The main highway, North Island NZ. Now with added Horopito

[STUNO]

I thought about this and decided it was a valuable look at how motoring was in the UK 50 years ago. So it gets it's own thread.

This vid covers the main road that runs between Auckland and Wellington, aka Highway 1, specifically a piece that I use very often travelling south between the towns of Tirau (tearow-as in argument over a cuppa) and Taupo ( approx. tawpo).

The first half is the bit I use mostly, I turn off to the right to get home at 22m51sec.

If you have 3/4 of an hour to waste have a look. It seems to have been made on a pretty usual weekday afternoon. enjoy the lack of traffic .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKLIlAP06dE

[Jerzy Woking]

I spent 8 weeks in NZ travelling around on a rented motorbike. seems like only yesterday, but it was 20 years ago. 

 

7 weeks were ridden criss-crossing the South Island, and I loved every mile of it. Fantastic roads, beautiful, visually stunning views, no traffic and what cars I did see were old chod. On my last day in Picton the owner of the B&B I stayed lent me a Mazda 323 4x4 for the day so all my kit could dry out. Not as much fun or as fast as the rental bike, but great fun on some of the tracks he said I should drive it on.

 

sadly I only had a week on the North Island, three days of which were spent in Palmeston North as the Britten was racing at Manfield Park, which was fucking awesome. Then rode to Waitomo to see the glow worm caves, then Rotarua to see the volcanic action and have a tattoo done, then on to Auckland to dump the bike and get my flight home. Remember very little about the North, except the roads were empty, as was the car museum I visited, and seeing a Rolls Royce on a high stand outside a scrap yard near Hamilton that had the registration GUV 1 on it.

 

I really want to go back, but this won't be possible until 2018 or 2019, but next time it will be for at least three months and I will buy a bike there rather than renting one (which was more expensive than buying one and giving it away for free at the end!).

 

And I can't wait.

[DSdriver]

Lorry loads of logs going both ways. Do they just take them up and down? They need to sort themselves out and halve the number of trucks on the road.

[mercrocker]

I Spy proper Mini at 18:59 (pity it wasn't 1959!)

[mercrocker]

It gets better!  20:49 - F88!

[STUNO]

Ah yes , the well known Rolls, still there .

 

 

The logging trucks ? A huge business round here is forestry, which produces LOGS, There are two paper mills to consume millions, then sawmills, and a lot go to the ports for export to places such as Japan and China. There are also hundreds of KM'S of private roads , for instance it is possible to travel from here (Tokoroa) to the port city of Tauranga on them but log trucks only allowed. The two paper mills are Kinleith mill at Tokoroa and at Kawerau, and public roads do not need to be used to travel between them. Why ? private roads demand no road tax and have no weight or size limits .

 

 

[STUNO]

I had a look for the F88 at 20:49 but cannot see, there is a Ford Taurus at 20:20 though.

[mercrocker]

I had a look for the F88 at 20:49 but cannot see, there is a Ford Taurus at 20:20 though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twin headlights don't help identification!

[STUNO]

I found this vid of the Horopito wreckers made famous by Jon's photos, it is 30 mins long and not professionally done, but gives a good idea of what the lucky visitor will find.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKAhOm4mQaM

[STUNO]

Capture.PNG

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twin headlights don't help identification!

 

I will never claim perfection, I was looking for an Oldsmobile 88. Cap well and truly doffed.

[mercrocker]

I will never claim perfection, I was looking for an Oldsmobile 88. Cap well and truly doffed.

 

Ah!  They DO have twin headlights!

[STUNO]

Meercrocker. I have spent far too long trying to find out the true identity of the F88, I assume you were talking Volvo. It seems to actually be a Freightliner which is a pretty common brand here. It is a fleeting view but it may be the one in this pic.

 

[brickwall]

Looks just like where I live in Scotland. Very similar really - the scenery, the logging trucks and mild traffic.