NZ '17...Beaches, Boulders + Bloody Good Times

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Geoff returns to "The Shed", we turn our noses into the wind and head north.
The Ryan-come-Pritchard Rd. combo straddles some district borders, hence the name-change. Travel is pretty speccy along the spines of those hills... :glu


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A quick look at the western end of Stanforth Rd. shows only a farm gate and a couple of faint, grassy tracks....maybe next time, or leave that one to Geoff and his mates.



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Half a km away, across the ridges....GOTCHA!
:thumbs:

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A couple of quick doglegs (Baldrock Rd. is all sealed now :-( ) and we squeeze past the Fonterra dairy factory onto Doctors Hill and the Golden Stair gravel, leading back up onto the ridges. Dropping towards the coast on the Finlayson Brook Rd., the narrow gravel hides a nasty surprise:
Some pale-faced, big-eyed local jockey in a dented, rusty old shitbox screaming through the corners sideways nearly wipes me out, missing by a bee's dick.
Ant behind me watches the whole thing and we pull up, shaking.
The others should only be a few seconds behind.....:doh::bang:

Doubling back after a 3 minute wait and some growing gut-ache, the righthander 2 bends back shows what we were dreading:
Tim copped it, the dope-head did a hit+run, Doug and Faz chasing him after leaving the rego-number with Derek and Tim.
A check with the 000 operator reveals the plates belonging to a truck, not an early '90s beige Mazda3/ Corolla.
Figures....



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Tim's stunned and shaking... it's been ever so close! :mad::bang:
:doh:

We rope the semi-buried DR to the tail of an XT to pull the bugger back out of the bushes, the DR has virtually no damage at all and fires straight up (ahhh, Suzukis!! :thumbs:)...same for Tim, who seems to have gotten away with a decent bruise as he went over the bars even deeper into those Pampas-bushes. We re-jig the bars and wait for Faz + Doug to return with the last piece of filthy skin of the f^%#wit (they never caught up, though W-)) ....and we're off down the coast for an extended lunch and a long breather.

The little shop in Waipu Cove reckon's it's Xmas when 6 of us waltz through the door all at once.
"I'll have a piece of that Hunki-Dori....anyone else?" :so


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dougman1

Part of the furniture
We were hot on the trail of the errant dick head.

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But he was smoking it on the gravel and all I could find was
the tyre marks on the road which indicated his direction.
A little bit further on the road forked again. We abandoned the chase, what where we gonna do anyway's..W-)

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Best get on with it eh, There's some scenery to see!

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Followed by lunch at Waipu Cove. (east Coast)

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An impromptu map session, before heading back to the West Coast, and our pre booked digs at Bayleys Beach.

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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Into the Kaipara-District proper for some relaxing views and delicious ridge-cruising...and, of course, back to the West Coast.


http://bit.ly/2huA3vm


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Millbrook Rd. winds its way up onto the ridges from the coast at Waipu


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First home-buyers delight, a coat 'o paint will make it just sweet...


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Doug...still chasing Mazda3's :so



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Baylys Beach comes up with some great accomodation , 5-stars to the
Baylys Beach Holiday Park and its super friendly owner. :bow:


The little corner store up the road not just provides the essentials...


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... but also the entertainment...

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...as well as some leathery see-through T-bones that need an extra cold Tui's to wash 'em down after the effort of killing 'em the 2. time around.:wink:


Baylys Beach rush hour is a shocker, aye?


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Day2: it certainly didn't get boring!! :thumbs::thumbs:
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Back into Dargaville under grey skies for fuel and supplies.
To be on the safe side and making sure of extra supplies for one very thirsty DR (175km to reserve :wow:), we also fill the 2 brandnew Desert Fox fuel-bladders to their designated 5l-limit.
Just to stay with that topic for a sec...once filled with fuel the first time, most bladders will emit fuel-fumes forever. Which makes them useless for air-travel, the fumes will get picked up. Supposedly not the Desert Fox though....now confirmed in 2 cases with Tim and self carrying one each back in the suitcase (after airing/ drying, of course)




http://bit.ly/2hvUzfd

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Down the Pouto Peninsula, mostly on tar. The Kellys Bay loop is worth every inch of gravel though (that's thickness, not distance!!)




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Kellys Bay


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Turning concrete owls...wtf? Shark-deterrent or the local "artie" going for a prank ?


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Stick with the "salad", eh Willo? :cool:


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Checking out the boat-ramp at the end of the Esplanade


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The skies FINALLY crack open a little as we roll into the tiny settlement of Pouto Point at the end of the peninsula.
The small, elevated camp-area is picture-book material!


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As Gmaps doesn't like "off-piste" routing, I'll pinch the map from above again, zooming in a bit. Hit the beach at Pouto Point at the southern end of the peninsula, cruise past the Pouto Lighthouse to the Harbour-mouth, then follow the hardpack north past Glinks Gully, Baylys Beach and up to Aranga Beach, which is a small patch of beach-shacks just west of Aranga on the hwy.
~125k's of roaring surf, hardpacked sand, wind-crazy dune-formations, small creek-crossings, driftwood, the occasional fisherman or seal. :glu
The beach-exit @ Aranga is supposed to be something else, though.
Maybe backtrack to Bayly's if we can preserve enough fuel...

Ride first, think later...


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Worried looks as the beach-entry and the first few km's turn out fairly soft....not real deep, but soft enough to worry a bit.



The one everyone missed W-)


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tbc
 
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dougman1

Part of the furniture
The signs at Kellys Bay were a tempter..

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But we couldn't scare the wildlife now could we.

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It was however a welcome stop, as the seats on the DR's were beginning to get uncomfortable after the first 15 seconds of every day!
Monty Python and the Ministry of Silly walks, has nothing on a DR rider after a day in the saddle. :bs

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The sojourn from Poutu to Aranga had begun. It was time to relish the solitude and freedom that comes from this coast.

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dougman1

Part of the furniture
There was plenty to see on the ride North.
A battery operated Torpedo, takes the line out to sea.

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Just over an hour later.

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The first set these blokes caught 14 good snapper.
Then there was another dozen or so that we saw from this set. They offered us fish. We had to decline their generous offer.

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Gimme some fish or I'll flap over there and eat that bloke!

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We stopped at a fresh water stream on the beach

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And just enjoyed this little fresh water surprise.

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The mighty Maunganui Bluff, our exit from the beach.
I'd tramped over this in the Xmas of 86. It was a pivotal moment in my life.
I never went tramping again.

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