The Big Trip South: Day 1 - 30th Dec - Lake Waikaremoana

Before departure I placed the front and rear wheels of the bike on my bathroom scales.

The front weighed in at 80 kg.

The rear actually went past the 120kg max and round to about 30kg. So this works out to about 160kg. (10kg between 120 and 0 on the scales)

I weigh in at about 100kg with all my riding gear on.

So the total weight of the bike with me on it rolling down the road is 340kg!

Fuelled up at BP Te Puna $17.76, 8:34am.

I rode to Rotorua via Oropi Rd, Moutain Rd, Mangatoi Rd and Pyes Pa Rd just to get in some gravel.
Topped up fuel at Rotorua about $5
Rode to Lake Waikaremoana to meet Colin at the main campground at Opourau Bay (Home Bay)

On the gravel road to Waikaremoana I got to test out the the new front tyre. It was incredible. One particular section of the road was hard packed clay with gravel pressed through it. It was raining lightly and looked very slippery. The front tyre just gripped the road so well I could hardly believe it. I was having quite a bit of fun pushing hard into the corners and being slightly amazed at just how much traction was available. In the end I was pushing so hard into the corners that I started to scare myself a bit. The front Mitas E-09 never gave even a slight hint of letting go. I never got it to slide. Very impressive.

Met up with Colin about 1:30pm at the Opourau camp ground.
Colin and I jumped on a water taxi to Waiopaoa Hut $35
Hiked about 50 minutes to the Korokoro campground.
Walked up to the Korokoro waterfall and back. This took about 1.5 hours.



Pitched tent and went for a brief swim.
Ate some brown trout that some fellow campers caught.
DOC fee for camping was $12.00 each (from memory).