Sun 23 March 2025
The weather today was not pleasant; cool and threatening rain.
My first stop was the Burt Munroe “Museum” in Invercargill. This is housed in a hardware store, E Hayes & Sons; a hardware store that outshines any I have seen before. It occupies a whole block and apart from offering just about every tool you could ever need, it has a stationery shop, a souvenir shop and a café.
Oh yes, it also has a collection of old motorcycles including a replica of the machine on which Burt Munroe set a world record in 1967.
The bike in question was a 1920 Indian, which he spent years modifying until in 1967, at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, he set a world record for a machine under 1,000 cc of 184.087 mph (295.259 kph); this record still stands!
The first part of the ride to Cromwell was not unpleasant, but not particularly pleasant either. The road was boring and it was chilly. Then I stopped half-way, at a little place called Kingston, for a coffee, and the sun came out! Here I met up with a local rugby team on tour; the guys were in a beat-up old bus and three vans. Most were hoarse, and the little café was bursting with this influx of bigger-than-average guys; a large part of the shop’s store of beer vanished. They were extremely friendly and gave me a lot of stick when I refused an offered beer. 😊
Here the weather improved dramatically – no more wet weather gear – and the road improved also. It wound along the side of Lake Wakatipu, past such point as Devil’s Staircase, and was a joy to ride.
I arrived in Cromwell, Bannockburn Domain campsite to be more precise, and set up my tent, before heading out to meet David and Shona Tofield, friends of Karen and Gordon. David was, Karen had told me a collector of old motorcycles.
I had decided that my rear tyre would not last the ride up the west coast, and David, who works for a few days a week in a local workshop, offered to help me sort this, and my leaking fork seals, out.
When I arrived back at my tent I discovered I had lost my hat; I retraced my steps and luckily found it by the roadside.
Mon 24 Feb 2025
Monday dawned bright and clear. I went into Cromwell and met up with Seth Devereux, the owner of the workshop where David works. He ordered the tyres and the fork seals; there was a little uncertainty over the latter as the seals for the bike changed at one point and I wasn’t sure which size was required. I had an old invoice from David Silver which showing the size of a seal I had bought before, so we ordered that one. Overnight delivery was promised.
With nothing else to do I took a ride over Crown Range Road, a twisting mountain pass than runs through mountains and past several ski areas. This took me to Wanaka, on the shore of the eponymous Lake Wanaka. This s a tourist mecca; the roads in the town were nose-to-tail camper vans and the streets filled with wandering tourists. I had a coffee sitting on a stone on the lakeshore before taking a stroll past the numerous tourist-oriented shops – I was in tourist mode, after all.
I had come to Cromwell for a reason and that reason was the Belfast store.
Cromwell was established at theconfluence of the Clutha and Kawarau Rivers after gold was discovered nearby during the Otago Gold Rush of the 1860s. Then during the 1980s and 1990s the construction of the Clyde Dam, and subsequent creation of Lake Dunstan. This required the relocation of a third of town’s buildings from areas that would be flooded, including the town centre. Remnants of the old town centre above the lake’s water line were retained, while some of the old buildings were reconstructed using the original materials, and now form a historic precinct near the lake shore.
The Belfast Store – I have not been able to discover why it was so named – was opened in 1878 by Sherwood and Wright, and by 1885 it was trading as Sherwood & Co Wine, Spirit and Provision Merchants. It subsequently had several different owners and purposes until it was relocated during the construction of the dam; it now houses the OCTA Gallery.
A very pleasant dinner with David, Shona and their son George followed, after which David and I headed out to his, amazingly equipped workshop, to get my wheels off and the forks dismantled, ready for the morrow.
It was here that the error was identified; I had ordered the wrong seal! Later I checked the invoice and discovered, by cross-referencing with the parts catalogue that, while the part number on the invoice was correct, the size was not. ☹️
Tue 25 Feb 2025
Today wasn’t a great day weather wise; it was cold and wet. I was glad I had done my sight-seeing yesterday.
After having the tires fitted to the wheels, and ordering the correct seals it was back to the garage where I put the rear wheel on. As usual the spring link on the chain presented a few problems, but this was solved using a water pump wrench.
All this took time and I had a late dinner followed by looking for the planets aligning. I was only able to see Jupiter and Mars 😕
Weds 26 Feb 2025
The sun was out again today, and I celebrated by visiting Mount Difficulty Vineyard.
Having collected the fork seals from Seth I fitted them along with the front wheel, scraped the brake pads trying to stop the squealing brake problem and greased the swing arm.
That was it for the day and I was now ready to get back on the road.
Thurs 27 Feb 2025
A fine sunny day it was as I started on my way up the west coast proper. As I once again headed towards Wanaka, but on a different road this time, I thought, “If this is what the whole west coast is like, I’m in for a real treat.”
It’s difficult to appreciate the size of the place and expanse. Riding along the winding road, there is just the amazing blue lake and dark mountains, stretching seemingly forever into the distance. It’s impossible to do the scene justice with just a photograph. You don’t really get an idea of how massive they actually are, until the road somehow comes a bit closer to them. By closer, I mean maybe five kilometres away. And then their shear immensity becomes apparent.
This road was wonderful. winding around along the side of the lake. The only off-putting thing was the first motorcycle specific warning sign I’ve seen: “Motorcyclists beware, high accident rate.”
Anyway, I got through it on my new tires and with my new fork seals. Boy, had these made a difference to handling of the bike? The ride is smoother, over little bumps you hardly feel it, and, going around fast corners, the shake of the head that was there before has gone. So, all in all, a big improvement.
The only fly in my ointment was the fact that scouring the brake pads had done something unanticipated, and now the front brake squeals regularly all the time. Anyway, all in all, a good day, sun shining brightly and yeah, here we go.
There were other signs, the reason for which was not so obvious: 🤔
Well, all was going well until I stopped at Makarora for coffee. For some reason, before setting off again, I took my specs off and must have set them down on the bike somewhere; anyway, about two kilometers up the road I suddenly realised I wasn’t wearing them. I retraced my steps and searched around the area, but, needless to say, I didn’t find them. So the day that had started out so well wasn’t going to be a completely without its hiccoughs.
After this mishap I was beginning to wonder if I was safe to be let out on my own. The first thing I had done was to leave my toiletries behind in Blenheim; then I lost my pannier security strap, having forgotten to close it. Next thing to go was my baseball cap which i had tucked down inside my jacket and not secured. Following this while in Wanaka, doing the tourist thing I left my water bottle behind, and had to retrace my steps through half of the town before finding it again. Then I dropped my hat, and finally, this loss of my glasses made me think I needed to get myself a notebook where I could write down my daily destinations, in case I forgot where I was going!
I was camping at Haast tonight and the campsite turned out to be like a large car park with some grassy squares laid out for tents and marked parking sites for vans; that said, the facilities were clean and pretty good. All the same I went to the local hotel for dinner
Fri 28 Feb 2025
After breakfast I had a great ride along the coast to Ross Beach campsite. On the way I passed the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers. The only thing I stopped here for was to have some coffee and to buy my dinner for the evening.
The road ran through many gorges with steep forest clad mountains on either side. Most of the bridges were single lane affairs, number one particular interesting episode where a camper van declined to observe the giveaway sign at its end of the road and ended up having to squeeze past me as i tried to avoid falling off the side of the bridge into the river.
My campsite tonight was Ross river Beach Top 10 park and it was nicely situated on the beach. Mostly made up of converted shipping containers, the campsite was well protected from the sea breezes. The owners had set up a pizza oven and were selling these and wine at reasonable prices; I promised myself a treat for the next night, and settled for a glass of wine to accompany my supermarket bought microwave dinner.
After finishing my wine on the beach watching the sun going down, I went to bed.
Belfast-2-Belfast-By-Bike 