Modern Vespa

It is summer in New Zealand, so thought I would throw up some pics of recent rides to entertain those of you in the northern winter.

First up, pre-Christmas trip Auckland to Cape Reinga (northern tip of NZ) and return. P200E and PX200 riding with big bikes (Guzzi, Ducati etc) from the Italian Motorcycle Owners Club. 2 and 1/2 days, around 940 km = 580 miles. Mostly B roads, with a couple of short unsealed stretches.


Cape Reinga. Windy, and we had ridden for 8 hours into the wind !!

Return trip, taking a 15 min car ferry ride to avoid a 1 hr around-the-harbour detour

Ticked over 70,000 km. 43496 miles for you Americans. Bought the scoot at 40,000 km.

Puncture. My scoot repair skills cover changing a tyre or a plug, and cleaning carb jets, so this was no problem.

Short detour, 5 mins on hard-packed sand. Post trip cleaning regime = hose at full pressure.


Last edited by vandem on Sun Feb 10, 2019 8:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

And post-Christmas trip, Auckland to Raglan (beach / surfing town) and return. 5 scoots. 2 days. Around 400 km = 250 miles. B roads, and a couple of unsealed sections.


Gravel section in limestone country. Not far from here the Weathertop scenes in Lord Of The Rings 1st film were shot.

West coast beach, black sand, surf school in progress.

Sunset, looking over the Tasman Sea (no, you can't see Australia, too far away)

Early morning gravel ride. Whaanga Coast road, may mean something to anyone who follows motor rallying, was often used as a special stage when NZ held WRC events.


Last edited by vandem on Sat Feb 09, 2019 11:34 pm; edited 1 time in total

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing.

Nice seeing people having fun while we freeze up here in the northern hemisphere.

You picked a great weekend weather wise for the Raglan run. Sorry I couldn’t join you.

Thank you for the pics. What is a B road? I imagine it is like our secondary roads here, two lane up to about 50mph speed limit with route numbers?

By B road I mean a secondary road, sealed, normally 100 kmh (60 mph) speed limit, two lane with white marking in centre, not many long straights, and some twisty sections where traffic will be down to 60-70 kmh. Lots of them in NZ. Ideal for scooters.

If you go to google maps and put "Tuakau, New Zelaand" to "Raglan, New Zealand" and place the little man, you can check out some of our route.

Oh, wow, looks great...especially as I look out at the falling snow. Love those vintage-Vespas, too!

My daughter is down your way -- working in Antarctica -- and just wrote she'll spend three weeks traveling NZ on the way back. Love to get down there some day.

Thanks for the pictures!

Water that you can't walk on. How amazing. The only action around here is people cutting blocks of ice out with chainsaws and trying to poke huge sturgeon with pointy sticks.