Wanganui Toy Run

Saturday was the Wanganui Toy run and as it was the weekend of our monthly BRRBT ride I decided that the Toy Run would do for our ride.  Knowing that the ride took in the Paraparas also contributed to the decision.

Connie Brian (stay tuned for the reason for the Connie prefix) popped around early to pick me up and the two silver bikes made our way over to the BRRBT meeting point in Feilding.  For a while it looked like we were it but then this dirty old thing showed up.

Blow me down, it was BMW Brian on his new horse...

After the obligatory oohing and arring over the new bike and hearing about BMW Brians licence "issues" we decided that three was the total number of BRRBT riders coming and headed on out through Halcombe to Wanganui.

Arriving in Wanganui with plenty of time we found drinks and wandered around looking at some of the other machinery.

Not a bad day in Wanganui either:

By the time of the ride briefing there was nearly 50 bikes lined up and we were even joined by at least 5 other riders who have joined us on BRRBT or BRR Adv rides.  One of these was Peer and he ended up leading the ride on his new GS.

Peer lead us up the main drag of town (a slow process on a busy Saturday morning) and then out of town and onto the Paras.  Peer was doing a great job of keeping the ride under control and moving at an easy pace for the pack to keep up.  BMW Brian and I settled in behind him for a while but then when we started getting stuck into the delicious corners were forced to sneak past for a little fun.

In Raetihi we stopped for lunch (whereas the toy run carried onto Ohakune for lunch) with the idea being a return trip via the River Road.

Unfortunately for us we discovered (by means of whopping big sign that only I saw) that the River Road was still closed due to damage caused by the flooding a few months back - bummer!  As an aside, the Paras still (for the same reason) have a lot of road works on them with no fewer than three sets of lights controlling single lane sections.

So, rather than scooting across to Waiouru and crawling home via SH1 we decided to retrace our steps back down the Paras with a couple of small deviations where we could.

A nice little ride of around 380km all up and in pretty good weather except for the blimmin wind!  Where to next weekend?