Ohakune and thereabouts 20-02-10

Yet another fabulous Saturday and after walking the dog it was time to get the Connie out of the shed.  Brian had been wanting to go for a bit of a decent ride prior to getting his bike serviced for the TT2000 so after a bit of humming and harring we decided on hitting the Parapara’s and Fields track.

We left Palmy just after 10am and made our way to Halcombe via Mt Stewart.  From Halcombe we made our way to Marton and then took the same fantastic back roads that Mark & I had ridden in the rain a few weeks earlier to Wanganui.  This time around the roads were dry and a lot of fun.  We also had great timing as we went past some farmers just as they were about to bring some cattle out onto the road – any later and we would have been stuck somewhere in the middle of the herd.

In Wanganui we stopped for gas before attacking the Parapara’s.  Once again the Para’s were in great nick and we had a lovely ride through to the Feilds Track turn-off.  The only downer was having to stop for roadworks a couple of times.

Fields track was fantastic as well.  I haven’t ridden it very often in the direction we took (northerly) but it was great winding our way up the hill and enjoying the great views on offer.  Added to this was the lack of traffic – we did not see another car until we were nearly back onto SH49.  Also absent was stock on the road and there was not too many issues with gravel across the road.

At the main road we turned left and pottled on to Ohakune where we stopped and had a nice steak sandwich before deciding to ride up to the ski field.  Unfortunately they were working on the road so we could not make it all the way up but we were able to stop and get a quick view of the mountain before turning around and riding back to Ohakune.

Now it was decision time again and because we’d enjoyed the Para’s so much on the way up we decided to give them a second go.  As it turned out they were just as good the second time around with the only issue being a mob of sheep being moved along the road – after a five minute hold-up we powering off up the road again.

Nearing Wanganui we turned off on a detour which meant that we didn’t have to go into Wanganui and came out on the Fordell road.  This was actually quite a nice ride and had two particularly good sweepers on it which will need to be revisited again at some stage.

From Fordell we took the back roads all the way through to Hunterville.  The ride was hardly uneventful with plenty of wildlife to avoid along the way – Brian had a very close call with a couple of sheep, then there were turkeys and even a bloodhound (eating some roadkill) to avoid!

Never the less we made it to Hunterville all in one piece and after a bit of discussion decided that we probably had enough fuel to get home via Vinegar Hill.  So off we went.  After a bit of spirited riding over the Hill my fuel light finally came on in Bunnythorpe – no problem though I made it home easily after clocking up another 350km on that tank of juice.

Another great day out on the bike with a ride of around 440kms all up – roll on the TT!