The purpose of the ride was for Glen to get to ride the new road and from there we had to get him back to Taihape eventually and me back here. We discussed a few different options while also considering which roads might possibly be icy. Later on, the plan was modified on the fly with no discussion - a Triumph rider just took whatever turn he thought was right and even included some roads he'd thought could be frosty...
Crossing over the new road and dropping into Woodville, the temperature dropped from 8 degrees to 4 and we actually descended into some murky fog. I attempted to flick the camera on to capture the scene as it looked pretty cool (hee hee) looking down onto the fog covered town. Unfortunately, it must have been too cold for the camera - oh well, I had the grips and seat on...
In Dannevirke we turned onto the Weber road for a while before taking a left to head northwards through to Te Uri, Ormondville and eventually Takapau. The roads through here didn't appear to be too frosty but there were definitely some cold damp bits in the shade which caused us to tip-toe through carefully and also other bits with a lot of crap across the road - including mud in one place.
In Takapau we were both nearly taken out by a woman who never looked and then followed right behind Glen until he pulled over and had a chat with her only to discover that we'd been speeding through the town (nope) and were dangerous riders. I'm pretty sure Glen let her know that she was mistaken and should attempt to open her eyes in future.
This diversion for Glen meant that I'd got away from him (in fact, I thought he'd missed a turn), so I stopped at the little rest area just before Waipuk. Here I got a call from Glen and was able to hear a little of the story and let him know where I was waiting.
While waiting, a certain car that had tried to kill us went past and then did a U-turn and drove back towards me (perhaps to apologise to me?), but they thought better of it when they saw Glen arriving...
Reunited, we carried on up through Waipuk before turning in Waipawa for Patangata and a trip up through Elsthorpe to Havelock North. Yet again, this was another fantastic little skid.
In Havelock we joined half the population at one of the pubs for a long wait for a nice lunch before securing some fuel and crossing over to Taradale. In Taradale we took another little sight-seeing trip to check out whether the washed-out bridge in Puketapu had been fixed. It turned out that it had and that everyone was there to check it out as the pub was overflowing and there were people everywhere. No pics/video of the brand-new bridge or the jet boats playing in the river.
More familiar (the happy hunting ground of me and my wee RG250 when living in the Bay), but unridden for some time roads got us to Fernhill and the start of the trip over the Napier-Taihape.
What a great ride! Well, it always is! No frosty bits either.
Just after the above video the road seemed to be a bit "dirty". There was obvious dust and dirt in places and the front end didn't feel quite a planted as earlier in the ride. At the stop at the summit Glen agreed.
Anyway, it didn't matter, and it also didn't matter when we hit wet roads and then some rain near the old suspension bridge. Luckily the rain didn't last too long, and it was sunny again as we pulled into Taihape.
I didn't muck around too long saying cheerio to Glen as the weather was trying to catch up, so I hit SH1 as far as Mangaweka before turning off to take the Manawatu scenic route home.
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| Still plenty of snow around |
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| Plenty of grit on Ardi's bridge |
I ended up home sometime after 4:30 and it was nice that it wasn't freezing as it may have been just a week or two ago. Great to get out on the Tiger after having the bikes parked up for a bit while I killed the man-flu. Looking forward to more longer, warmer pootles!
