Geoff James
Registered User
It?s not every day that you ride 1600 km to start a ride, do the ride itself which covers 4000 km in 5 days, and then ride 400 km home! Got back a couple of hours ago from the ride of a lifetime, buggered but elated! I?ll be doing a full ride report and photos shortly but in the meantime, here is an outline.
The Southern Cross event: Starts at the bottom of the S.Island of NZ. Rules are very simple. There are 3 checkpoints after the mid-day start, each of which is only open for an hour between noon and 1pm. Miss any of them and you?re out. Checkpoint 1 at the northern tip of the North Island is ~2200 km away from the start and has to be reached 3 days after starting. Checkpoint 2 on the East Cape is ~1000 km away from Checkpoint 1 and has to be reached the next day. Checkpoint 3 (the finish) at the westernmost point of the North Island is ~800km from Checkpoint 2 and has to be reached the following day. It?s the mid-day checkpoints which are the killers ? they mean early starts and late finishes to the day. The roads are all 2 lane and mainly as twisty as hell. Oh, and 80 km of dirt roads for good measure which are REALLY scary on a fully laden Blackbird!
99 people started and 5 didn?t complete, mainly due to crashes. High point for me was covering nearly 900km in an AFTERNOON! Low point was losing the front end of the ?bird on one of the aforementioned dirt roads on marble-like stones. A few scratches on a side panel and rather more damage to my dignity. Equal low point was having to ride 300 km to catch the ferry, starting at 4am in very cold and icy conditions. Just made it in time, but nerves were just about shot through, not having the luxury of time to take it easy! Also had a car do a U turn right in front of me but didn't have time to feel scared. Missed it by inches
A real privilege to ride with some of the hardest riders you?d wish to meet, but they were all completely unassuming about it. It?s nice to be able to take on something where a successful outcome is far from certain but manage to get through it ok. It actually reminded me that life is for the living! Now about the UK 4 points Challenge.........
Special thanks to 1200 Pete and Cruser for pre-ride goodies - they were fantastic!
Geoff
P.S, I lost 5kg during the ride due to only having 2 meals a day and no alcohol. A great way to lose weight for bloaters :neenaw:
The Southern Cross event: Starts at the bottom of the S.Island of NZ. Rules are very simple. There are 3 checkpoints after the mid-day start, each of which is only open for an hour between noon and 1pm. Miss any of them and you?re out. Checkpoint 1 at the northern tip of the North Island is ~2200 km away from the start and has to be reached 3 days after starting. Checkpoint 2 on the East Cape is ~1000 km away from Checkpoint 1 and has to be reached the next day. Checkpoint 3 (the finish) at the westernmost point of the North Island is ~800km from Checkpoint 2 and has to be reached the following day. It?s the mid-day checkpoints which are the killers ? they mean early starts and late finishes to the day. The roads are all 2 lane and mainly as twisty as hell. Oh, and 80 km of dirt roads for good measure which are REALLY scary on a fully laden Blackbird!
99 people started and 5 didn?t complete, mainly due to crashes. High point for me was covering nearly 900km in an AFTERNOON! Low point was losing the front end of the ?bird on one of the aforementioned dirt roads on marble-like stones. A few scratches on a side panel and rather more damage to my dignity. Equal low point was having to ride 300 km to catch the ferry, starting at 4am in very cold and icy conditions. Just made it in time, but nerves were just about shot through, not having the luxury of time to take it easy! Also had a car do a U turn right in front of me but didn't have time to feel scared. Missed it by inches
A real privilege to ride with some of the hardest riders you?d wish to meet, but they were all completely unassuming about it. It?s nice to be able to take on something where a successful outcome is far from certain but manage to get through it ok. It actually reminded me that life is for the living! Now about the UK 4 points Challenge.........
Special thanks to 1200 Pete and Cruser for pre-ride goodies - they were fantastic!
Geoff
P.S, I lost 5kg during the ride due to only having 2 meals a day and no alcohol. A great way to lose weight for bloaters :neenaw:
Last edited:
