this road doesn’t really need any additional excitement thrown in. It steeply winds up a hill and has some nasty drop-offs to keep you alert. Every body made it up in one piece and so we reached our third tunnel, I think.Colin then took us up Moki road to see how far we could get.
And while it started innocently enough, it was soon blocked by a slip. It was quite obvious that this one was out of our league, as we were travelling on motorbikes and not mountain goats.The next picture shows an aerial view (yes, we were pretty high up) of what was left of the set from the movie “The last Samurai”. 
I asked Colin if we could go for a closer look, but he reckoned that the farmer who owned the land, kept the gates locked.A bit later he suddenly stopped, pointing to a gate, that this was the entrance to the film set. The gate was unlocked, this meant that the farmer probably wanted us to go in and have a closer look. How could we say no to this offer?We had to open and close a few more gates, but we made it in the end. The farmer had originally wanted the film crew to return his land into the way it was before. However, shortly before the last buildings were removed, he realized what he was giving up. Unfortunately, just a little bit too late.
After this section, Colin took us out via Uruti road. He had to head home again, so we thanked him for showing us around and headed back to Awakino for a meal and a well earned beer or 2 or..Early in the 90s Jean and I did the KR Awakino River Ride which took us through the tunnel. We of course walked but many tried the deep black sand and struggled. However Bill Biber was there on his PD and rode down onto the sand and had a play then rode back up the ramp and powered through the tunnel leaving many in his wake – a very skilled rider and impressed us mightily.
The next day we hat breakfast at the hotel, which included a round of anti-inflammatory pills. These are great little helpers on adventure rides.Soon we were on the road again. After a short fuel stop at Urenui, we turned into Otaraoa rd a few kilometres later. Otararoa road starts out quite flat and straight, but soon the scenery changes and it becomes hilly and winding. It’s one of those lovely single lane roads without road markings. We stopped for a quick photo of the mountain.
Soon after we went through another tunnel, these tunnels have quite a bit of history and I’ll just include the links again that Colin has found on the subject, they are well worth looking at.http://www.pukeariki.com/en/stories/newTaranakiStories/taratunnels.htmhttp://www.pukeariki.com/en/stories/transport/tunneltour.htmOtaraoa road then turns into Tarata and it wasn’t long before the first traffic jam. The traffic can be horrendous on a Monday morning and it was obviously the local rush hour. We just had to pull over and let the traffic pass, while we had a chat to a nice man who was part of the traffic control. He mentioned that he rides a KLR and loves touring on it.
By now I have given up counting the various tunnels, but we went through a few more before the end of the ride.
Tarata road turns to gravel soon after Purangi. From there we turned into Matau road and on to Mohakau road, which then joins Ohau road at Te Wera, the main road to Whangamomona. Of course we weren’t ready for the this just yet, so we took the road less travelled and turned right and then left into Brewer road at Strathmore. Brewer road becomes the upper Mangahehu road, but before that you are though another tunnel. Now Ohau road is known as the Forgotten World Highway, but I guess this road would deserve the name more. We took this road all the way to Aotuhia, of course this was all gravel by now. A good road, and very pretty scenery all along the way. Keep in mind that there are lots of bees around and keep you visor shut. I didn’t want to repeat my trifecta from last year.
Finally we reached the bridge to somewhere. We too some photos and then I was ready to cross the bridge to the Old Whanga road. Of course, had I read the signs like the others had, I would have know that this was the wrong way. Luckily my ridding buddies were a little more observant and we went past the sign that basically said, if you use the road and die, you’re a bloody idiot and have nobody else to blame. 
Here is a picture of the treacherous road we were about to ride on.
After a gate or two we arrives a slightly more challenging section. Richard pointed out that it would be a good idea to let a bit of air out of the tires, to help improve traction, which we promptly did. Just the a man came towards us from up the track and wondered if we had bike problems. He was some sort of ranger and also involved in pest control. For that purpose he carried a short shotgun and an ammo belt full of shells. However, the fact that he was holding a set of cramp-on, for extra traction, in his hands gave us some food for thought.The first bog hole was relatively short, but as an extra bonus had a slip to within a inch of the right rut, which we duly avoided. Retrieving a bike from the river below was beyond our capabilities.Peter and Peter took to the mud like a duck to water. Doing this on virtually new bikes must have taking a bit of mental fortitude.
I’ve got to say that I have new found respect for the toughness of the new Adventure. In these sort of conditions the crash bars work as advertised. Peter H. got his bike through all sorts of obstacles. I probably had the easiest bike for these conditions and Peter H. would have had the most difficult one. Peter GT had a brand-spanking new bike and has had virtually no time to gain much gravel time on it prior to this. I don’t think he dropped his bike once, but it did need the odd pull and tuck. Well, we all needed that.
While the obstacles weren’t too bad due to the fine weather, rain would have made this road virtually impassable for us. Keep in mind that the river was only a couple meters to the right and about 40 meters down. Not the place to make a mistake.
Richard just made it look easy as usual and just quietly made his way through or around obstacles. The best part about these rides is the team work, when things become more difficult.It was pretty much unavoidable to have the occasional mishap.
In the end we did make it through to the Whangamomona hotel, for a well earned lunch and a beer. Of course we had to stay outside, as we didn’t meet their high standards of cleanliness and they had just finished cleaning up after their Republic day (goggle Republic of Whangamomona).Soon it was time to head off. We followed most of the forgotten world highway out, but them went towards Te Kuiti via Ohura. In Te Kuiti we filled up the bikes and had a quick drink before the final leg home.This is where things got a bit messy, as Richard’s bike lost its clutch just out of Otorohanga. I had been riding ahead and had failed to notice quite late, that only Peter H. had continued to follow me. Richard would have been left stranded with his failed clutch, if it hadn’t been for Peter GT, who saved the day.Richard’s bike was stored at a farm and he got to ride pillion on Peter’s bike for the rest of the way home. Lesson learned for the next ride. Take it easy and make sure the group stays together for as long as possible; this was clearly my stuff up. Bikes can take a hammering on a ride like this, so anything can happen on the ride home.On a more positive note, it was a pretty good ride and I think we all enjoyed ourselves. We are so lucky to live n a country with such beautiful scenery and roads like this that are still accessible by the public. I hope that people will respect this privilege and look after the environment while having fun in remote locations.Hopefully we’ll do this again some other time.
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