Thank you so much, not just for the evocative writing, but for making me remember my late mother, a tiny force of nature who loved to drive her big Peugeot fast on the straights in the Rangitīkei where she lived. Two days after she died peacefully at 83 my brother and opened her mail to find her final speeding ticket - 123km in a 100km zone.
I hope there's an Interstate in heaven where she can put her foot down and go all out!
Hi Tui! Thanks for sharing! Ah, the Rangitīkei...I was just through there last month on the drive to Auckland & back. You can feel a bit of elevation up there, coming down from Taihape--feels higher and more open than the Wairarapa. A good place to floor it and breathe a little. Your mother sounds like a great lady. She's eating up the miles somewhere now, I'm sure!
My husband was born in Yankton. We had a couple of family reunion events there down at the park by the river! Speaking of being wistful I've just bought Sarah Kendzior's book The Last American Roadtrip.
Very cool! Yes, we'll be gathering the fam at that river this summer. My wife's family is all from Madison. I'm stoked for Kendzior's book! I somehow missed all her others and only discovered her here on Substack. There's so much American doom out there but she's got the music to make it sing.
I can't imagine such vastness, Dan! This is a sensational piece - paying tribute to the natural wonder of the dirt and heat and rock, and the American spirit that drove a mighty path through it.
Check out Stardust Naseby Gallery on Bookface. A friend I gifted one of the photographer’s calendars to described his work as Grahame Sydney with heart and soul.
Awesome! It's calling my name. And who cares how fast. Speed gets all the buzz but it's the Way Out There that really matters. Empty beaches are empty deserts with waves.
Honestly it's so worth it! Take a couple of days though. We did it in 3 days and I want to go back because there were so many more stops I want to see and do!
Trying to work out how to add a photo here, do you can see the totally inappropriate motorcycle I rode 6,000 miles of highways in three months, including DC to Chicago in one day.
Might have to just write a post in your honour/honor.
DC to Chicago is a beast of a day! A drive like that reshapes the whole way you feel the country. I did PHX to San Fran in a day years ago and it changed the shape of my brain. Write the post, I want to read it and see the crazy bike!
NZ is still an amazing place for a road trip, I’ll have to take you up on your offer of trying one in the states if it’s that good! Something like this? https://youtu.be/ASIuMBog7xI?si=VKjKF-P8RjoeRRXm
Hi Tim! Yeah man, diners all the way! Replace that with Mexican restaurants, or best, the diners that are *also* Mexican restaurants (I worked in one in TX a million years ago, and it's where I will go when I die.) In NZ it's the local coffee shops, for sure. A pie or whatever's in the cabinet. A long black for the road....
I feel ya, brother. Once a former job saw me fly to Houston, pick up a sweet rental ride (fully loaded Chrysler 300) and spent 8 days driving from H-Town to DFW, Austin, McCallen, San Antonio and back to Houston. There are roadside attractions you just won't see elsewhere - such as a cane fashioned from a deceased rattlesnake with a miniature human skull as a handle.
Never been to the Cadillac Ranch - but have dreamed about it since the song of the same name was dropped by Bruce Springsteen circa 1979.
"Cadillac, Cadillac, long and dark, shiny and black. When I die buddy throw my body in the back and take me away to the Cadillac Ranch: ✊
Hey man! Oh lordy yes, the gothic weirdness of interior TX. Sounds like an epic trip! I was thinking of Bruce & yourself with that reference--I haven't done the history yet to know how explicit the link between art & song is. It's all the air, myth-wise. Or it was. I get the feeling folks don't dream like this anymore. I found that old picture of Cadillac Ranch and seemed a lost omen from former days, when at the time I took It I think I was probably overwhelmed with the symbolism of it all? Alternate title for the post...'on a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert...'
Love it Dan, stirred up so many memories. I-70 at 2am in a blizzard getting passed by 18 wheelers at 70mph down Vail Pass, I-27 out of Plainview feeling like I was in a road runner cartoon.... and all those thousands of miles we ran on the unsealed county roads with numbers for names. The scale of it all blew my 23 year old brain.
Yeah man, this is totally your country up there! Very nicely described. The passes of Colorado are another thing entirely. And those endless county roads...two digits, three digits, four digits to nowhere. Ours down in the Big Bend was 2810. Same scale of landscape but a different gear of lonesome. Clears your head, somehow. Shakes something loose. Miss it!
I did SH35 a couple of years ago and very nearly bought the tshirt and bumper sticker. It's a great road but was still a mess from Cyclone Gabrielle.
In the US I've done I-90 from Seattle to Yankton, SD both ways a couple of times with my husband's family and it was great. It was before sat-nav so I used to have the Rand McNally map book on my lap checking every upcoming marked place. I miss those interstate rest areas and truckstops like the brilliant Al's Oasis in Oacoma, SD where I-90 crosses the Missouri River.
But after a recent 3-week roadtrip around the South Island I've realised what a shock our roads must be to a lot of North American tourists. There were parts that reminded my husband of California - driving up through the Lindis Pass for instance, and the Tekapo Basin had that wide open space of Wyoming and Montana. But our highways are more like the Blue Highways of William Least-Heat Moon's brilliant book (read it if you haven't!).
Thanks for reminding me of my epic road trip holidays in the US. I'm not sure I'll ever be doing those again.
Wait, Yankton?? My wife lived there as a child. We hit the river beach there every summer we go back. We've been to Al's Oasis too, on one of those drives West! Love those high plains. And the Rand McNally, too. God I loved those. They way they're wrinkle and collect food stains. The awkward way you'd flip pages in a car at 75 mph!
Blue Highways was a bible for me growing up! Loved it--but it taught me to hate the interstates, for all kinds of dedent reasons. Wasn't til I drove the big ones a bunch in my 20s that I balanced out my affections. And NZ....NZ is prett much all Blue Highways, isn't it? One of the best things about it. Until you get that high plains twitch.
Feels weird writing the wistful American stuff these days. Guess I'm not saying goodbye to the highways, they'll be there, but there's definitely a goodbye to something in the air. Thanks for reading, and taking the time to write!
The Takapau Plains was a great place for foot-down driving unless "The Terror of the Takapau Plains" was lurking; manning what might have been the first speed trap in New Zealand.
Thank you so much, not just for the evocative writing, but for making me remember my late mother, a tiny force of nature who loved to drive her big Peugeot fast on the straights in the Rangitīkei where she lived. Two days after she died peacefully at 83 my brother and opened her mail to find her final speeding ticket - 123km in a 100km zone.
I hope there's an Interstate in heaven where she can put her foot down and go all out!
Hi Tui! Thanks for sharing! Ah, the Rangitīkei...I was just through there last month on the drive to Auckland & back. You can feel a bit of elevation up there, coming down from Taihape--feels higher and more open than the Wairarapa. A good place to floor it and breathe a little. Your mother sounds like a great lady. She's eating up the miles somewhere now, I'm sure!
Yes, and you took me along for the ride.
Hi Rachel! Thanks for riding shotgun!
Exactly
My husband was born in Yankton. We had a couple of family reunion events there down at the park by the river! Speaking of being wistful I've just bought Sarah Kendzior's book The Last American Roadtrip.
Very cool! Yes, we'll be gathering the fam at that river this summer. My wife's family is all from Madison. I'm stoked for Kendzior's book! I somehow missed all her others and only discovered her here on Substack. There's so much American doom out there but she's got the music to make it sing.
I can't imagine such vastness, Dan! This is a sensational piece - paying tribute to the natural wonder of the dirt and heat and rock, and the American spirit that drove a mighty path through it.
Thanks, Leah! Ah, the American spirit. One of our many crazy spirits, I suppose. NZ needs more DIRT and HEAT and ROCK
Come visit Central Otago in summer. DIRT, HEAT, AWESOME ROCK!
Yes! Been meaning to since forever! I look at all those Grahame Sydney paintings and think THAT is my NZ vibe
Check out Stardust Naseby Gallery on Bookface. A friend I gifted one of the photographer’s calendars to described his work as Grahame Sydney with heart and soul.
Sounds great, will check it out!
And the Cromwell Gorge, the road from Akexandra to Clyde that I first rode in my first road motorcycle 30 years ago and have never tired of since.
I love this so much! Great writing, absolutely puts you in the car and has me wanting to hit the road!
Hey thanks, Chris! Go for it. The road awaits!
I just did the state highway 35 along the East Cape this summer. It's amazing! So beautiful! Go do it!
You won't be driving fast there either though 😅 but you'll stop along a thousand beautiful beaches.
Awesome! It's calling my name. And who cares how fast. Speed gets all the buzz but it's the Way Out There that really matters. Empty beaches are empty deserts with waves.
Honestly it's so worth it! Take a couple of days though. We did it in 3 days and I want to go back because there were so many more stops I want to see and do!
Loved this!
Trying to work out how to add a photo here, do you can see the totally inappropriate motorcycle I rode 6,000 miles of highways in three months, including DC to Chicago in one day.
Might have to just write a post in your honour/honor.
DC to Chicago is a beast of a day! A drive like that reshapes the whole way you feel the country. I did PHX to San Fran in a day years ago and it changed the shape of my brain. Write the post, I want to read it and see the crazy bike!
Done, and uploaded
Awesome! Will read!
Hi there
"State" refers to the Govt, and by extension, the Crown, so technically they should be Crown Highways. CH1, CH2, etc.
True! Weird. I can't even think of another place I *hear* the word state here, in any government conversations.
There's State Housing, now Kainga Ora.
NZ is still an amazing place for a road trip, I’ll have to take you up on your offer of trying one in the states if it’s that good! Something like this? https://youtu.be/ASIuMBog7xI?si=VKjKF-P8RjoeRRXm
Hi Tim! Yeah man, diners all the way! Replace that with Mexican restaurants, or best, the diners that are *also* Mexican restaurants (I worked in one in TX a million years ago, and it's where I will go when I die.) In NZ it's the local coffee shops, for sure. A pie or whatever's in the cabinet. A long black for the road....
In the video they visit a Mexican diner and need someone to interpret! I like your ideas!
I feel ya, brother. Once a former job saw me fly to Houston, pick up a sweet rental ride (fully loaded Chrysler 300) and spent 8 days driving from H-Town to DFW, Austin, McCallen, San Antonio and back to Houston. There are roadside attractions you just won't see elsewhere - such as a cane fashioned from a deceased rattlesnake with a miniature human skull as a handle.
Never been to the Cadillac Ranch - but have dreamed about it since the song of the same name was dropped by Bruce Springsteen circa 1979.
"Cadillac, Cadillac, long and dark, shiny and black. When I die buddy throw my body in the back and take me away to the Cadillac Ranch: ✊
Hey man! Oh lordy yes, the gothic weirdness of interior TX. Sounds like an epic trip! I was thinking of Bruce & yourself with that reference--I haven't done the history yet to know how explicit the link between art & song is. It's all the air, myth-wise. Or it was. I get the feeling folks don't dream like this anymore. I found that old picture of Cadillac Ranch and seemed a lost omen from former days, when at the time I took It I think I was probably overwhelmed with the symbolism of it all? Alternate title for the post...'on a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert...'
Love it Dan, stirred up so many memories. I-70 at 2am in a blizzard getting passed by 18 wheelers at 70mph down Vail Pass, I-27 out of Plainview feeling like I was in a road runner cartoon.... and all those thousands of miles we ran on the unsealed county roads with numbers for names. The scale of it all blew my 23 year old brain.
Yeah man, this is totally your country up there! Very nicely described. The passes of Colorado are another thing entirely. And those endless county roads...two digits, three digits, four digits to nowhere. Ours down in the Big Bend was 2810. Same scale of landscape but a different gear of lonesome. Clears your head, somehow. Shakes something loose. Miss it!
I did SH35 a couple of years ago and very nearly bought the tshirt and bumper sticker. It's a great road but was still a mess from Cyclone Gabrielle.
In the US I've done I-90 from Seattle to Yankton, SD both ways a couple of times with my husband's family and it was great. It was before sat-nav so I used to have the Rand McNally map book on my lap checking every upcoming marked place. I miss those interstate rest areas and truckstops like the brilliant Al's Oasis in Oacoma, SD where I-90 crosses the Missouri River.
But after a recent 3-week roadtrip around the South Island I've realised what a shock our roads must be to a lot of North American tourists. There were parts that reminded my husband of California - driving up through the Lindis Pass for instance, and the Tekapo Basin had that wide open space of Wyoming and Montana. But our highways are more like the Blue Highways of William Least-Heat Moon's brilliant book (read it if you haven't!).
Thanks for reminding me of my epic road trip holidays in the US. I'm not sure I'll ever be doing those again.
Wait, Yankton?? My wife lived there as a child. We hit the river beach there every summer we go back. We've been to Al's Oasis too, on one of those drives West! Love those high plains. And the Rand McNally, too. God I loved those. They way they're wrinkle and collect food stains. The awkward way you'd flip pages in a car at 75 mph!
Blue Highways was a bible for me growing up! Loved it--but it taught me to hate the interstates, for all kinds of dedent reasons. Wasn't til I drove the big ones a bunch in my 20s that I balanced out my affections. And NZ....NZ is prett much all Blue Highways, isn't it? One of the best things about it. Until you get that high plains twitch.
Feels weird writing the wistful American stuff these days. Guess I'm not saying goodbye to the highways, they'll be there, but there's definitely a goodbye to something in the air. Thanks for reading, and taking the time to write!
The Takapau Plains was a great place for foot-down driving unless "The Terror of the Takapau Plains" was lurking; manning what might have been the first speed trap in New Zealand.