DAY 1: New Plymouth to Ruakaka( Te Tai Tokerau), 580km After an extremely early start, the crew had to make it to Mt Messenger before Waka Kotahi closed the road at 7am to bring in a tunnelling machine for the new road. The next planned road opening wasn’ t until 12pm, and passing through the area the night before we had been caught in near torrential rain, which had flooded the surrounding farm area and water was lapping close to the road. However, on the ride north again the previous day’ s flooding had gone- leaving a welcome sight and an auspicious start to the trip. After Te Kuiti we turned towards Waitomo caves where we took a back road to Pirongia, through Te Pahu and on for a re-fuel in Whatawhata. Heading towards Raglan, we linked up to State Highway 22 after Waingaro and stayed in it through Pukekohe and on to Auckland. Making good time, we were feeling confident with reaching Ruakaka … that was until Brian Tamaki decided to intervene with a car clogging Hikoi into Auckland city. So, we entered the great southern carpark, generally known as the Southern Motorway. An hour of high-stress lanesplitting took us to the Waterview Tunnel, where it eased and we picked up SH16 at Helensville and onto SH1 over the Brynderwyn’ s into Te Tai Tokerau Northland for the final leg to Ruakaka.
Arriving at our accommodation for the night at Riders’ Rest we were warmly greeted by Kel and Carolyn Rood who own a piece of paradise overlooking Bream Bay. They offer fantastic accommodation with the motorcyclist in mind( motorcycleaccomodation. nz), where we stayed in four units they have onsite. Kel took us to the local pub where we feasted well before hitting the sack early.
DAY 2: Ruakaka to Cape Reinga to Kerikeri, 570km Departing the Riders’ Rest, we struck out west along SH15. This flowing road passes through some small pockets of native forest and winds its way along the Wairoa River into Dargaville. North again via the Twin Coast Discovery Road through the Waipoua Forest, 24km of beautifully winding road through the majestic Kauri Forest, home to the greatest Kauri of them all: Tane Mahuta. At Rawene we caught our first ferry- the Hokianga Vehicle Ferry- to Narrows and after offloading we were treated to the wonderful Kohukohu road that led us all the way to Awanui and our launch pad to the first of our capes, Cape Reinga. We were more than happy to reach the northernmost cape and, after a quick ceremonial photo shoot, we began heading south to Cable Bay, Mangonui and Kerikeri. Sometimes the simplest meals are the best and
Hokianga Vehicle Ferry
KIWI RIDER 27