Warming up

On Saturday I got a phone call with orders that I was riding on Sunday.  Colin had a hankering for a trip up the Turakina Valley and had already told Carl he was coming - he obviously needed some assistance so he didn't get into any trouble...

So, come Sunday morning, I opened all the vents on my gear and saddled up to go over and meet the guys in Bulls.  Naturally I was super organised, I had all of my gear and got away in plenty of time to meet them but left my camelbak on the couch...I remembered somewhere around Sanson...

On the way across I was in a line of traffic and spotted a low, racy looking thing ahead.  Knowing that there was car racing on at Manfield I nipped past some cars to check out the flash wheels.  And that folks, is how I dusted a McLaren...

In Bulls, I fuelled up and watched plenty of other bikes go past while I waited for the guys to arrive and get their juice.  It was already warming up.

Colin led us out of Bulls and onto the first sealed bit of Turakina Road and seemed pretty keen to get to the first gravel section.  Perhaps he just wanted to be in front and avoid the dust...

The trip up the valley was its normal spectacular self but yes, the dust was a problem and we did spread out quite a bit.  Being summer the road was pretty hard and the gravel fairly "marbly" under our tyres.  A lot of the corners were pretty corrugated too - the Tenere was not enjoying the corrugations with the traction control constantly kicking in and affecting drive.  It actually becomes a vicious circle with the power being cut, then coming on strong, only to cut again straight away - quite annoying and it definitely slows things down.  After our first stop I knocked it back to the 2nd setting and it was a lot smoother.

A fair way into it there was another larger group of Adv bikers coming the other way so there was a bit of waving as we avoided each other and ate more dust.  If it was anyone reading this, then checkout the video - you're famous...

Not far North of Rangiwaea School (see map) I had to pull over as the vibration had loosened off my GPS mount and it was flapping around hitting the gauges.  I decided that I didn't want either screen smashed...

One last gravel thrash caught me up to the guys at Tangiwai and we pottered into Waiouru for an early lunch.

After lunch Carl had to leave us - who has business meetings on a Sunday - but Colin and I forced ourselves to go in search of more fun.

After another tarmac squirt up the Napier-Taihape Road we turned off to take to the gravel through to Pukeokau and Taoroa Junction.  Once again Colin disappeared in a cloud of dust while I followed along behind hoping for rain...

More marbly gravel and corrugations had me having to stop yet again to sort out the GPS (I see thread-locker in the very near future) and let a bit of Colin's dust settle for me.  I also got the chance to start the cameras again and the batteries managed another 20mins or so before giving up.

I caught up to Colin at Pukeokau and after a wee chat led him the rest of the way through and back out onto SH1.

In Hunterville we stopped for fuel and I removed a (living) bug of some sort from my jacket before Colin informed me that we were not done for the day and led us back through to Turakina Valley again!

At one of the intersections on Turakina Valley Road we had another chat and I mentioned a little back road I knew that would get us back into Marton.  Taurimu Road was in much nicer nick than I remembered and once out of the bush there were some great views out across the Rangitikei.  As I was in front I made an executive decision to make a photo stop.  I was even quick enough to catch a picture of Colin in full flight.

About two corners later we said a final goodbye to the gravel and pottered on into Marton before heading for SH1.  Along the way a nice policeman showed off his Christmas tree but soon realised that he was looking at two well behaved, law abiding motorbicyclists and shut them down again.

Back out on SH1, we joined the Sunday arvo madness before pulling in at Sanson for a quick coffee.  Colin the exited stage right while I trundled back into Palmy in search of another cold drink...