The birds and the bees

...and the goats and bulls...

On Saturday morning the weather was pretty foul at times but every now and again the sun would come out for just a little bit longer.  And then it would bucket down...

But, by elevenish I was starting to get a bit keener on a ride.  And I do love the gravel after rain...

I eventually saddled up just before twelve and pottered my way over to Whanganui.  There was only a few short scuds of rain to put up with and by the time I stopped for fuel it was a pretty warm 21.

After fuelling up and making my way out of Whanganui, I stopped at the Pukekohe's Nest just out of town for a nice pie (made in Wanaka!) and an equally nice sandwich.  I was then queried about the T7 by a guy wearing a Triumph shirt (hey, I've got one of those!) and we had a bit of chat where he warned me about riding on the open road...

Zipping up my jacket to leave, I may have made a little error as I think it was here that I picked up an unwanted hitchhiker.  After taking in some sealed back roads to get me onto the truly sensational Rangitatau East Road, I started feeling a little niggle under my jacket, near my collar bone.  I haven't had a bee sting in years but it seemed that I was definitely getting one...

But did I mention that the road was sensational?  Ignoring the sting, I carried on, riding near perfect gravel/dirt that the logging trucks had smoothed out very nicely.  I was expecting some of the more exposed bits of clay to be a bit slippery but most were pretty damn marvellous and good time was made to the next turn-off at Kauarapaoa Road.

There's a nice, handy toilet just past that sign...

Kauarapaoa Road is the little track in the last photo and it drops down through a series of tightish corners before following the river along the valley.  I really enjoyed the drop down the hill, standing on the pegs (doing my best CB impression eh?) and enjoying a little rear wheel steering in places.  It's just a shame there was nobody else about to see how awesome I was...

Down in the valley, the road opens out a bit more and it was in great nick with plenty of grip all the way through.  Just the usual zillions of goats to scare off the road - a couple of "kids" got a bit confused at one stage but eventually made the right decision in the end.  I still say goats have far more sense than sheep and their spectacular 4WD capability wins hands down.

Sneaking past the property that once was named "the Badlands", there was the odd damp bit that added some excitement but soon I discovered the new bridge!

It's a flash Harry concrete one, not all like the old wooden jobbie:

2012!

Back to 2025...

Back into it and the nearer you get to civilisation, the better/faster the road gets with the good surface really adding to the fun with the odd power slide adding to the grin factor.  On one particular small hill near the end of the gravel there is a lot of really sweet corners that you can see through easily and 4th and 5th gear were the order of the day - the guys chopping some wood when I went past would have got to hear a sweet little CP2 singing the song of its people.  I love this bike!

Just out on the seal, I stopped briefly to cool off a whisker and grab a few pics looking down at the Whanganui River.

Next up was a putter through Whanganui before crossing the river again and aiming up the Paras.  After a blast over the hill it was time to turn off onto my favourite paper road and checkout how the rain had affected Te Rimu Road - I've been through (though not in recent years) when it's been a bit of a sloppy mess and a tad interesting.

Not so today, the road was absolutely outstanding, with just a little water in one of the fords and plenty of grip.  I caught up to a farmer in his ute at one stage and he kindly pulled over.  He got a nice big friendly wave and a careful pass.  We don't want to upset these guys when you're riding through there farms or otherwise there'll be gates with padlocks...

One of the hazards on this road is obviously animals and I've come across goats, sheep, deer (got one on video even) and bulls.  There's always bulls...

But not long after passing the farmer, I was nearing about the last few minutes of the road (only takes about 10 mins to ride the entire road) I was wondering if this ride was going to be absent of beef.

Naturally, as soon as you think things like this you're proven wrong.  Rounding a bend, I couldn't help but notice three big black sods having lunch by the side of the road.  Two of them were a fair bit off the road but the other bloke was parked up with his backside nearly on the road.

I quickly adopted my usual bull avoidance strategy.  This involves throttling off and attempting to sneak past without annoying them too much.  This time around Mr Bull must have had a coffee with his lunch so was fairly alert and turned his head to look at me (normally they're stock still staring off into space) fairly closely.  I swear I saw his front feet start to follow his head so I abandoned my previous strategy and pinned it past him.  I definitely didn't want to find out just how friendly he was...

Anyway, I got past him safely (and even got around the next corner which perhaps came up a little quicker than it otherwise might have) and was soon at the end of the road and back onto some tar.

It turns out that my animal run-ins were still not complete.  One minute I was minding my own business on Turakina Valley Road when a magpie decided to take on a T7.  Well, what a mistake to make-a!  It hit somewhere on the LHS of the fairing and then exploded into a ball of feathers as it collected the handlebars (mirror mount) before grazing off my arm and leg.  Pretty sure he didn't get up from that...

Having survived this latest animal attack I turned off onto Taurimu and into the next one!

This time it was two big peacocks in the middle of the road.  They panicked, (perhaps mistaking me for Colin) and attempted a rapid takeoff.  Well, their idea of a fast takeoff is actually fairly slow and I really had to slow up less I find out what head-butting a peacock feels like...

Phew, another close one, what's next?

Well, no animals, just a sublime blast up the hill on another (slightly less grippy) gravel road.  Damn, it was good.

Just a short bit of gravel later and I was back on seal for good with just a quick stop at my folks place in Feilding and home by 5.  Absolute cracker of a ride!

The bee sting is still itchy though...

Yeah baby!

 

Southern Invasion

Last weekend the North Island was invaded by a couple of Southerners in the form of Kelly and Tim who you may have come across in other posts when Colin and I stayed with them.  We've done a bit of quad riding with Kelly, the Te Anau Basin trail ride with Tim and the Maverick Muster with both of them along with seeing a lot of great country thanks to their hospitality.  It was time to return the favour just a little.

Luckily Colin and Jen have a few extra bikes in the shed - I didn't need to loan any of mine out 😉

Ashhurst, the Riviera of the North...

Time ended up on Colin's Tiger while Kelly stole Jen's Tracer, forcing her to spend the day on the back of the GSA.  Also joining us were Dayal and Brendan on their Tigers and Andy on his orange bike.

Our ride started by a quick trip over the Saddle before taking some backroads to Dannevirke where we regrouped after finding some of the lost ducklings...

After sorting ourselves out a bit it was time to carry on North through Ormonville and another wee breather in Takapau.

Brendan

Tim

Kelly and Andy

Next up was a short bit of SH2, through Waipuk and into Waipawa where we turned off to make our way to Patangata and the mighty Middle Road.  And Middle Road turned it on for us, what a great ride on a superb bit of tar.

Middle Road (and a couple of others) finally got us into Hastings where we found a cafe that was very happy to see eight peckish riders.

Following feeding time at the zoo, it was time for fuel for the bikes where we all got fairly frustrated with the idiots at the Gull Station and their prepay policy.  The Caltex up the road got my $60 and that's where we'll stop in future.

If Middle Road had been our entre, then the Napier-Taihape Road was going to be the main course and dessert.  Colin and I both love this road and were really keen to show the others the way.

Things started off well but soon the roads became a bit damper and not long after, the rain really let us have it.  Visibility was rubbish and the road became a river.  We made a quick stop to check on all the ducklings where some found wet weather gear and then we carried on.

Luckily, after another down pour or two, things improved, and we could get into enjoying the road and snapping the odd pic.  This is the bridge at Kuripapango.

Dayal and Brendan

Tim

Kelly

Andy

Colin missing a pillion?

And at what I call the summit (not sure if is as there are a few on the road) where we often turn-off on our gravel excursions.

Colin thinking BBQ...

Our next stop was in Taihape where some had coffee before the final leg home.  This time Colin led the way, and I was near the back with Kelly and Andy and had a play with trying to take photos on the go.  I even managed keep hold of the camera.

A monumental fail but I like the reflection of the road in my visor

Third time lucky...

At Vinegar Hill I turned for home and managed to get rained on again crossing over from Colyton (splashing past a sports bike along the way) but my ride was otherwise uneventful.  It looks like the others had a little more excitement than me...

Anyway, I had fun, and I hope our visitors did too (they'll have forgotten about all the rain by now I'm sure).  Great to see them up in our neck of the woods and hopefully we can do something similar again some day.

What to do when it's raining

Yeah, the weather is finally changing here, and we've had a chilly couple of days.  This morning, I got up with a wee list of things I wanted to do but when I went outside with the first load of washing, I was stumped by some wet stuff falling from the sky.  Oh well, the dryer got some action, and I went back inside for another coffee.

It didn't take too long for me to get a bit bored with sitting on my butt, but the weather was still not completely playing ball.  And then I remembered - rain is great for settling down the gravel - leet's go riding!

I geared up and left in some very light drizzle which soon vanished as I headed up the valley.  I took the same route through Pohangina as I had on Sunday, but I must say, the T7 handles better than a WR with a blown fork seal.

Cruising on a seal section, I came across a crapload (and this is the correct term) of cattle all over the road.  There was no farmer or dog in charge so I'm pretty sure they must have opened the gate and escaped all by themselves.  They took a bit of passing too, with mums and the calves all worried by the red and white noisy thing.

Eventually I made Apiti and then carried on around the Manawatu Scenic route, following the same path we'd taken last Saturday (yep, still that unmarked new seal present) but dropping down to the first one lane bridge, I decided to investigate the access road down into the river.

Next up after my little offroad excursion was a stop to finally checkout the Ruahine Dress Circle Reserve - this time up close in personal.

While I was there it started to spit a little and I even got caught in a short light shower as I carried on towards Mangaweka.

In Mangaweka there was an important stop to make.

And then there was time for some sight-seeing to get more photos for various AdvRider threads.

A short bit of SH1 got me to the turn-off just North of Ohingaiti as I turned back towards the hills.  On Mangamako Road I ran into my second herd of cattle on the road again.  At least this time they were accompanied by a farmer in his ute and there wasn't so many.

The next wildlife encounter was with the most beautiful fawn - it was a gorgeous brown with more rusty/golden colouring showing through the brown in places.  This time it kept to its paddock but ran along the length of the fence trying to escape from weird looking noisy thing.

My next stop was at the top of the hill on Waipuru Road where the logging is well and truly finished and the new pines look like they're doing ok.

Carrying on, my pace was fairly sedate, and I was enjoying just puttering along and enjoying the scenery.  The next turn took my up Upper Pakihikura Road and might have increase my puttering speed on one bit of the hill climb.

By the time I crossed over to Kiwitea, the fuel gauge had been sitting on one bar for a while and a sensible person may have kissed the gravel goodbye and slabbed it back into Feilding for some juice, but I was having fun...

On Coulter Line, I decided to head offroad again to check out what was an "interesting" track down into the river.  It was only once I got home that I discovered that I'd visited the same waterway twice in the ride.

Yeah, that looks like a place where you could ford the river if you were brave...

Just around that corner are some decent ruts, mud and puddles...

And, of course, after taking that last photo, the fuel gauge started flashing at me.  I did some rough calculations based on where I thought I was and my knowledge of how far I can go with the alarm up and decided to carry on the way I was going rather than double back to Feilding.

I was soon up on Ridge Road and a little unsure of exactly how far I was from home but eventually I spied Finnis Road and ducked down it to skedaddle home.  Unusually, I had to dodge a quad and a light truck as well as pass two cars on Finnis Road where there definitely is no passing lanes...

In the end the T7 didn't let me down and I only ended up doing less than 30km with the gauge yelling at me (I think it will probably do at least 70 but I'm not sure if that applies to the Acerbis tank) but did encounter more light rain on the last few km to home.

Nice to get a wee gravel ride in.  It looks like I did around 200km in about four hours.