Winter Wander

Winter riding can either suck or you get a magnificently sunny (but not warm) clear day and a great day out on the bike.  This is the story of a ride that didn't suck much at all...

And it was a Tiger ride with Colin turning up on his 900 not long after 8 and looking for coffee after seeing 0.5℃ on his way up.  Of course, it was much warmer in Ashhurst - about 8 if I remember rightly.  While someone defrosted, we chatted about a possible destination, and I suggested a ride up the Parapara's even thought this might mean we'd need to be careful in the frosty bits.  The frost didn't put Colin off the idea and soon he was warm enough to give it a crack.

My initial plan was to cruise over to Vinegar Hill and then ride through to Fordell via the usual track we take from Hunterville as I'd ridden this a few weeks earlier with a different Colin (who doesn't have the sense to own a Tiger) and the road had been in good condition for winter.  But, after firing my Tiger up and checking the fuel situation, I calculated that Hunterville for gas might be a stretch.  So, without telling Colin a thing, I took him on a magical mystery tour to Marton and introduced him to a road (Mangaone Road) that he reckoned he hadn't ridden before.

Through here the temperature was around 6℃, which wasn't too bad with grips and seat on and after a fuel up we carried on out the back of Marton to hook back up with Turakina Valley Road (mind the peacocks - we had three separate flocks to avoid!) and then onwards to Fordell and Okoia.  Through here the temp dropped to between 3 and 4 degrees and there was plenty of evidence of frost in the paddocks and in the shady bits.  Yes, we rode like nanas in the shady, damp looking stuff...

Popping out onto SH4 and turning North towards the Paras, the temperature pretty much didn't move but the road was actually not too bad - it wasn't icy where I have encountered it in the past so maybe it wasn't as cold as I thought...yeah, right.

Next up was the turn to take in Fields Track which I really enjoy.  You have to ride it - pay attention and don't leave ya brains at home.  Skinny, bumpy, slips, gravel on the road, animals on the road - you name it.  Oh, and some decent views too.

Here's the ride out from our photo stop:

Oh, and if you didn't watch all of that video, you probably missed some excitement:

Yeah, a close one.  In case you didn't work it out, I spotted the far calf first and slowed up.  The one on the side of the road was completely invisible to me and then decided to check my ticker out.  It just goes to show that while you might see and react to one hazard on the road, there could be more than one...Brakes work!

Popping out on SH49, we turned for Waiouru and I decided to record a wee frosty bit:

But believe it or not, by the time we hit Waiouru, the temperature had climbed to 5.5℃ and it was even warmed in our favourite Waiouru eating establishment - the toasted sammies are the best in the country!

After lunch, it was time to head back home but along the way we got to sample some more delicious back roads (screw SH1!).  It got really cold a few times and we managed to get caught up in some light showers but no snow...

My only gripe is the ice grit which sometimes can be invisible, and you really can slither around on it without trying too hard.

Never mind, it was a great ride (the temperature even came up to a balmy 8℃ as we neared home) and I'll take a chilly, clear day over a windy, wet one any day!

Puketoi preamble

I hate to admit it but in a couple of weeks' time I'm taking some guys from work on another gravel roads excursion in our utes/4WD's.  A bit sad really (4 wheels and all) but they know that I know (I know that's a lot of knows) my way around a few gravel roads and can put a bit of a route together if asked.

Anyway, I have put a route together and I kinda promised I ride it prior.  Well, Colin and I sort of did a tiny bit of it and in particular checked out Puketoi Road which may be an option if the weather is good on the day - if it's wet it will be a no-go as it's as slippery as jandals on wet lino.

Leaving here, we gassed in Woodville (survived a small heart attack at the price of fuel - cheers Trump) and then headed to the first gravel Road of the day - Pahaeke Road.  It was here I confirmed that my ride would be interesting - a bald rear E-07 is not the flashest on gravel.  This would be a day of slides and every change in gravel composition had me relearning how to handle the bike - yeah, it was fun!

Top of the Rising Sun (Towai Road)

What damn mode is this in?

Our timing into Pongaroa was bang on with it being right about lunchtime.  It just so happens that the pub was open and serving up its great burgers.

After lunch, it was time for a short run down 52 before the attempt on Puketoi Road.  Puketoi Road has all sorts of signs saying no trailers at one end (no problem) to road closed and unmaintained road at the other end.  But it is passable and needed to be ridden.

From the Eastern end, it starts off as a decent gravel road before changing to a dirt farm track which gets a little rougher in places as you climb the hill.  Along the way there are places where it definitely can get slippery when wet (went up with a 4WD club a few years ago and some souped up 4WD's had difficulties) but we were lucky in that there were only a few muddy bits and I only really had one moment where I thought I was going off (see previous bald tyre comment) but managed to stay on somehow.

One of the things we came across was the below slip.  It's narrowed up the road quite a bit - not sure that I want to squeeze my ute through that gap - and it's pretty huge when you look over the side.  Shame the picture is a bit crap.

The not so great pic of the slip

After summiting the hill, you then drop down towards Pori Road.  This generally is in better condition but still had some technical bits where you need to swap ruts and pic decent lines.  At least you get to use a couple more gears - the rough stuff coming up normally required 2nd and occasionally 1st.  I really enjoyed the more technical riding, and the descent was a lot of fun.

A bit of a breather, it was hot work

Out back on Pori Road

Mission accomplished, the ride concluded with a pootle to Pahiatua, a fang over Tararua Road (much sliding was had), a zap over the track and then home.

Not a particularly long day but a great little ride to confirm the performance of bald tyres on a variety of interesting surfaces...

Sleeping in...

 ...is a waste of good riding time.

On Sunday, Colin and Andy got up early and were at my place just before 8am.  I was even ready for them too...

After coffee it was time to make tracks with the initial plan (based on our usual detailed planning session) being to head for Turakina Valley.  But first I had to show off and demonstrate that I was only 5 minutes from gravel - ok, so it was only a short bit of gravel on Watershed Road, but it got us over towards Colyton, Feilding and then Halcombe and Marton.

North of Marton we got back onto gravel on Galpins Road and dropped down Taurimu Road onto Turakina Valley Road.  The drop down Taurimu is particularly nice as there are some good views at the top and then a cool dive into the valley of Peacocks.

Did I mention peacocks?  Oh yeah, this time around they were out to get me.  I didn't see the damn thing until I was nearly on top of it but luckily it went for a near vertical take-off next to me rather than head butting me.  Damn, they are pretty big when they're taking to the air - even Andy mentioned it after watching it all from behind me.  Oh, and there was another one just up the road a bit too...

Once North of the peacocks, the gravel was good, but we had to deal with quite an unusually large number of vehicles along with plenty of sheep to keep us on our toes.  Still totally worth it 😉

The last bit of gravel (North of the above pics) was its usual sublime self.  Plenty of pace could be applied and Andy sat just behind me eating my dust as I slithered around a fair bit.  Great fun!

In 'kune we stopped for an early lunch and fuel before crossing over to Raetihi and turning South for a bit, aiming for the gravel of Oruakukuru Road.

This was another cracker with the gravel being more fun than the seal at the start of the road.  Once again there were a heap of sheep all over the place and even one taking a permanent break in the middle of the road courtesy of something bigger than a bike (I hope).

Not far from the resting mutton I had my next run in of the feathered variety.  Coming out of a right-hander, I disturbed a snacking hawk, and it was blimin close - I reckon I could have given his nails (big ones at that) a trim for him.  I dunno what he was doing there when the feast of a lifetime was just down the road - probably a bit much for a hawk to takeaway...

After the last stretch of fast but very corrugated gravel we hit Whangaehu Valley road and enjoyed its tight and twisty corners before it turned to gravel and took us up over Burma Hill.  This time around we had to deal with cattle as well as sheep, but the big chooks left us alone.

At lunch and because we had plenty of daylight left, I floated the idea of adding in a trip through the Badlands, North of Whanganui.  The two others both thought this was a reasonable idea so we decided to use Te Rimu Road as a short-cut to get over that way.  It's always fun and though the bulls were hiding today (I'm not complaining), there was the odd bit of silt from flooding around the (dry) fords that behaved a lot like the dreaded sand, and everyone hates sand...

Not being able to ford the Whanganui River (might have got run over by the paddle steamer) and not being naughty enough to sneak across the pedestrian bridge, we had to briefly dip into Whanganui to cross and then make our way back up the other side of the river before the great run through the Badlands.

What a blast it was!  This is a really neat little track that gets narrower the further you head in and you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.  This is why we have adventure bikes.  Oh, and once again, there was plenty of slithering around.

Andy ready for a breather

Colin makin' dust

Luckily, the end of Kauarapaoa Road doesn't mean the end of the gravel.  The ride out on Rangitatau East Road is on 20+km of wider, faster gravel and it was good!

Expensive!

Rangitatau East was the last of the gravel for the day and after a cool drink just out of Whanganui it was time to slab it back on the seal and wave off the guys at Sanson before parking the trusty T7 up.  About 510km for me and 700ish for the Southern contingent.  Great ride!  Oh, and I need a new rear...

A quick investigation

My boss has just bought himself a little Jimny.  Yeah, not a bike, but quite a fun little vehicle and he's dead keen to go out exploring in it.  And he wants to find mud...

So, I suggested a wee excursion up Hall Block Road, through the windmill farm with me on the WR (still on knobblies from a visit to the farm) and him following me.  This way he could get his feet wet, and I had a little backup if things got snotty.

We met up in Ballance and were soon off up the hill.

At the top of the hill, I paused to await the Jimny.

No sign of a little Jimny

A-ha!

You may or may not be able to tell from the above video, but damn it was windy up on the hill.  You can normally blast across the tops, but I was getting blown silly.  It was also a pain in the corners as I never knew which way I was going to go when coming out of a more sheltered spot and then getting slammed by the wind.

Eventually we got to the end of the gravel and the start of the dirt track/bog hole section.  I stopped again for Colin (yep, another Colin!) and then with him watching tackled the first decent puddle and stalled in the middle...

Seeing how deep it was made Colin a bit nervous as the standard Jimny doesn't have a very good wading capability, (he's looking at adding snorkel and some diff breathers) so he wasn't keen to follow me.  Instead, we had a bit of a wander around before I decided to go on a little bit further.

As you can see, I was able to make it around a few decent lakes (including the one I had ridden through on the way in) but chickened out on the large one.  I didn't really feel like drowning the WR or myself - maybe if I'd had a different Colin with me, we might have given it a shot.

So, mission incomplete, we turned around and made our way back the way we'd come.

What's that in the distance?

And I enjoyed the descent too.  Watch for a bunny chase:

BTW: I played with the audio on the videos to attempt to remove the wind noise...

Back at my ute, we ignored it and popped down beside the river so that Colin could sample something with a decent power-to-weight...

Excitement over, the bike went back on the ute and it was time to cross back over the new road and head home.  Quick bit of fun, but a shame we couldn't ride the whole road.

A quick lap one frosty Sunday

A message from Glen on Saturday night was hinting at a possible excursion the next day and come Sunday morning there was a follow-up where I confirmed I was keen, and Glen confirmed that it was still only -2 in Taihape.  I think that may have been the reason why he took his time and only got to my place just before ten...

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.

Still plenty of snow around

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!