Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Finding Freedom...World Wide Ride

We woke to clouds, but no rain and we packed up and set out about 10.

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First we rode 20 km up the Turoa mountain road. This is a paved road that winds thru the Tongariro national park and up to the ski hill. This is basically a few lifts on the side of a volcano and does not look very appealing.

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We back tracked to 1 and then headed north on the 4 to Taumarunui. This is where you turn west on the 43 or the “Forgotten World Highway”.

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We stopped in the town for lunch and when at the cafe Franz stopped by to talk. He has ridden his bike all over the world as well and it is currently in Costa Rica. While we were chatting with him a friend of his walked by and this is the same guy we saw riding in Glenorchy and in Te Anau!

saralou

2 May 2018 10:16

The Forgotten World Hwy is actually quite scenic and some of the best riding we have had in NZ overall.

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https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4780/...f041c3bc_b.jpg NZ North Isand-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

It is sealed except for 12 km of dirt in the middle and there is one narrow dark tunnel.

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saralou

2 May 2018 10:18

Driving thru here you have to stop in the Republic of Whangamomona at the pub for a drink. There is not much else here and we decided at 4 pm to press on to Stratford.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/792/2...bf0cfd5b_b.jpg NZ North Isand-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4771/...8f9a26b7_b.jpg NZ North Isand-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The forecast is for rain and so we opted for a cabin. They are quite nice here and even our “basic” one had linens and a fridge and sink. We walked the 1.5km back to town to top up our food supplies and had an early night.

saralou

2 May 2018 10:24

Well it is not raining. The forecast here is so unreliable it is a bit frustrating, but at least we will have a nice day. The plan it to get up the coast on the main road and then stick to the country roads all the way to Raglan.

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It is Friday today and we are also in the midst of trying to get shipping for the bikes organized for next week. This means a number of calls today and we have a booking with GT Logistics to drop the bikes Monday am for a steam clean and then they are supposed to ship on Wednesday to Melbourne.

There are a number of issues and most stressful is that the behind the scene of shipping is as Dan says “ a dark art” it is so hard to get a straight answer out of these guys in general. We have had the best luck with GT with good communication and an all in roll on price. They also have steam cleaning services. We will spend the weekend getting them as clean as we can and ready for the bio-hazard quarantine in Australia. If you fail this it is 75$ per hour for cleaning. This is why in the end we only made it part way on the small road as we needed to get cell coverage and headed to Waitomo for that.

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Now it is just another 92 km north and west to Raglan. This is a nice beach/surf town with great camping on the spit. We set up our tent and then were invited next door to the cabin of a family who invited us to share the fish they caught today.

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saralou

2 May 2018 10:28

We had the tent set up so we spent some time cleaning it and the pegs and poles. The plan is to back track the 30 km back to the main road and then north to Auckland.

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We booked it on the main road and with a stop at BMW for new Oz ready air filters we arrived to Janet and Charlie’s by just after 1. They have a great set up for us with the bikes in the garage and a place to use their pressure washer. We scrubbed and de-greased and washed and scrubbed again. The final was a total wipe down with WD40. They are show room clean. We took the mirrors and wind screens off as well.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/811/4...5493c717_b.jpg NZ North Isand-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Today we will leave the house a bit later as they traffic into Auckland can be horrific. It is only 40 km to the airport, but it will take at least an hour. We did run into a bit of stop and go, but it was not too bad overall. Pulling into GT we were happy as 1. they were expecting us 2. they are professional and organized 3. We had a flight even sooner than we wanted and the bikes will go tomorrow!

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4781/...25af3ce6_b.jpg NZ North Isand-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/819/3...d863c39d_b.jpg NZ North Isand-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/785/2...06ac297c_b.jpg NZ North Isand-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
They say the bikes are some of the cleanest they have seen and that they do not need a steam clean. As a reward we stopped by a famous shop for one last NZ pie!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/784/4...3ee9f3dc_b.jpg IMG_2245 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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saralou

2 May 2018 10:36

We had our flight to Melbourne booked tonight at 1850 and the Russels kindly delivered us to the airport by car. 45 min before we boarded we still had not heard from GT and so we called them. AGH the bikes have been bumped off their flight by priority cargo! They are re-booked on Thursday.

This means there is no way we will make the only ferry booking left for Friday night to Tasmania. The Spirit of Tasmania service is atrocious. You can book and then not cancel the reservation until the sailing actually leaves without penalty and this means all the reservations are always full. The other issue is there might be room for 2 bikes, but on a night sailing there are only shared cabins and this weekend there are only female bunks available.

Australian customs are notoriously evil and it is likely the bikes will wait for inspection. If they fail this means you pay to move them, pay for cleaning, pay to move them back, and then pay for re-inspection. This could take ??? days. Even if they do arrive on Thursday it is unlikely we will get them until Tuesday at the earliest as this is a holiday weekend..…

We have been invited to the home of Ian who is a friend of Garry and Ivonne Dymond in Mexico City. We share the bond of broken down BMW at Garry’s place with Ian. He was super kind to drive clear across from his place as far as you can go in Melbourne, which is to the airport to pick us up at 11 pm. He set us up at his house and we crashed when we arrived in Chelsea at 1 am.

Ian is the host with the most! He has provided us with his comfy home, his V-strom, riding gear, GPS, transit cards, and tons of advice. He is an amazing cook!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/804/3...19d7343d_b.jpg Australia-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4795/...5696cf1a_b.jpg Australia-34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

saralou

2 May 2018 10:38

saralou

2 May 2018 10:41

saralou

2 May 2018 10:49

It has been almost a week and still no news on the bikes!!! There is no online access to tell where the bikes are in the cue. The agents say they are trying, but they can not even tell us when they will be inspected. We did hear today that the Carnets have been signed off. This is getting a bit ridiculous. Orvar and his bike flew into Sydney today and I hope he has better luck.

The weather is cooler today with some clouds and we headed back up to the hills. The first step was to get on the highway and get to Warburton. We stopped here at a cafe popular with bikers. The speed limit on much of the route here is 60, except on the freeway. We did a side trip on the 505 to walk up the Mt Donna Buang observation tower and then back tracked to the 507 (the 505 continues as a dirt road to Healesville, but it has been gated off). There is about 15 km of dirt road from the junction on the way to Narbethong. The forest here is right out of a movie set with massive ferns and super tall trees. When we git the B3360 south it was already 3 and there was quite a bit of traffic. We managed to make it home by 430 and then headed over to Paul and Alison’s for dinner.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4784/...b3f98235_b.jpg Screen Shot 2018-03-13 at 16.18.52 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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https://farm1.staticflickr.com/810/4...62c676a7_b.jpg Australia-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

saralou

2 May 2018 10:55

A week and still no news on the bikes!!! There is no online access to tell where the bikes are in the cue. The agents say they are trying, but they can not even tell us when they will be inspected. We did hear today that the Carnets have been signed off. This is getting a bit ridiculous. Orvar and his bike flew into Sydney today and I hope he has better luck.

Today is a holiday and that means Ian is getting to work rebuilding the carburetors on his BMW and Dan is out doing yard work.

Well the bikes have been at customs for 8 days now. They are in quarantine today, but we still have had no real news!! They have not even been inspected yet and it is Friday afternoon again. Thus means nothing will happen until at least Monday. We have been sitting around waiting for the call to come get them, but nothing! You have to use an agent in Melbourne and can not contact customs directly.

We have decided to give Ian a break from us this weekend and we will try and see the Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles now because we are unlikely to get the bikes till some time next week and want to meet our friend Deb in Wodongo next weekend. We were supposed to spend the last 2 weeks with her in Tasmania, but customs has ruined that.

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We set off on a sunny hot Saturday to Sorrento. Here you can catch the road ferry across the mouth of the Melbourne harbor to Queenscliff in 40 minutes, which will saves hours trying to cross the city.

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https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4781/...bee7c04c_b.jpg Australia-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

saralou

2 May 2018 10:57

saralou

3 May 2018 09:59

We finally arrived to Apolo Bay about 4 and stopped to look for a place to stay. We found a backpackers 77 km farther along the B100 and just 6 km from the iconic 12 Apostles.

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This way we can see the sun set there and minimize our chance of hitting a kangaroo on the way back after dark. The gas station after Apolo Bay in Lavers Hill was closed already and so we were getting low when we arrived to Princetown (no gas) 30 km later and checked into the slightly sketchy backpackers. We were on fumes 21 Km later in Port Campbell.

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Here we grabbed some food ( it took and hour to get a souvlaki at the Frying Nemo fast food) and bolted back up the road to the Apostles parking area and walked over just in time for a pretty spectacularly sun set. We also saw our first living Kangaroo (and with a joey).

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saralou

3 May 2018 10:09

It was windy when we rode back, but by 930 it was gale force and then the power went out. It never came back on, which meant no running water either. The next bad news was because of the wind overnight ALL the roads west and north from here are closed by fires. Plus now it is raining and we do not have our own gear. This means a complete back track on the GOR we are told. We decided to ride back to Lavers hill and then try to get north to Colec.

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At Lavers 2 other bikers headed up the 155 and so we followed, but found the road to Colec blocked off. We kept going east and turned onto the 159, which is a curvy paved logging road.

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About 3/4 of the way across we ran into the police who had turned back all the cars also trying to get thru. They did not say anything to us and 200 m later we saw the other bikers. Up ahead 200 m the ER services truck had just arrived and they set about chain sawing the massive tree blocking the road. 45 min later the was a hole big enough for the bikes to get thru and we were off.

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https://farm1.staticflickr.com/906/4...c2b385bf_b.jpg IMG_2325 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

It was raining hard at times and incredibly windy. We were almost blown into the oncoming lane twice. We pulled up behind 6 guys on Harley’s white knuckling and watched as in turn each pulled off to cower in the ditch. We pushed on and stopped in Winchelsea for some food and to warm up. Checking the ferry schedule we had 45 min to make it 63 km and we just did it. The sun was now out and we headed back “home” to Ian’s.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/917/4...81f632d7_b.jpg IMG_2332 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/796/4...d3785363_b.jpg IMG_2335 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

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