Lake Ferry

Yesterday I caught up with Brian and he was keen to go for a bit of a ride this weekend and suggested a trip down to Lake Ferry for lunch today.  We decided to wait and see what the day brought in terms of weather (didn't look great) and confirm the ride in the morning.

This morning I got up to a reasonable looking day and soon got the phone call from Brian - we were on.  While I was getting ready these little drops of cloud moisture started to fall and make the corners of my mouth droop somewhat...Never mind, the Connie was out now and what's that sound I here - another Connie making some nice noises through it's aftermarket muffler.  Yep, definitely going then!

As it turned out we only had to ride through light rain until we got out of town where things fined up for a great squirt over the track.  once in Pahiatua we quickly got off the main road and made our ways towards Route 52 and the usual great ride down to Masterton.  Unfortunately I wasn't feeling that flash (think I'm getting man-flu - yikes!) and I didn't enjoy it as much and spent most of this part of the ride bimbling along behind Brian with him getting away from me here and there - no matter, just try and enjoy the ride I thought.

View 18-09-11 Lake Ferry in a larger map

Instead of going right (and into Masterton) at the end of Route 52 we went left to take in some more great back roads through Gladstone and Longbush to Martinborough.  From Martinborough it is just a short ride out some fast straights and few corners to Lake Ferry where we parked up and ordered our lunch.

The Lake Ferry Pub

It turned out to be a pretty popular place and as we waited we heard the unmistakable and awful sound of a Ducati dry clutch drowning out the music of the engines of both it and the Aprilla following behind.  Just about no sooner had these guys arrived but a whole line of Porches turned up to swamp the cafe with latte orders.

A lot of boxers and a lonely four

Lunch put away we rode quietly back to Martinborough and then made our way up to Masterton for a top-up.  Just out of Martinborough (man I hate typing that name - always gotta worry about my spelling) we got some fairly decent rain which was enough to make the well worn road fairly greasy.  Luckily it didn't last long and after our top up we made for Mauriceville.

The roads through from SH2 to Mauriceville and then onto Eketahuna were simply brilliant.  Next to no traffic and lovely flowing corners - the Connies got really stuck in and I'm sure that they were smiling as much as the riders.  After this short blast we had a "transport" stage up SH2 before turning off to shoot through Mangamire and then back home over the track again.  The only downer here was all the traffic due to the gorge closure and slow vehicle not pulling over into the slow vehicle lanes.  Never mind, we had a great ride of just under 400km and I got to visit Lake Ferry on a fine day for a change (my previous two visits have been in very average weather).  Top ride!

More pics here.