Coming home - Monday

After our big weekend of riding a decent sleep (in a cold motel) followed by a later start was in order.  We got away from the motel at around 10am and took a short ride up to Kaipoi to checkout Motomox and get Colin some flash new trou.

We spent a fair bit of time there chatting to the owner, looking at all sorts of farkles and riding gear and checking out some of his photos.  The mapping software he uses for getting into out of the way places was pretty cool too...maybe one day...

While there the rain caught up with us again and after a quick bite at the local cafe we headed out prepared for more rain.

Luckily, it didn't turn out to be much but it was a bit chilly as we turned off SH1 and started making our way over towards Lewis Pass.  Managed to get stuck behind a mall truck mounting another truck for a while along the way too...

Nearing Springs Junction, Colin must have been getting bored again as he carried on his new hobby of high-speed photography...

In Springs Junction I turned North instead of riding through to Reefton.  I did this for a couple of reasons: I was hot and wanted to stop to take off my gear and thought that the Mariua Adv CP was the place for that; and because we'd then get to ride the entire length of the Buller Gorge...

It turned out that it was still dusty but pleasant at the CP:

Just a wee ways further up the road got us to the entrance to the Upper Buller Gorge.  For those that don't know it - the Buller Gorge rocks!  It's just a fantastic bit of road with some really nice scenery (bush, river etc) and encourages riders to have a little fun - Colin disappeared...

I eventually caught up with him in Inangahua where he'd stopped for afternoon smoko - one of the shop's famous pies and a coffee.

Straight outta one of the new Harleys I think...

With that sorted out, we then were forced to ride the Lower Buller as well...Here's just a few highlights of some great West Coast riding.

It was only around 5pm, so before we went in search of a motel I took Colin on a magical mystery tour out to an old TT checkpoint at the mouth of the Buller River.  No T-shirts, but we got the pics anyway...

South

North

Shark bait

Photos taken, we retraced our steps and then road into Westport in search of lodgings.  mission accomplished, we dumped our gear and wandered into town for dinner.  The Kiwi Burger was sufficiently humongous...

And so ended a nice little ride to get us onto the other side of the island for more fun...