KoroJ's Blog

Today was a Uly ride to Hunterville for lunch. My worker has abandoned me for three months so I definitely don't have time to ride at the moment....and hence I needed to go.

As it was a relatively long ride, the start was scheduled for 0900 rather than the normal 1000, so I checked the tyre pressures last night, as well as packing the wets and other usual gear, charged the Sena and phone, then had to get up early this morning to scrub, gear-up, fill at BP Mana and get to the Weigh Station by about 0840.

It was a lovely clear morning (only 12° but), there were 10 or 11 of us and the earlier start made the drag of hauling up SH1 a bit easier, until we peeled off to go to Shannon for a coffee. Woody and I were connected and chatted along the way and I used the time at Shannon to try to form a Group Intercom with Chris and a couple of the others that had intercoms.....but that didn't really work, so when we moved on, it was with mixed results.

We scooted up to the opiki turnoff, then cut across through Rongotea, up to Mt Stewart, then over to SH1 via Halcombe....then more dreary SH1 riding to Hunterville, arriving at around midday and all the others made straight for the pumps. I couldn't help asking Woody why on earth they were all filling when we weren't even down to half a tank!

From there it was down the road to the Station Hotel for a feed. They are pretty average, but I think they opened especially for us and while munching away, we spent more time with the Sena App trying to set the group up. Voila, we finally had it sorted.

Once we got back on the road, we scooted up to Ohingaiti, then over Mangamako Rd to Pemberton Corner, then headed for home via Kimbolton and a pause in Cheltenham to don the wets. It's a great ride through the section of Rangiwahia Rd between Pemberton and Kimbolton but today there was enough drizzle for the road to be wet, as well have having the odd bit of loose stuff, so it was a sedate affair and with it looking particularly gloomy to the east, then the downpour around Cheltenham, we opted to just come back via SH1. When we got to Mt Stewart, we didn't even divert via Penny Rd, but just headed straight to Sanson.

The wind was quite strong at this point but we didn't have any issues and made quite good time. Once we got to Paekak' though, the traffic was almost at a standstill and bumber to bumper as far as the eye could see, so we peeled off at the Paekak' Hill. Chris and I enjoyed a jolly good fang up to the summit, but after that, there was quite a bit of traffic also trying to avoid the queues, so it was a bit more sedate....and lucky to because the patrollers were out and about.

I ended up getting home at about 1645 after having done about 480km for the day. It was quite pleasant to get out and hopefully I might feel a bit more refreshed for the daily grind ahead. The bike now has 67,500km on it....and I'm still enjoying the Z8's.