Winter gravel

 ...is the best!

With that extensive maintenance and farkling complete, Sunday was the day to put the T7 through her paces.  As per usual Colin had to get in on the act and dragged Andy along too.

Leaving my place, we road tarmac across to Cheltenham and up past Beaconsfield where we eventually hit some gravel on Beaconsfield Valley Road.  

Further up the road we started to drop down the hill on Upper Pakihikura Road and I really enjoyed the ride through here all the way back to the seal on Otara Road.  The views are great and the gravel was mostly fast with the odd little slippery bit to keep things interesting - good stuff.

Not long after the bridge crossing we were out onto SH1 for a short cruise up to Mangaweka where I got fuel and we all got coffee and ummmm, pies.

After popping over the hill, we turned off again and made for some our favourite gravel through to the summit of the Napier-Taihape.  No snow (except the odd bit in shady spots) but once again the gravel was mint and again included the odd little slippery surprise.

After failing me to this point, the GoPro decided to play ball on the last section up to the Napier-Taihape and as you can see it was pretty fast, fun gravel.  Video not the best - blame YouTube...

Ford at around 6:00.

A few weeks ago Colin and Andy went through here and couldn't cross the ford as it was in major flood.  Maybe all the damage was caused then:

From the summit, we turned towards Taihape but managed to get in some more gravel on Moawhango Valley Road.  I hadn't ridden this in ages but it was well worth it and like most of the other gravel on the ride - fast and fun.  There was just that one surprise one lane bridge that stepped out in front of me...

Back in Taihape the KTM's needed fuel and the riders needed coffee so we hit the BP before wandering on down the road a bit and turning East just South of Utiku.  After a bit of seal we got in some more gravel on Auputa Road.

Auputa got us back onto the seal just out of Rangiwahia but we skipped Rangi and headed around the Manawatu Scenic Route to Apiti.  Ran into a small road block along the way.

The run from Apiti along Ridge Road to Pohangina was our last bit of gravel and while it was a good run, there was a bit of traffic on the road and the low sun was a bit of a pain as we road in and out of shaded spots.

Back at my place we had another coffee while discussing the awesomeness of the ride.  Another goodee in the books.