Smifffy

Sunday 9 May

Weather looking pretty good, have a good healthy breakfast, load the saddle bags up with plenty merino layers stuffed into plastic bags and head on out of town about noon time. Just before leaving I remember to call mum for mother's day, she's not there, so leave a message. Tank is already full of gas, but a quick stop at the garage to confirm tyre pressures and away we go. Smooth running down to Taupo, and plenty of bikes on the road. Many waving opportunities. Pull up at the lights in Taupo and the Moll shouts in my ear "27!" I'm like WTF? SH 27 is nowhere near here, so I say to her "WTF??!" Madly looking around to see if there is a turn I'm meant to be taking, or some kind of numerical road hazard approaching. "never mind" she says. Hrrrmph. We pull into the Taupo superloo, because it's a tourist destination in itself. As we pull up, I'm all curious about the 27 deal and find out that it's the number of bikes she's counted since we left home. Great.

Stopped in Turangi for fuel, next stop Taihape for food. Was good to see that most of the road works that were being done on the desert road have been completed since we last went that way in Feb. The road surface seems really nice and smooth, but I wonder how slippery it will be when it ices up? Maybe the smoother surface holds less water and hence less ice? I guess the civil engineers know about all this stuff. A little chilly along the desert but still no snow on the mountain. Not much sign of the PoPo, saw a few MCs heading north.

KFC for lunch at Taihape, always clean and not as greasy as elsewhere, in my limited experience. Saw the greatest concentration of PoPo for the day cruising up and down the main drag of Taihape. Heading back for smoko maybe? Warmed up again, and with a full belly, back on the bike, wave to nanna & grandad in boot hill on the way out of town. Bugger all traffic around all day, and very quiet through the Mangawekas etc. Turned off at Vinegar hill, just past the one lane bridge there's a bloody sheep on the loose, the old girl stayed out of our way and with a quiet "F ewe" we carried on. Enjoyed the twistys round vinegar hill and before we knew it were in Fielding. Made sure that we would be able to find the right entrance to the track for Monday morning, and fuelled up.

Headed through the gorge to stay with my rellies in Mangatainoka, down the same road as the brewery - yeah right! Had a good catch up over a few beers and a great meal and slept like a log.

Official bike count: 75

Monday 10 May

Up early for a big day, and a full brekkie of bacon & eggs with all of the trimmings awaits us. Sweet. Back thru the gorge with the spinning turbines ahead of us, a quick refuel as instructed and into the track. Plenty of bikes already there, we find a spot park up and set to taping up the lights etc and unclipping the saddle bags. A really good bunch of people and some introductions are made and general chat ensues until the alloted start time. It seems like every style and brand of bike is represented.

The day was great. Karel & the team had everything very well organised and the mix of theory and practice was really good. I would definitely recommend this course to any rider. I'm fairly sure that even the group of experienced riders that were fair fanging round the track also got a lot out of the day as well as us noobs. More on the day in the Pro-rider thread http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...t-one-May-10th

Tuesday 11 May

A wee lie in, another bacon & egg breakster with all the trimmings, and a gentle morning of trying to help out around the place for all of the outstanding hospitality. Around noon we hit the road again. The plan is to do SH3 from one end t'other, although we detoured along the surf highway (45) instead of the bit from Hawera to New Plymouth. Pulled into Wanganui looking for lunch, there was a place on Victoria street that had tables out the front which seemed very popular, and it had a parking spot right out front. Sweet. Had a quick perusal of their menu and it seemed pretty exxy to both of us, so we moved on down the road to a place called element, tables up on the verandah thingy behind the wrought iron railing, and a wee bit cheaper. Happy with our meals we decided to aid the digestion by meandering up the street. Nice town, and not at all how the Herald reporters would have me imagine it. I think the last time I was here was when I was about 6 and nanna was getting ready to move to boot hill at Taihape.

As we moseyed up the street I noticed a meter maid parking enforcement officer cruising down the other side of the street. That's the side the bike is parked on. I remark on such to the Moll, and we both agree that there is no way that we have been parked there for an hour so all is sweet. Up the street we go, and a few meters further along I notice that there is a pay station. WTF? Oh! Pay and display parking, and yup, cos I didn't see a parking meter I had figured that parking was free. This is going to be expensive. We cross the street and cruise nonchalantly down the footpath toward the bike. She's looking it up and down, checks the rego, and then is clearly looking for the display ticket. She looks up and sees us. I'm sure there is no way out of a parking ticket. She looks up, sees us coming and says "Oh you're just in time. you know if you had parked across the street it would have been free." I had looked for MC parking but all I saw was narrow little yellow markings around fire hydrants.
So with suitable expressions of contrition we were on our way again, parking notice free (unless she plans on posting one out anyway?)

Continue along SH3, there are quite a few road works going on around the place. Looks like progress. Around about Waitotara we came up behind a hay truck carrying big round bales, that was stuck behind two or three cars in front, all cruising at at around 100 km/h. I was keen to get past them, but figured I'd need to be doing 130+ in order to do so. Was weighing it up, considering how well behaved I've been for most of this trip and the almost ticket in Wanganui, and decide against it. Come around a corner and there's a nice clear straight ahead, which gives the car in front a bit more confidence and they speed up. I'm thinking about bunny hopping them so at least I don't keep getting hay blown in my face when a black car of some description hauls arse past the whole line, he wasn't there when I last checked the mirrors so who knows how quick he was going.

Just south of Waverly, and another big long straight, only this one has yet more road works on it. For some reason my paranoia has jumped into high gear, and I decide to go through them at exactly 30k. As we near the area where the workers actually are, I notice that one of the cars parked up with the beacons on top is actually Mr PoPo, and he is talking to a couple of young bros in an early model Toyota Supra looking thing. He's about to send them on their way, and I wonder how long he had them stopped for. For some reason he's eyeballing us as we ride past. I wonder whether he gave the supra kids a ticket or if he decided they would just ignore it anyway, and not bother.

Heading out of Waverly, behind yet more traffic, doing around 110 now and fairly happy to just cruise up to Patea for gas. As we come around the next corner and onto the straight who should be hauling arse past the whole line again, but the Supra lads! I estimate that they were going slightly slower than when they passed us the first time, so obviously the chat they had with 5-0 was another example of effective policing. So much for "It's the same day David!!"

Patea for gas and a quick verse of Poi-E with the bros in the canoe and off we go again. Hawera and it's decision time, despite the stated aim of doing SH3, we are lured by the sound of the "surf Highway" (45) and riding around the mountain, so that's the way we go. Riding off into the sunset may sound romantic but it makes it fekkin hard to see... we both felt that as far as coastal highways go, that particular one is a bit too far from the coast. You can't see a single beach unless you take one of the many 3k side roads. A bit of a gyp really. Scoot into New Plymouth around 6pm and have decided to change plans yet again. Originally we were going to stay in a cabin at the motor camp to keep costs down a little, but now I want to find a motel witha spa pool or a spa bath, and damn the expense! We cruise around a little, looking for motel mile. No Joy, find one dilapidated little place that probably wouldn't have a heater much less a spa pool, and one really nice looking place that had no vacancies.

We ended up at the camp ground and booked into a cabin. The guy was friendly and went thru the usual stuff and wanted my rego number so I gave it to him, then asked the kind of bike, and I thought, "jeez taking this parking thing a bit serious aren't ya?" so I just said "umm Suzuki.." Turns out he's a mad keen motorcyclist, and so is all of his family and he rattles off a list of makes and models of what him and each of his kids ride. Too cool, so we chat about bikes for a bit, and then head off to the cabin.
The cabin is right on the edge of the hill and the ranch slider opens onto a deck with 180 views out over the port and sea. That is much more relaxing than some smelly heavily chlorinated spa pool!

Unfortunately the usual eateries in the port roll up the footpath after dark and shut up shop, so no fishing club dinner for us. We decide to leg it into to town as the Moll has seen a place named after one of her favourite ingredients, and an apparatus for preparing it. When we get there we figure that this place is also a little on the exxy side, so go for a wander around to see if there's any other options. Peggy Gordon's Celtic pub. Perfect. After a great meal and a few cleansing ales we beat the feet back to the cabin. Another great day.

Official bike count: 18

Wednesday 12 May

Turned on the Tv to catch the weather forecast, and it looks like we will be in for a bit of filthy stuff. Paul Henry is creaming himself over Britain's new PM, who talks for 10 minutes without saying anything, and some UFOs in Canty. Back to watching the ocean. Breakfast at the golden arches, and some random lady in the car park comes to talk to us and wish us well on our journey. Friendly people round these parts. It had rained overnight and since they hadn't had any rain for a wee while, the roads were a little slippery, but not too bad. Up to Waitara for fuel, and when back on the road we ended up behind a methanol tanker heading north. The guy was all over the road like a mad woman's piss. At times the wheels of the rear unit were up to 1 metre into the oncoming lane. Through some of the double yellows his rear wheels were around 300mm over the line. I considered contacting fluidex to find out if they considered this usual practice. Carefully got by the tanker to come up behind a truck & trailer hauling what looked like scrap. This guy was going at a reasonable pace, and for some reason I had gotten over my paranoia of the day before, and pulled out to pass him, he slowed a little and moved over to let me past. A cheery wave and on we went. The road up Mt Messenger was pretty slippery, and overall not as much fun as I would expect it to be in the dry. We had a quick stop at the top, and I tightened up one of the bolts on the screen that has an annoying habit of working its way loose. Not fast enough to beat the two trucks back on the road though. So once again I slipped in behind them and picked my moments to get past. I quite liked the look of Mokau, my idea of a great little beach town. Through the Awakino gorge, the road was not as slippery here as at Mt Messenger and the corners were a bit more fun. Worked on the techniques I picked up at the course. The wind is really starting to gust by now, but no more rain. Quick rest stop at Piopio and the scrap truck gives us a honk as he rolls past. On the road again coming up behind the scrap truck he moves over a bit, we cruise by with a bit of waving. Next stop is Otorohanga for a browse around the motorcycle clothing store, and lunch.

There's a friendly young guy on a Harley out front of the store, and we stop and have a yarn with him. The weather seems to be packing up completely so a quick lunch and back on the road. By the time we hit Kihikihi the rain is coming down in buckets and the wind has well and truly picked up. I consider briefly heading directly for home from Kihikihi, but decide to press on. At Te Awamutu there is some serious road works going on at the roundabout and I take the wrong turn and end up on the Cambridge road. With the weather the way it is, it would be easy to keep going and head for home. That would be too much like quitting now, so we turned around and headed back. This part of the Waikato has been in drought for a while and the roads were as greasy and slippery as any I've ever encountered. Soon we arrived in Te Rapa, and the end of SH3. Through the Tron and onto the familiar route SH1 and home.

Official bike count: 2