Winter?

Well, it's supposed to be but thankfully the forecasters were wrong and today turned out to be an absolute pearler - sunny, clear and still - so it was fantastic to be able to get the Connie out of the shed and give it so long needed exercise.

After filling the tank I made my way up to Danniverke to meet up with Sarge and from there we cruised on up the road to meet up with Roberty Dog in Waipuk. Five minutes further up SH2 we turned off to head towards Middle Road. We took a different route (via Racecourse road) than I normally take but it didn't take long until we were onto the fantastic Middle road and on our way towards Havelock North.

It was a great ride through here as usual although my poor little Connie did get left behind a bit as a certain ZX-14 made tracks with a fantastic sounding R1 in it's wake...

In Havelock we stopped for a bite of lunch and got to take in the magical music of a Merlin as a Spitfire took a slow lap of the Bay as part of a small airshow in Napier. An unexpected bonus!

Leaving Havelock we waved off the R1 and Sarge and I took Kahuranaki road through to Elsthorpe and Patangata. A really nice ride through here although there was still remnants of the loose metal on road that I encountered last time through here.

After a quick stop at Patangata to have a look at all the other bikes parked up there we carried onto Waipawa and the Waipuk. South of Waipuk we got off the main road again and rode through to Takapau and Ormonville before popping back onto SH2 at Matamau.

Back in Danniverke I said my goodbyes to Sarge and continued on home to complete a fantastic 350km winter's ride. I like my winters like this!

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