Over the Christmas holidays while Australia was burning and the NZ South Island was flooding, those of us in the North Island seemed to be escaping relatively unscathed. It was in fact the perfect opportunity to do a quick loop up and around our East Cape and beyond.
The road from Palmerston North to Napier is quite an attractive bit of highway on a sunny day although the police were having a happy time pinging anyone doing more than about 4km/hr over the limit. Heading north from Napier to Gisbourne and around the East Cape things get really interesting. The road has a great surface and is never far from the coast as it winds its way through heavy bush and the foot of the Raukumara Range. There are no straight bits and it’s constant and tight cornering pretty much all the way around from Gisbourne to Whakatane. The forearms are really feeling it by the time the road opens out again.
There are some BYO-everything freedom camping sites up towards East Cape for those who don’t want to fork out the $25 for a fully serviced camping ground.
The road north around the Bay of Plenty from Whakatane to Tauranga is quite nice as it hugs the sandy beaches but from Tauranga up into the Coromandel Peninsular it is simply awesome riding. Great little rocky bays and beaches beside the road, no straights and a spectacular climb over the Coromandel Range at the top end.
Coromandel township itself is a nice spot to spend the night then the road starts heading south following the Firth of Thames on the throttle-hand side. This stretch is winding and slower in places as there’s almost no space to fit a road between the Coromandel Range and the sea. This is a popular ride for Auckland motorcyclists as it continues on to the Seabird Coast Scenic Route which hugs the western side of the Firth of Thames then goes through some nice hilly bits before heading into Auckland’s southern suburbs.
Heading south from Auckland it’s a good break to have a bit of straight highway for a while down to Hamilton. Hamilton to Taumarunui is fast rolling highway but there were plenty of patches of melting tar over Christmas which resulted in some white-knuckle moments on a couple of the faster corners.
The ‘piece-de-resistance’ is the Forgotten Valley Highway which runs from Taumarunui down to Stratford. This is slow, winding road all the way through big mountains and heavy bush. There’s an unsealed section for 13km but this has a good surface then a nice pub about half way along at the only civilization of the self-proclaimed ‘Republic’ of Whangamomona. Most hairpin bends on NZ roads are signposted as 25km/hr but on this stretch there are a couple signposted as 15km/hr – Try taking these ones fast!
Stratford back home to Palmerston North was a good relaxing stretch to contemplate a most excellent 2,000km outing.
I’m now up for a new front tyre again. For those who are interested the current one is a Pirelli Angel which I put on in Perth 16,740 km’s ago. I’ll be sorry to see it go as it holds a bit of sentimental attachment – WA’s south-west corner, the Nullabore, Vic & NSW’s south-east plus a large chunk of NZ. Anyway it’s now well past it’s use-by date. Might try a Michelin PR3 next…
