Video

@@SHNTRU sorry, no we didn't.

Thanks Tony. Not up to the standard of yours though.

Thanks for your comment.

It's a great ride. Thanks for the comment.

My pleasure.

I don't know about inspirational, but it was hard work, but beautiful.

Doing my best

Yes we're all from Rotorua, but it's not really a group you join. We're just friends who ride together and use the name so I don't have to change the credits every time I make a video.

Yes. The gravel was perfect.

We've ridden Fishers track twice going up it, loaded, on our Horopito loops. Hillary was pleased to get to the top but Sue and I didn't find it that hard. We were all on non ebikes then. Now Sue is on an ebike. Enjoy.

That's reassuring, thanks Brian. So I think the final route from Owhango will be Oio Rd, Upper Retaruke Rd, Fishers Track, Marton Sash & Door Track and SH4 to either Ohakune or Raetihi on the way to Whanganui 😂 Should be a good taste of that area without the toothpaste-mud of the 2 hard-core tracks. Cheers.

Sounds great.

It certainly is.

Thanks. Yes it should. Typo error. I'll see if I can correct it.

Done

Thanks John. I hope you both are keeping well

Thanks for commenting. I must admit I thought camping at the lake would've been magic. It looked so beautiful. Ride safe.

Thanks for the comment. The views are magnification aren't they.

Hillary and I were on pedal bikes, Sue, Liz and Ross on E assist bikes.

Funny you should ask this question as only a few ago I enquired about staying one night in any of the Blue Duck accommodations. They got back to me very promptly. They normally only provide accommodation for 2 or more nights. I can't remember the exact figure, but it was around $360 for 2 people. How ever they do sometimes do a one night if it works with staff etc. They said they could do us one night for around $260 for a room in a lodge. That was outside our budget so we didn't take it any further. We were to provide our own food for that. Email them they are very prompt repliers. I hope this helps.

I realised I didn't answer the second part of your comment. That would be a great ride. From Owhango you could ride straight to National Park, either along Kaitieke Valley Rd to Raurimu then about 7km on SHW4, which is what we did in the next video. Or you could go to National Park view Fishers track as we did in the Horopito loop video. You can now ride from National Park to Ohakune without going on SHW4. Hope this helps.

Thanks for that info Brian. I think I'll skip Blue Duck Station for the same financial reasons you did. I didn't realise there was a way of biking from National Park to Horopito other than along SH4. Where is it because i assume you're not suggesting riding up those tracks to Ruatiti Rd? Btw, I rode the Old Coach Rd 10 days ago. It's a real bone-shaker and very slow going. I'm looking forward now to seeing your video and description of the Fisher Track.

I'm sorry I put you wrong with an alternative route. I thought it was up and running but it isn't, another year and it should be connected. You'll still have to ride the Old Coach Rd though. Sorry to get your hopes up.

@backcountryridingfriends That's OK. Good to know a track is planned although connecting to the Old Coach Rd may be a mixed blessing. Having just ridden the OCR northbound, I don't fancy it that much the other way. The cobblestones make for a rough ride and the grassy slopes at the southern end are easier to ride safely going uphill. After riding to Horopito, I chose to return to Ohakune on SH4 and Tohunga Rd, (SH49).

Thanks for the comment. I'm not sure where your coming from with the spelling comment. Both Kaitieke and Whakahoro are spent as in Google maps.

Apologies, I thought the places in the video were written (in the captions maybe?) as KaitEIki and WhakOhoro. It's really only an issue when searching online. The spelling does matter then.

I thought I'd done that in this video, at the very beginning and in the description. I'll put more info in the description. Thanks for the suggestion.

I've updated the description of both the video and playlist worth a detailed description of where Kaiteiki is.

Looks like another great ride. Thankyou. We have been talking about doing a few rides in this area, and you provide the information.

@@lynnemccarthy-my5mi yes Lyn a great area. The videos for the other 2 rides will be coming out over the next couple of weeks. But you'll have all the info from Komoot. All of the rides were stunningly beautiful.

Thanks for the comment. Yes it is a lovely area with allot of inter linking roads, both sealed and gravel. We've done numerous other rides in the area having ourselves at Otorohanga.

Thanks for that information. I'll update it on the next video.

Yes it was. Now to find time to do the outlet half.

Thanks Ross. Apart from the 3 punctures it was a great ride.

I'm so pleased you managed to watch the whole thing. Lovely it brought back some memories for you. Thanks for the comment.

Thanks Lyn. It was a great ride, hopefully we'll get the other half done in April.

I'm pleased you enjoyed it. Isn't it stunning scenery all through that area. We were particularly lucky having the fresh snow on the tops. Nothing like snow to make it more spectacular. Happy riding.

I'm pleased you enjoyed it. Isn't it stunning scenery all through that area. We were particularly lucky having the fresh snow on the tops. Nothing like snow to make it more spectacular. Happy riding.

You're most welcome. Just be prepared for some good climbs along with the descents. Enjoy.

Thanks Maggie

Thanks for your comment. Yes an honesty box now days is very rare, especially in that situation. I hope they aren't getting ripped off.

Thanks for the comment. My road bike is by far the easiest on hills. Now days you can normal fit up to 32mm tyres on a road bike. I run 28mm tyres on mine. I can still do smooth gravel etc on it. Enjoy.

It certainly was.

Thanks so much for the comment. I really appreciate it.

I'll do my best. Enjoy.

It was. Merry Christmas to you.

Yes it was beautifully green, they'd had so much rain, there was grass every where and the stock were all beautiful. We did the ride on the 21st Nov 2023.

You're most welcome. Have a good Christmas, rest and drink heaps.

It was lovely having your company for that short time. I hope the rest of your trip went to plan. I'm pleased you like the video. Hopefully it'll inspire others to get out on our back country roads.

Hi Rob. Thanks for the comment. Both the bikes we were riding on that ride were E bikes. Sue's was a Jefferson which I converted to a front wheel drive Embiid. Mine is Willier adventure I imported over the lock down. Sue rides whites all the time, I pick and choose the rides I use an ebike on. My preference is not an ebike. In the latest video you'll see I'm riding my 1999 titanium touring bike I've modified with a new front fork, 650b wheel in the back to take wider tyres and cable disc brakes. It's my go to bike at the moment for anything not MTBing. Yes we've still got the Scotts, though Sue's just brought a Merinda, for the gravel rides. Thanks again for the comment and watching the videos. Brian

It would've been great to do it on a horse. You'd see so much more. Thanks for the comment.

Thanks Steve. We'll have a look at Clarksfield next time we're down.

Thanks Steve. Duntroon is one of our favourite places, so it's just showing what we enjoy.

We're live in Rotorua. I spend allot of time looking at real paper maps. I used Kiwimaps rural roads maps. Then use Komoot on a laptop to finalize it. For example we were in Dunedin 2 days ago and wanted to go to Queenstown. I looked at the paper maps and saw a network of small roads stretching South. I decided Riversdale would be a good distance to drive. Looked at the map again, saw a loop of the appropriate length then went to Komoot to do it in detail. I look at both road and satilite view to see what the scenery is like. Download the Gpx file and away we're go. Sue always carries a paper map in case we decide to change something. I hope that helps, we also talk to the locals in the area to get ideas, like the ride we're doing today,. Ride safe.

@@backcountryridingfriends thanks

Thanks Steve. I'll remember that for next time.

Thanks so much for such a positive comment. I'm pleased you enjoyed the video.

Thanks for the comment. It's such a lovely area to bike in it would be hard to make a bad video. We really love the Domain Campground so it's another reason to keep coming back.

Thanks for the comment, it's greatly appreciated. We did another lovely ride utilising some of the A2O then coming back on the road, spending quite some time at Elephant rocks and the next fossil site. I'll be making a video of that but it'll be a few weeks until I get around to putting it together. There's 3 others in the queue before it. Thanks again.