Not so Forgotten

Yesterday was an important day for one of my nephews so a party was in order and I needed to be there.  Our weather has still not settled down much and the night before I was still tossing up on which horse to take.  If the weather was bad then the Connie was going, but if it was ok then the Tenere was going to be the choice and a slight diversion planned for the return trip...

Well, it wasn't raining in the morning and it didn't look too bad so I settled on the Tenere and hit the road early.  North of Wanganui I discovered that while it wasn't raining, it was certainly blowing.  Luckily I managed to stick to the road and even got to the party early without having gotten wet...

Didn't manage to get any lollies though...

While the party was in full swing the weather changed a bit and there were a few heavy downpours at times.  I kept a bit of an eye on the weather and at around 3:30 decided to start my trip back and hope to dodge the rest of the rain...

In Stratford I fuelled up and then had to make a decision - head home the way I'd cme or stick to the plan and go for a pootle across the Forgotten Highway?  Looking South it was fairly black, whereas looking East it was merely grey and threatening.  I decided to chance it and go with the longer route across the FH.

After nearly getting clobbered by a twat in a Falcon in Stratford it was nice to get out of town and onto a fairly quiet road.  My first stop was at the top of one of the saddles for a quick photo or two.

Not today...

While parked there a camper piloted by some Brits warned me of a rock fall further on up the road.  I must have heard them wrong as I thought they'd said a couple of minutes into the gravel section - more later...

About 30km in, I started to run into the odd short shower and the roads were wet and slippery at times - though the saddles were still fun.  Had to stop for pics of the "new" bike in the republic though.

Not sure where all the bikes were today...

Flash as public transport

A couple more hills to cross and plenty of corners got me to the tunnel, so yeah, more photos...

Not tempted...

The gravel section was fantastic and it was only the warning about  the rock fall that stopped me from breaking too many speed limits on it.  But, in the end the rockfall was not on the gravel but about 2 minutes after it as you climb up the next saddle.  Having ridden this bit quite a few times it wasn't abnormal and no issue at all - never mind, nice of them to give me the warning.

More corners, more rain and wet roads and I eventually was through to Tamarunu probably just before 6pm.  Next, was the run down through National Park (more rain) and across to 'Kune.  By now I was a little cold as I had got a little wet and wasn't sure what to do - I'd initially planned to ride down Turakina Valley as I'd never done it in the North-South direction or in low light...

Well, the weather had improved a little so I decided to try a little gravel.  The first bit wasn't that much fun as the gravel was a bit deep and this slowed my progress a little.  By the time I got to the end of it I'd had enough and was starting to feel a little peckish so pulled the pin and made for the bright lights of Taihape.

Rolling into Taihape it started to rain again and I decide to flag the stop and just make a bee-line for home and hope to escape too much wetness.  After a slow cruise down SH1 and a blinking fuel warning, I turned off for the run over Vinegar Hill.  Once again the roads were a bit wet in places, but hey, I was used to it now and enjoying myself.

Pic of the day!

Having travelled about 50-60km since the fuel warning i made another stop in Feilding for some go-juice and then took off in pouring rain towards Palmy.

Nice one Tenere!

Once home it was nice to get out of my gear and into some disgusting takeaways.  Oh well, at least I got in a decent ride of somewhere around 640km.  The E-07's have seen a bit use now too...