Spring has sprung

Yep, and with a delay in a big project at work it meant that I wasn't working this weekend so I just had to escape somewhere on the Connie...

I left home just before 10 in the morning with a couple of ideas in my head and they all begun with a trip over to Wanganui and onto the Paraparas.  From there I had a few options, some that would have me home sooner than others.  I decided to just see how things went and decide on my ultimate route home somewhere along the way...

From Palmy I took my usual route across to Marton and then to Turakina and Fordell.  As I had plenty of fuel I decided that I didn't need to stop in Wanganui so took my usual detour that would see me on the Paras sooner...

Before long I was on the Para's proper and enjoying one of my favourite bits of road.

Having a ball, I slowly getting closer to decision making time with the option to carry on North to Raetihi and beyond or to take Fields Track (another favourite) and then make some more decisions when I popped back out on SH49.  Both directions offered up many choices further on the way - it just came down to how far I actually wanted to ride.

I opted for Fields Track figuring I could still go through to either Ohakune or Waiouru depending on how I felt at SH49.  The climb up the hill was fabulous and I have it on video except the camera had fogged up ruining the footage - damn!  I did manage to avoid the temptation to just keep riding all the way through and ended up stopping at the top for a few pics.

The rest of Fields track was just as nice and I didn't see my first other vehicle until probably two thirds of the way through - my kind of road.

At the end of the road I decided that I was getting peckish and so I decided to cut the ride short by turning for Waiouru and the road home.  It was definitely a bit cooler heading through to Taihape and there was even a few spits of rain that ended up coming to nothing which was just fine by me.

In Taihape I gassed up and ate a terrible pie and had a chat to a couple of guys - one with a Tiger Sport and the other a DL identical to mine.  The DL guy was interested to hear how the Connie compared to the DL...

From Taihape it was another quiet cruise down SH1 to Mangaweka where you guessed it, I turned off again to take in the road to Rangiwahia and Kimbolton.  (Apologies for the crappy music - hard to find decent stuff on YouTube).

Yes, I was having fun!  But a few more photos were in order:

Not today...

Snow?

There was still more good riding after this and trust me, I enjoyed every km!  Along the Cheltenham/Feilding straight I got caught up in a short shower and even had some wet roads near Bunnythorpe.  There wasn't really enough rain to get damp but it was getting cooler - even though it was still early in the afternoon.

Home by 2pm after a good little squirt and now relaxing in front of a nice fire - what a great day!

More pics here.