Last night Brian gave me a bell and said to let him know if I was going riding today as he was keen to get his Connie (it's "near new" with only about 50,000km on it) out for a ride. Well, I guess that (and the nice morning) gave me a bit of an incentive to get my act together and drag the Connie out of the shed.
After fuelling up in town we made our way out to Ashhurst where we turned up the delicious Pohangina Valley East Road to make our way around the "New Loop".
The road was in ok condition with not much in the way of wreckage on the road although the chooks at Umutoi were out dicing with death on the road again...
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| Umutoi - just past chicken corner... |
When we arrived at the turn-off to Apiti we went right instead of left to take us through to Rangiwahia instead. It's a really nice little bit of road and I really like the drops down into the valleys to cross the river and then the climbs back up.
Rather than carry onto Mangaweka we turned left through Rangi and made rapid progress back to Kimbolton for lunch.
In Kimbolton we were surprised to find that the cafe is not open on Sunday's so crossed the road and fuelled up at the pub.
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| Two Connies and a shut cafe |
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| Even a sign welcoming us |
More pics here.
Andrew, did you happen to pass a black V-Strom and a red VFR in your travels this morning, possibly going in the opposite direction? My friend Brian and I decided to do the Pohangina Valley Road as well today, and I recall seeing two large silver machines pass us the other way. Looked very much like your two machines. Would have been late morning. We went through to Rangiwahia, then onto Mangamako road through to Ohingaiti, then down south and back over Vinegar Hill. A great day for a ride (550 kms all up today). Cheers,
ReplyDeleteNils Poulsen
Oops, can't remember seeing you guys. We probably didn't leave Palmy until 11:30 or so. Saw a couple of Bandits on the loop and the odd other bike out and about. Hopefully we just missed you and didn't ignore ya going by...
DeleteNice loop. How many miles? Err, ...kilometers! 😁
ReplyDeleteOnly just over 160km Marc. So err, 100 miles or so...less than half a tank of gas...
DeleteAhhhh to get out without the liners in. Glad it warmed up enough for you.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to have been a long time coming. Warm now but the wet stuff has returned...
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