A Stunning Sunday!

It had been too long, the Connie had been sitting in the shed awaiting a bit of TLC in the form of a decent squirt but a truly magnificent Sunday was to change all that.

Yod had just got fresh rubber on his 'bird and was itching to put it to the test and retrace a route a group of us took a couple of winters ago.  He had a wee bit of trouble drumming up some keen bikers to join him so he had to put up with me on a Connie with some pretty tired PR3's.

View 06-05-12 Piopio Loop in a larger map

The day started out a bit dodgy for me - I checked my front tyre pressure before leaving home (the front had gone flat on me a couple of weeks previously) and it was fine but on riding up the rode the TPS system let me know that the rear was down a bit.  No problem, there's a compressor at the gas station where we were meeting.  I get there and their fitting simply will not fit the bike.  No problem, I've got my mini compressor with me.  Plug it in, it fires for a second and dies...damn!  After a quick head scratch I decided to check the accessory fuse - sure enough, blown!.  I fit the spare and sort the tyre out before joining Yod in filling up with gas.

After a bit of a chat and a wait in case anyone else decided to join us, we hit the road.  First up Yod led the way through to Feilding, Marton and through Wanganui.  The air was still pretty chilly but the day was clear and sunny with no breeze - simply perfect riding conditions.  With the conditions so perfect we could see for miles and could easily see Egmont/Taranaki and Ruapehu with just the turn of the head.

Just South of Hawera I took the lead to show Yod my little bypass and this had us heading straight at Mt Egmont.  Back out onto SH3 and soon the mountain got the better of me - I just had to stop to get a picture.

Egmont/Taranaki

After our wee photo stop we did another short hop to Inglewood where we refuelled and grabbed a coffee before turning North for Waitara.  The road North of Waitara is simply magic, the scenery is fabulous and the riding just gets better and better - Mount Messenger and the Awakino Gorge should be on every New Zealand motorcyclist's "must ride" list.  We certainly weren't the only bikers out and about - plenty of guys went past going the other way as we entered the gorge.

That volcano again (South of Awakino)

The riding was fantastic but given the temperature and time of the year we did have to be careful in the shady places - there was still plenty of greasy tarmac to tip-toe through.  Popping out the other side of the gorge we were soon at our lunch stop in Piopio.  Lunch ordered it was time to sit out by the road and put the world to right as we watched plenty of other bikes ride past, all out enjoying a superb day.

Lunch time

Lunch dealt to it was time to make our way to Taumarunui for one last fuel stop and the trip home via National Park, Ohakune, Waiouru and Taihape.  Our last little squirt over Vinegar Hill got a little of the fun taken out of it when we managed to sneak up on an officer of the law but he was nice enough to wave us through so we could waste the rest of the great corners stuck behind a 4WD...

But it didn't really matter we'd had a great day out and a clocked up a very mint 690km in perfect conditions!

A few more pics here.