Whangamomona Road Trip

[Kiwi_XZ]

Hi all.

I had a great run up to Whangamomona and back down home to Wellington this past weekend, the bike behaved itself and I nearly doubled the mileage covering 800 kms all up. 

Approximately 40 bikes turned up, everything from my trusty XZ to an Aprilia Tuono 1000.  There was a few Ducatis, two 749s and a 999s, a couple of Triumph Daytonas and a Sprint ST, a BMW K100RS,  at least 3 Kawasaki ZX9Rs and list goes on.  All were aircraft engineers working for Air New Zealand or friends of the group.

Whangamomona is in the middle of the "Forgotten Highway" which runs from Stratford to Taumaranui.  Whangamomona is 55 kms in from the Stratford end, there is three saddles to climb (and descend) and the riding is excellent.  Basically the only thing left nowadays in Whangamomona is the hotel.

Rain on Sunday morning caused some drama on the way out, a short stretch from Whangamomona to Taumaranui is gravel (for about 10 kms) and this combinded with the after effects of the liquid refreshment the night before resulted in one off.  Fortunately nothing but pride was hurt.

Next trip in March is a tour of the South Island combined with a day at the "Wild Food Festival" in Hokitika.  We've already booked out the Black Ball Pub in preparation.

Cheers - Shane

[Coil Coyle]

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&country=NZ&addtohistory=&city=Whangamomona

Kiwi,
That looks like a great road! :o
Did you travel 3 north to 43 or take back roads?

coil

[Lucky]

with a name like Whangamomona, it has to be twisty!

[Kiwi_XZ]

Hi Coil.

The Wellington contingent took state highway 1 as far as Bulls, then 3 up thru Wanganui, Hawera to Stratford.  Then 43 into Whangamomona (pronounced fonga-moma-na).  Trust me in this country highway 43 is a back road.  I didn't pass a car on the way in from Stratford and only one on the way out the next day.

On the way back we turned off at Turakina and cut across to Fielding via Marton then down to Levin via Shannon.

I have uploaded a picture of my bike at the top of the Whangamomona Saddle, you can just make out part of the road winding up to the summit, down the other side provides some very exciting corners as the road twists back on itself.

Cheers - Shane

[ShaneSpring]

Hi Shane,
Sounds like a nice fun ride to take, i'm heading up from the south island at xmas time to go to wanganui till boxing day (and the street races of course) then heading back to the mainland. So will be doing part of the trip, You'll have to stop in and say hi on your way to hokitika, chances are i'm probably headed that way myself.

Shane

[Kiwi_XZ]

Hi Shane.

Alas I will be in Auckland for Christmas and I'm driving back to Wellington on Boxing Day so I won't be in Wanganui for the bike races.  Likewise if you are passing thru Wellington drop in for a catch-up.

I will e-mail you my details.

Cheers - Shane