Northern Odyssey Part 2
The Part the nearly didn’t happen
I tried to do the second part of the Northern Odyssey a couple of times but things were conspiring against me not to get it done.
The first thing that happened was the doctor changed my pills for my diabetes. Or rather added another one to them. The original pill did not have any chance of a glucose low so no issue but the new one could push it low and the doctor advised me to not ride until I was sure the new pill would not create big changes. So could not ride the bike for a while but hey plenty of time to complete it.
Second issue was tires. After the TT2000 the Z8’s were getting down and the rear was quite square but the front looked good. Decided there was enough left and departed at 2am. Thought I would check the tires in Napier and after a small amount of rain along the way reached Napier and checked. Rear was fine but front had developed a ring of very fine cracks around the left side of the tire and I decided I would head home. Weather was not the hot anyway.
So I saw that Metzeler had some new tires out called Roadtec 01 which are supposed to be the step up from the Z8 and the reviews looked good. Decided on a set of those but not in the country yet. Given a date and decided to wait but that date came and went and supposedly stuck in customs. Given another date and told them it would need to be there by then but that came and went and said it now would not be available until mid-May. So had to put a set of Z8’s on and it was the 19th.
The 20th I started out at 2am again and had questions 8 to 32 to answer. Left the naki and it was a balmy 12 degrees. I had taken the pinlock out of my visor because it was extremely dirty and my attempt to clean it destroyed it. No problems though cause it is nice and warm. Getting towards Napier the temperature plummeted and it was soon down to 0 degrees and the visor was fogging like you wouldn’t believe. You don’t think much of a pinlock until its gone.
Anyway first stop was Lake Tutira and sun was now up. Next stop was Putorino, Wairoa and Frasertown. My GPS missed the location at Frasertown so I stepped to the next one but it skipped two and I ended up at Patutahi which was #13 instead of #12 Tinoroto. Checked the time to go back and cover the distance but it would have added another 90 minutes and I already had the answer so decided to skip it. Next stop was Gisborne on the shore and then a top off with fuel before going on to Tologa Bay, Tokomaru Bay, Ruatoria, Tikitiki, Te Araroa, Waihau Bay, Te Kaha, and Torere. The roads were in reasonable condition given the number of logging trucks and the sun was now out and warming up nicely.
Next up was Opotiki and a chance to refuel again. Still had plenty left but decided to do it anyway.Then came Nukuhou Saltmarsh and 2 in Matata before moving onto Kawerau and Lake Matahina. Murupara, Kaingaroa, Wai O tapu and finally Reporoa.
Most of the questions were easy to answer but some required a bit of looking and my time table slipped by an hour by the time I finished. It was now getting dark again so headed off to Turangi to refuel the bike for the last time and also the body. GPS was saying 10pm home time but the Parapara’s seem to be very nice and made up some time through them and arrive home at 9:45pm having done 1577kms for the day. May as well have called it the NI1600 part 2 for that distance.
Slept well and will be ordering another pinlock for the visor as don’t want to go through all that again. Face gets extremely cold with the visor cracked open and temperature outside is 0 degrees even with a balaclava on.
Did think it was a bit long but then it is an Odyssey. It was a hard one to split into two days unless you actually stayed somewhere for the night and not like I did and returned home.
Anyway another trip ticked off the list and the new Z8’s 1/5 of the way worn already.
