TENERE 700
for a long weekend to meet up with a few more mates and tackle some stunning roads in the Upper south . Disembarking the ferry , we got straight into it with Port Underwood , a winding gravel road around the eastern side of the island from Picton to Blenheim . Taylors Pass was next . It ’ s a bit of a shortcut from Blenheim through to the Molesworth . The Molesworth road itself greeted us with wide open , hard packed dirt / gravel roads , beautiful views and massive skies . It was fast and flowing , I ’ m completely confident your average rental Toyota Corolla could do this road no problem . We finished off the day with Jollies pass , a 10km stretch of gravel , up and over the hill dropping down into Hanmer . The incline was fine , with the descent requiring a bit of attention , some loose rocky sections and a few rain ruts crossing the track . The next day we were up early and heading up through another section of the Molesworth Station towards the Rainbow Road . This was less of a gravel highway , more of a 4WD road , with well defined tracks carving through canyons , past snow capped peaks , and down valleys . We found quite a number of river crossings , though all the rivers were reasonably low and easily fordable . The surefooted T7 felt absolutely at home in these conditions even with its OEM tyres that had caused me problems on the 42nd Traverse .
MAUNGATAPU TRACK Completing the Rainbow and out onto
KIWI RIDER 109