Riding New Zealand - Geraldine to Mt Cook

After my recent holiday to New Zealand i thought i'd share with you some of the awesome roads that i saw there and drove on, unfortunately i didn't actually get to ride on these roads but don't worry they are on my bucket list. These roads are on the main land, or for the non locals the south Island. We spent 11 days driving around the south island from Christchurch to Mt Cook. Then from Mt cook to Queenstown. Then Queenstown to Dunedin. Then Dunedin back to Christchurch.

These are my thoughts on just a few of the roads that i went on without any real local knowledge of the areas. Some of the NZ riders might be able to shed some light on some better roads than these.

Geraldine to Fairlie
After turning off the main highway down from Christchurch which is very straight with lots of traffic as its the main road down to Dunedin the traffic drops off to next to nothing with large snow capped mountains looming in the distance. From the Hwy its a quick trip across to the pretty town of Geraldine, after that its rolling hills with slow sweeping bends connected with straights with scenic views which after a while the road starts to climb up into the hills. This is MacKenzie Country.

There is a short winding section that climbs up to the top of a hilltop where the Farm Barn Cafe is at the top. There's also an nice lookout over the surrounding mountains. This would be a great Sunday morning ride. Just after pulling up at the lookout a guy from Geraldine pulled up on a CBR1100 superblackbird. We had a chat for a couple of minutes before his mates came along on what looked like a fireblade and another sportsbike i cant remember and he had to jump back aboard and chase after them. Looks like they were having fun.

Fairlie to Lake Tekapo
This section is more or less just a some straights connected by some big sweepers that run around the base of the mountain ranges here. Its very scenic especially when you come out to Lake Tekapo. Magic views across the lake from the township.

Lake Tekapo to Mt Cook
From Lake Tekapo along the Twizel road it is fairly straight across the highlands road until is comes down upon Lake Pukaki with some big sweepers here that wind around the bottom section of the lake with some equally big views.

The turn off to Mt Cook is just after the Dam wall/Spillway at the bottom of Lake Pukaki. The road that leads up to Mt Cook is an awesome peice of tarmac. The road surface was excellent with big sweepers that run all the way along the side of the lake with the mountain range on the other side of the road. The road meanders along with Mt Cook and other mountains looming ever larger ahead.

Until you come out at Mt Cook village which isn't very big at all.

There were some corners that had grit on them that the council must put down to help cars with grip in the icy conditions but most of this was gone when we came through. Most surfaces were pretty good. It was pretty chilly at Mt Cook being only 9°C max with the min being around -2°C.

Blog Title

It's interesting looking at other peoples motorcycle blogs and see others points of view and their experiences. What i also find fascinating is the titles of their blogs. Behind each and every one of these blog titles would be some sort of story. Whether its just the users nickname, or more of their attitude of how they ride.

If your wondering where i got the name"Road to nowhere"from for my web blog it was really quite simple.About 15 years ago myself and my mate went on a ride up to the putty road, which to get there was about a 5 Hour ride. When we got to the top 16km section of twisties we turned around and did that section about 3 times up and down. Then we went and stayed in the pub in singleton to drink and chat about the days activities. The destination wasn't singleton that was just a place to rest up for the night before doing it over again and back home the next day.

When my Boss asked me on monday morning where i went for a ride to on the weekend and the response was 'up to singleton', he wanted to know why we went to singleton. I found it a bit hard to explain it to him that we didn't go to singleton for anything as we only went to ride the road. Needless to say he had difficulty trying to understand why we went there. I guess if your not a biker and into that kind of thing you wouldn't understand.

And yet another time, this time the with the outlaws. We were going on a ride up the buckets way to Walcha then across the Oxley Hwy and stay the night at Gingers Creek. They first asked where the hell gingers creek was then why i was going there. It was the same dumb blank look on their faces that my boss had given me nearly 10 years previous, when i tried to explain that we weren't going to gingers creek that was just the stopping point on the way.

So is seemed quite appropriate to me that i call my blog

because thats exactly what 99% of all my riding has been. I have really only been places to ride the roads and see some spectacular scenery. The only exception i can think of is my trips to Philip Island for the 500cc Gp and MotoGP. Then i had a reason to go to the destination.

The title photo was taken on one of these trips to Philip Island. It was 2001 and as we ascended Mt Hotham from Mt Beauty the weather deteriated quite considerably. It was 5°C at the top of Mt Hotham that morning about 10am. With thick fog and lots of snow on the sides of the road. Looking back now the photo's were pretty special.

Mt Hotham 2001 5°C



View of bikes from the Villa



Well i'm off on Friday to New Zealands South Island for a much deserved holiday. See you all when i get back.

Forget Knee down, now it's elbow down

Check out Casey Stoner, none of this knee down pussy shit for him, just some hardcore elbow down racing .

Good to see Casey come 3rd in San Marino with only 5 rounds to go. Lets hope he gets up, he sure deserves it.

Nothing much to report here riding wise, it was fathers day today so i had many beers and watched the GP San Marino. Woo hoo only 2 weeks to go and i'm on holidays.

So out with this......

And in with this.......

Yep a 10 Day holiday to New Zealands South Island. I'll be checking out all the roads and noting them down for good sportsbike riding.

The Pie Connoisseur

I have loved the humble meat pie for as long as i can remember, when i was a wee little fella i remember buying a pie at the school tuck shop.

What has this to do with riding motorcycles. Well i'll tell you. Everything and absolutely nothing.
I grew up in a small country town(Forbes, NSW) with a great bakery that had really great pies.  Just about every other place i have ridden to or through i have tried a pie at. What i have noticed is most country towns have great pie's. Since moving to Sydney most bakerys i have seen are all run by asians. Sorry to say they do not know how to make a great pie.

A couple of years ago whilst i was working in the city i had a pie at the place i was working that was one of the best pie's i have had anywhere. That was about 4 years ago. I finally discovered where those pies came from.

I now know where Sydneys best pie is to be had. Hot Relish on Enmore Rd, Newton.
Take a look. It tastes way better than it looks and damn it looks pretty good.

This pie is one that we got and took home and put in the fridge.

Surprisingly the maker of these great pies is an old asian lady that hand makes the pastry and every pie,each meat pie has chunks of beef that melt in your mouth when you eat it. That is why they are so frickin good. She even told me the best way to reheat them.

1 minute in the microwave to heat the insides and 10 minutes in the oven. Just as good as from the shop.

Just had to put up another pic.

Out with the old, in with the new

It was finally time to go and get some new boots and gloves. I bought new boots and gloves just after i got the R1 11 years ago. The boots are a set of alpinestar smx's which have needed changing for about 12 months now after the 2009 not the snowy ride the soles started to come apart in the heat. I had them re-glued which lasted about 5 months and then they come unglued again. The last few rides i have been riding with the soles taped up. Not a very good or safe solution. And i just noticed that the thumb on my left hand glove the leather started to rip in a couple of places. Still, 11 years out of a set of gloves and boots was exceptional.

I found a nice pair of alpinestars gloves to replace my old pair of agv ones. The old gloves were only $69, boy gloves are a lot more expensive now some of them are $250+.

Here are the old boots, you can see from these pics that they are well worn out after 11 years.

These boots had served me well, they fitted very well and were pretty comfortable when walking in. But this was the second pair of alpinestars that the soles had fallen off, as well as some friends that theirs did the same thing. Thats the only thing that makes me a little reluctant to buy alpinestars again, other than that i think they are a fantastic boot.

I tried on some of the new alpinestars and also some sidi's. The new alpinestar smx boot has some stupid lace up thing inside the boot with something that looks like a tongue. It fitted nicely just like my last boot but i'll be stuffed if i'm going to be frigging around inside the boot with this lacing up bullshit.
So i tried on the sidi range of boots, and it fitted much like the alpinestar did. Which one to get, the alpinestar was cheaper but the sidi didn't have the lace up crap. Mmmmm. Well it was decision time so here's what i went with.

I thought i'd take some pic's of them whilst they are still new and clean, because they'll never be like this again.
Now i just hope they are as good as my old pair of alpinestars. Only time will tell. I'll get back to you after a few rides and let you know what i think of them.

Motorcycling a Religion?

Its funny that sometimes we like to think that because you go for a ride every sunday that motorcycling is a religious experience. I've heard this many times in motorcycle magazines but i've been unsure whether or not this can be claimed as being serious. I mean how do i know, sometimes it can feel like a religious experience but  who really knows.

I have finally found out after much toiling that riding motorcycles is religious. How do i know this you say? Did it come to me in a dream or did i have a vision or out of body experience? No, none of this. It came from somewhere much more earthly than this. Read the below rego renewal from the NRMA and there you have the proof. Its now official.

The Isle of Putty

My Rego had run out on Friday, and guess who rang and said that they are doing a Putty Rd ride on Monday. My RDO luckily was on monday as well. So it was a quick dash to drop my daughter at the outlaws then back home again. Jump on the bike and down to team moto on Sunnyholt Rd for a pink slip then back home again. Enough time for a quick coffee then on with the leathers just in time for Bushpig and 2 mates to show up, all ready for a quick blat up to the Isle of putty.

It started out a pretty cool morning being around 10°C but it soon toppped out at around 20°C. Just perfect for a ride and being a Monday there was much less traffic around and less police presence.

First stop was at Colo River for a quick break and so Geoff could mount his camera.

After this it was time to climb up the mountain to Colo Heights. The road through here was still wet as the sun hardly touches some of the road here. I was thinking that the top end of the Putty would also be covered with damper, moss ridden surface and wouldn't be that much fun today.

This Colo Heights section of road has some very nice sweepers over hill tops but man it seems to get rougher every time i come here. Or is it the fact i have a very light race bike with an undersprung rear shock that is well past its used by date. I Really should get it rebuilt.

A quick stop off at the old halfway house for a toilet break and rest then onto the top 16km's of motorcycling heaven.

If i haven't said it before then i'll say i now. The 16km section of this road that runs along the river here is absolutely brillant. Lets just hope that Geoffs vid turned out alright so i can post it up here.
Its quite a technical piece of road, with a couple of decreasing radius downhill turns to catch out the unweary with lots of hairpin bends and switchback bends. Plenty of 45,55,65 bends. It was great to see that none of the bends had any water or moss on them so it was all smooth sailing.

We stopped at Bulga but the pub was closed on mondays, so we headed of to Broke and refueled both bikes and hungry bikers. The low Hunter has some interesting looking hills and rock formations.

After this it was back down the putty again as the group concensus was that going down to Wollembi and the Old Road was going to give us to many traffic headaches. Agreed. Plus i wanted another crack at the top end section of the Putty. It was a much faster run back down, so much so that i started to get arm pump on my left wrist, which left it pretty sore for the rest of the trip home. We had to wait for the 748 at the halfway house, apparently he went down on the twisty section of the top16km, but looking at his bike there was not much damaged, a busted left head light and some scratches on the front and on his helmet. No real scratches on either side, he must have thrown himself under the bike to save it or something.
All in all much fun was had by all, it sure beats the hell out of working thats for sure.

As Hard as Nails

The Isle of man TT has come and gone again for another year. These brave riders are to be considered gods amongst us ordinary motorcyclists. Unfortunately 3 of these brave riders died at this years event. RIP. They all know the dangers and i think that is what draws them and us into it as motorcycle riders, the thrill and adrenaline rush that comes from riding flat out.

The 600cc R6 were topping out at 170MPH, thats fast in any bodies language but then there are trees, fences, houses, rock walls right at the edge of the track. Absolutely no margin for error. I would love to ride on this road at speed(my speed not theirs). It looks like an awesome road.

Thats some serious air there.

This year Mick Doohan went to the Isle of Man TT and participated in a parade lap of the course.

Ian Hutchinson, Mick Doohan, Nicky Hayden, Cal Crutchlow, Josh Brookes - Isle of Man 2011

Here's what nicky hayden had to say about his lap.

Nicky Hayden:
“That lap was pretty awesome. We weren’t going fast but the speed we were doing while waving at the crowds was pretty fast! I really enjoyed my lap and seeing another form of racing, these boys are hard as nails.

Might  have to get out for a ride soon, it's been to cold, to sick and away from town to do any riding.