Day 10: Here Comes The Sun

I woke up briefly at 5:30 a.m., but decided to try falling back asleep for a few minutes. The next thing I knew, my phone alarm was waking me up at 7:15 a.m.; that’s only the second time on this trip that I’ve slept until my alarm went off. I even snoozed it for 10 minutes, and my feet hit the floor at 7:30 a.m.

I opened the drapes of my cabin to… fog. Well, that’s something new – at least it wasn’t actively raining, although it was also impossible to determine what type of weather the day held. At this campground, the toilet and showers are communal, so I grabbed my toiletries kit, towel, and washcloth, and started for the shower building. It’s COLD; 2 C according to the thermometer on the office – and the shower building is unheated. It was pretty brisk until the shower stall began heating up.

Showered and shaved, I returned to my cabin and dressed. I gathered my breakfast ingredients and dishes and headed to the kitchen. Over Harroway’s Oat Cereal with apples, sultanas (whatever they are), and raisins, and my cup of tea, I watched the weather forecast on the morning news: they were predicting a sunny day with high temperatures around 12 C. They’ve been wrong sufficiently often that I wasn’t too excited, but it could be a good day. I decided to head toward Nelson on the more picturesque Queen Charlotte Drive, instead of the more direct route through Blenheim on SH1 and then crossing over on SH63

I finished breakfast, returned to my cabin, and packed up. I decided to hope for the best, and put on my electric jacket liner and electric pants liner (first time for the electric pants on this trip), leather jacket and pants, and reflective vest. The rain jacket and pants went in the top case just in case.

(Miscellaneous factoid learned on this trip: The rubber overboots known as “Wellingtons” originated in New Zealand. In the early days of the 20^th century, the natives harvested trees on the North Island and collected resin (“gum”) from their stumps for use in paint and varnish making. The area was quite boggy, so the loggers wore boots – Wellingtons, from Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand – which also became known as “gum boots”.)

Kick stand up at 10:15; I delayed my departure a bit to allow the day to warm up and help clear any frost from the roads; the bike thermometer showed 5 C as I left. The Queen Charlotte Drive route  is rated as “3-smiles”, but the first 8 km were definitely more technical than a “3-smile” route. The speed limit on this section of the road was 50 kph, but I was in 1^st or 2^nd gear, rounding switchbacks at 20 or 25 kph.

Shortly after beginning the ride, while rounding a tight right-hand curve, I heard a “clunk”, similar to what I heard when my Thermos bottle fell of my motorcycle on the way in to school a few days before I left. (In that case, my Thermos was immediately run over by a dump truck. It sounded a LOT like a gun shot when it exploded.) Since I hadn’t been on the road that long, I began looking for a place to pull over to check my load.

There was a scenic overlook on the right about half a kilometer up the road, so I pulled in. It was a closed-ended parking lot, so I needed to make a U-turn to set up my exit. I was making a left-hand circle, when the bike started falling inwards from less than 5 kph. Down I went; a classic 1 mph tip over. The engine cut off, and I stood up to assess the damage. None to me, and the bike was resting on its tip-over wing at the front and the rear tire. A jogger passing by helped me right the bike. The plastic tip over cover is scratched, but no other damage was noted. Hopefully, that’s my mishap for this trip.

The sun soon broke through, and the scenery for the rest of this leg was remarkable – think of a sea level version of the hills from “The Sound of Music”. This photo is of Mahau near Moenui, just east of Havelock:

By the time I reached Nelson, it was just after 1 p.m. and my left knee was hurting a bit, so I thought I’d stop and call Dr. Pootz to get an opinion. There is a beautiful beach in Nelson, so I pulled into their parking lot – which is also the parking lot for the public library, which is open on Fridays from 1:00 to 4:30 – and they offer free WiFi. I called Pootz, whose diagnosis is (probably) a strained hamstring, and home. I posted yesterday’s blog page, and looked at my route options past Nelson.

The morning tip over and my sore knee were putting me off my “A-game”, so I decided on the “direct: route toward Westport on SH6 – which is still a “4-smile” route of just over 200 km. This route was probably the best match I’ve had on this trip for my riding style. There were sections that probably totaled 20 or 30 km of tight curves that I’d term “technical” corners: 25 km, tops, on many of the curves, constantly alternating back and forth. There was even one short section called Hawks Cove, where the road passes through a “C” shaped notch in the roack. But there were also long stretches where the curves were frequent, but not constant, gentle sweepers that could be taken comfortably at 80 kph (in a 100 kph zone).

The day was getting late, however, so I didn’t stop for any photos on this section. I arrived in Westport at 5:00 p.m. and selected an ensuite cabin at the Westport Holiday Park for tonight’s stay. A stuffed baked potato for dinner, a couple of aspirin to help my knee, and I’m ready for bed earlier than usual at 9:30. If all goes well, tomorrow I’ll have Pancakes – Pancake Rocks, that is, about 50 km south of here.

Motorcycle mileage: 339 km for the day