TT2000 Write-up - Day 6

Now, with that small little ride completed, it was time for a holiday. And what to do on holiday? How’s about going riding?

I’d taken a couple of weeks off so the plan was to make my way home slowly taking in plenty of South Island gravel. The first step was to get back down to the bottom of the Island again so I could indeed work my way up the whole island…

The route I’d planned to Invercargill was to avoid SH1 at all costs and also to try to keep to the coast as much as possible, taking in as many gravel roads as I could too.

Things started off badly when I missed my first turn so had to do slightly more of SH1 than I’d wanted but I soon remedied this when I turned and aimed for Brighton. From Brighton I carried on South to Taieri Heads for my first photo stop.

I hit my first gravel just out of Taieri and was impressed – once again the gravel roads were wide and smooth making for a nice cruising speed. At times the road (or selection of roads) took me inland a little but sooner or later they got me back out to the coast again.  Just the odd little hold-up along the way...

One little diversion inland was into Balclutha where I stopped briefly to pick up a wrap at the Subway before turning back out to the coast to Kaka Point.

From Kaka Point I crossed over to Cannibal Bay and went for a wander on the beach for a few minutes. I didn’t hang around as there were quite a few people there and I was unsure who was a cannibal or who was lunch.

My next leg took me back onto the Catlins Road and quite a long section of tar. By now the day had warmed up quite a bit so I pulled in at the lookout on Florence Hill to remove a layer and to have my lunch.

Back on the road again, I turned for Curio Bay but rather than stopping there to look at the petrified forest, I rode inward a little to take the gravel road through to Slope Point. There were a lot of warning signs about taking it slowly on the gravel roads but they were in great nick if very busy with holiday makers – most were good at letting me past and I rewarded them by not showering them in rocks…

At Slope Point I rode out as far as I could – the road sort of ended at a 4WD track which looked very “sandy” so not ideal for a laden Yammy.

More gravel got me further around the coast and then out to the lighthouse at Waipapa. A few snaps were taken there and then it was time to carry on. As I mentioned earlier all the gravel roads were pretty high wide and handsome so I still have no idea why the guy driving the Richies Bus felt the need to just about run me into the drain on one right hander…

Now there was just a short leg with no planned stops to get me into Invercargill for the night so I settled into a nice cruise. A fair way out of Invercargill the fuel warning came on (a bit early I thought) so cruise mode was the right setting but it did have me wondering how much further I had to go and naturally the GPS sent me off on a short gravel loop that did nothing but add a few more kms to the total I needed to complete…

But, of course the Tenere made it into town easily (365km for the tank and the day) and after picking up some supplies (and fuel of course) I made for my motel.