BRR Tackling the Turakina Part Two

After our coffee in Hunterville several riders including our dusty leader made tracks for home but four of us still had not had quite enough excitement...

Colin's Loop

Colin's plan was to take us home to Palmy via another great selection of back roads.

First we rode North a little on SH1 before turning onto Vinegar Hill.  But no, we weren't to enjoy a fang over the Hill, we soon turned off onto the gravel of Sandon Block Road.  This bit of road starts off fairly open before starting to wind around the sides of the hills.  Once again plenty of nice views out across the countryside but unfortunately no video or pics to prove it...

Waipuru and Mangapapa Roads offer more of the same and although it can be a bit soft in places where the trees shade the road, on this occasion things were pretty dry and in good nick.

Next up were Upper Pakihikura and Waituna Tapuae Roads which took us on a climb up and over into the Beaconsfield Valley.

After a short, tight section of gravel Beaconsfield Road switches to tar seal so after a temporary navigation error we took Haynes Line to some more nice gravel on Levett Line.  Levett Line took us to Kiwitea and our last leg over towards the Pohangina Valley.

Coulters Line initially is sealed but it soon turned into some exciting gravel.  The gravel was reasonably deep and there was a few larger rocks in it but I found that the Vee was able to dig into it and really enjoyed gassing her up the hill while chasing after Colin - the rear end of the bike was hardly ever pointing in the same direction as the front...

Coulters Line led us up onto that other Ridge Road I mentioned in Part One and this is always a neat ride.  Recently a rally had been through here and although in some places the graders may have been tidying things up there were a few awesome sections where the gravel had been spread around a bit by the cars and the riding was outstanding.

Our last bit of gravel was on Zig Zag Road and although the low sun was a slight issue in places it was still a great last squirt on the gravel.  The remainder of the ride was just a quiet tarmac pootle into Ashhurst and then onto Palmy and home by 5:30.  One heck of a great day out yet again!

More pics here.