Waitangi Day Wander

Yep, public holidays are great!  It means you can get more riding into the week!

Today Brian and I rode out to meet up with Neil and Colin in Ashhurst for a bit of back road carving.  Once again it was a cracker of a day even if a bit breezy at times.

In Ashhurst Brian got introduced to the two dodgy BRR riders and we all sat down (with a non-riding Graeme) for a coffee and a yak before our ride.  Talk about easing into things...

From Ashhurst Neil led us out and onto Pohangina Valley East Road and we had a great ride to Umutoi where we paused to let out TEC catch up.  I also got a nice surprise when Neil offered me a ride on his Speed Triple R.  After thinking hard on it (yeah, right) we swapped rides and I skedaddled off on the Trumpy.

Yes, I know, it has a weird number of cylinders...

Wow!  What a ripper of a bike!  It took off like a cut cat (of course it was the bike, not the rider) making all sorts of glorious noises (from clearing its throat while on the gas to a great crackle when you backed off) from it's aftermarket Arrow muffler.  The brakes were also pretty wicked and the bike could definitely be flicked around on some of the great corners between Umutoi and Apiti.  The map below is the section where I rode the Triple and if you zoom in you might be able to guess at what sort of fun we were having.

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At point 'B' we stopped again and when Colin pulled in he had a really interesting story to tell us about his ride from Umutoi.

The three of us in the front had breezed past a ute towing a trailer.  Upon that trailer was a cattle beast...The cattle beast was still on the trailer when we went past but as Colin approached it decided to fall off onto the road in front of Colin.  He reckons he was in one of those positions where you don't know which way to go.  Luckily for him, whether he made the decision or not, he managed to avoid hitting 300kg or so of beef!  Hopefully he has since purchased a lotto ticket and some clean underwear.

Swapping back onto the Connie I settled in behind Neil again as we made our way through Apiti and on towards Rangiwahia.  More great riding got us to the turn-off at Pemberton which took us away from Rangiwahia and to SH1 at Ohingaiti.

Turning left we made for Hunterville but not before taking in Kiekie and Murimotu Roads - well, Neil, Colin and I did anyway - Brian must like SH1 more than us and he carried straight on...

In Hunterville it was time to stop for a nice lunch and more yarning, bikes and riding seemed to be the topic of the day for some reason or other...

Did that Kwaka rider hurt you baby?

One of these bikes has nearly 90,000km more than the other...

After our lunch it was time to ride through to Fordell on more great back roads.  In Fordell we said goodbye to Neil who was forced to head home to National Park via the Paraparas - poor sod.  Colin then led me back to the main road and through Turakina before he too turned off and made parts unknown.  I settled into a well behaved cruise back home to a waiting lawn mower...Nevermind, it was a great day out with the only downside being back to work in the morning - oh, hang on, it's Friday tomorrow!

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