Rattley Tappet Rally Mapua NZ

[O2 V11]

This years National Guzzi rally was held in Mapua, 30km from Nelson the major centre in the north of New Zealand's South Island. I live in Invercargill at the bottom of the South Island. My plan was to travel to Mapua, spend 2 nights there, another night at Franz Josef on the scenic West Coast and home the next day. The timing of the rally coincides with our Labour Day holiday, this commerates the introduction of the universal 40 hour working week introduced in 1840. This holiday is observed on the 3rd Monday of October. I took 2 days off work to make this trip, the preceding Friday and the following Tuesday.

 

Day 1

I set off bright and early on Friday October 19th at 6am. The day was clear with an unseasonal frost of about 3 deg C on the ground. I was planning to travel 1000k/620 miles so the plan was to stop every 50 miles or so for a rest/photo stop. My first stop saw me catching the sunrise on the back road.

 

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After another stop on now sunny but breezy day I found myself in Dunedin affectionately known as the Edinburgh of the south. New Zealand's first city by population growth in 1865. It is now NZ's fifth largest city widely recognised as a University city whose students are known far and wide as "scarfies". The central streets of Dunedin are shaped in an octagon and who else but Robbie Burns would have a statue in his memory in the centre.

 

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The trip up the east coast is nothing startling at all, another photo stop was at the 45th parallel, halfway between nowhere.

 

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The day continued sunny but now windy which kept the temperatures low around 12-14deg C at max. A couple of gas stops later I found myself turning off SH 1 in the direction of Springs Junction over one of our mountain passes, the Lewis Pass, at its highest point 907m ASL. Travelling along a long undulating straight piece of road, along way ahead in the distance I see some flashing lights, instinctively look down and I am doing 85 mph. As our speed limit is only 100kph (62mph) and an instant loss of licence at 40kph over the limit I was fearing the worst here. I slowed down to the speed limit and as I approached the parked patrol car I continued to slow waiting for the door to open and the inevitable invitation to stop be extended my way. But nothing happened, what I couldn't see was the little boy racer car parked in front while he received his ticket. I continued on my way at a somewhat slower pace. A nice road which winds it way through some magnificent sub alpine scenery.

 

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The going gets a little tighter once it enters the bush proper. Eventually I arrive at Springs Junction my last fuel stop of the day. The time is 4.30pm and only 210k/130m I am feeling good. I head off north to Nelson now on my last leg knowing I should be at Mapua in about the 13 hours I had allowed myself for the journey. At a rest break in Murchison I run into another 2 travellers who are heading to Mapua as well. Both from Auckland one on a V11 LeMans the other on an MV Augusta, they had had a quick look around the top half of the South Island. I head off leaving them to it, enjoying the winding well surfaced roads on offer. This leg of the journey was the best as the wind had died down now and even though it was the evening it was the warmest part of the whole day. About 50km from my destination approaching a little place called Belgrove the back of the bike starts wobbling frantically. I stop thinking I have a flat rear but no that's not it, my left rear wheel bearing is toast. I turn back to the hotel and stop. Inside, I ask for the local phone book, find the number of an old friend I haven't seen for the best part of 18 years, fish out my mobile which my wife insists I carry for such emergencies to ring, when of the patrons ask what network I am on. I tell them and they say sorry no service there. All is not lost though the bar owner hands me her phone to ring. Eventually I get picked up bike and all and taken to Nelson where we remove the rear wheel and after a lot of catching up I get some well deserved sleep.

 

Day 2

 

A nice sunny day dawns on Nelson, we remove both wheel bearings and replace them, refit the wheel and about midday I am off to the rally site at Mapua. The Saturday ride for the rally entailed heading over the hill to Takaka and there was to be lunch at a salmon farm. You catch 'em and they cook 'em. But as I have a workmate living at Takaka if he was working I was going fishing but as he was on days off I was going to catch up with him. By the time I arrived at Mapua nearly everyone had been gone for more than 2 hours. I enrolled and headed off to Takaka. I fuelled up at Motueka and headed into threatening skies and the unknown. I had never been to Takaka before which involves the Takaka hill. By the time I started up the hill it was raining, not heavy, just enough to dampen my enthusiasm. By the time I reached the summit the rain had stopped and I continued on damp roads in sunshine. Encountering rain wasn't surprising as it had rained for 18 of the 20 days of October in Takaka.

 

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Once down the other side and through Takaka North the road was made for motorcycles, nice and flowing. At Takaka I stopped off and had a cup of tea and visited our workplace there and headed off back to Mapua about 5.00pm. I missed some more afternoon rain showers and had a nice ride back in evening sunshine. The hill itself I didn't enjoy, I found the corners too tight for my liking, alot of first gear stuff. As someone said later on in the evening about the road, they ran out of 25kmh warning signs so they put up a 15kmh one instead. Once back in Mapua it was time for the rally dinner. About 120 people attended the dinner and thoroughly enjoyed the live music that followed.

 

 

Day 3

 

I was up in time to see the WRC final at the dinner venue. South Africa had the Poms on the ropes by half time and that was good enough for me. I left and wandered round the camp site taking photos of some of the bikes that were there. There was street racing on at Greymouth 290k/180miles from Mapua and my intention was to watch some of these. I was late getting away, the trip to Greymouth meant I covered some of the roads I travelled over two days earlier and they were much more enjoyable this time around. The day was cloudy and breezy but heading towards the Coast I encountered patches of rain but nothing serious. This meant the ride down the Buller Gorge which is rated by some as one of the best motorcycle roads around was spoiled by the intermittent rain and wet road. Once out of the Gorge all the mountains were shrouded in mist and this continued all the way down the Coast to Franz Josef. I stopped for fuel and fish and chips at Westport and arrived in Greymouth in time to watch the last 2 races. From what I saw we should see some really exciting races at Wyndham during the Burt Munro Challenge weekend later on this month. I got some fuel at a little place on the Coast called Ross. This was a step back in time, no fancy computer inside, the shop assistant had to go outside and read the pump to see how much I had purchased. I arrived at Franz Josef in time for a couple of free bowls of vege soup the hostelers put on every evening.

 

Day 4

 

The day was an absolute blinder no clouds in the sky at all. The road was dry and I was off, 575km/375miles to get home.

 

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Nice flowing roads, just the occasional tighter sections things were looking good. After a stop at Fox Glacier for a photo stop there was even a decent straight for a triple digit blast. At my first rest stop I looked down at my front tyre and this is what I saw.

 

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Here I was a million miles from anywhere, a public holiday and just me and my tyre. I set off at the sedate speed of 80k/50mph getting passed by all and sundry. After a couple of stops it didn't seem to be getting any worse, I continued home. A fuel stop at Haast meant I had only 433k/270miles to go. I carried on with another gas stop at Alexandra and arrived home thankfully without any other incidents. In total nearly 1400miles/2250km in 4 days at an average fuel consumption of 39.48 imp mpg/7.19l per 100km.

Apart from the wheel bearing and the front tyre and camera troubles the trip was really good. Seeing parts of the country I had not seen before and catching up with people I hadn't seen for two years. My camera or more correctly memory card failed me miserably. I had intentions of taking some video clips of the rally so I borrowed my daughters 1 GB card. I unfortunately came home with only 14 images saved on the defective memory card instead of the nearer 50 I took. The following day Tuesday, I had a nice day at home then sadly back to work as usual on Wednesday. Next years rally will be in the North Island, I can't wait.

 

Rob

[g.forrest]

good trip report 02v11. i hope to oneday get over there for a ride around.

ps. your front tire is well shagged.

[Guzzirider]

Sounds like a good trip- and thanks for sharing the photos- what a beautiful country.

 

And thanks for reminding me about the world cup!

 

Guy

[Skeeve]

This years National Guzzi rally was held in Mapua, 30km from Nelson the major centre in the north of New Zealand's South Island.

 

Warning! Warning! Incipient oxymoron alert!..

 

I live in Invercargill at the bottom of the South Island.

 

Ah, home of Burt Munro & the world's fastest Indian. Great flick, I'm sure you've seen it: anyone else out there in V11LM-land who hasn't absolutely must: it's time well spent! What an inspiration... Nice of the AMA to finally put him in the Motorcycle HoF (last year was it? '05?); he should have been inducted shortly after his friend Rollie Free, AFAIC...

 

The timing of the rally coincides with our Labour Day holiday, this commerates the introduction of the universal 40 hour working week introduced in 1840.

 

What? Only 90-odd years before the U.S. instituted a 40h work-week? Jeez, you lot down there certainly do believe in arriving early to a party!

 

Thanks for the great ride report! I guess you're just heading into prime riding season, while many of us Stateside are looking at putting the bikes up for the season. Luckily, I'm in So.Cal., so I get to ride year round. But keep posting those great reports, for all the poor sods snowbound in bulk of the Northern Hemisphere to keep'em from going stir crazy! [or maybe to rub their noses in it a little? You decide... ]

 

[Orson]

Nice report & pictures!

 

beautiful country you have there