Hitcher
20th August 2011, 18:56
Every so often one just has to do something, at times for no explainable reason.
Today I just had to go to 40 degrees 32'44.73S, 176 degrees 01' 56.38E.
This location has been playing on my mind for a while. The last time I was there was at about 6:45pm on Saturday 16 October 2010. Apparently. I can't remember being there or any part of my getting there from Turangi at 3:15pm on the same afternoon. This location is 47.1km riding distance from Woodville, a journey that on 16 October 2010 took me 38 minutes to execute at an average speed of 73kmh.
I went there alone. Mrs H has been visiting a girlfriend in Buderim (north of Brisbane) this week and flies back later tonight. While she's been basking in the sub-tropical sun, like other Wellingtonians, I've been coping with snow, hail and frigidity. Cabin fever.
So I awoke early this morning and decided to go for a ride, with no destination or purpose in mind.
Over the Rimutakas - roadside still with piles of snow where the graders had pushed it off the road earlier in the week. Roadworks good but covered in several cm of pasty ick. Adhesive pasty ick that filled every available nook and cranny on a previously clean GSX1250FA.
The Wairarapa was warmer than the summit of the Rimutakas. Not saying a lot really. I drifted along until Masterton, where I stopped at a main street cafe and had a bowl of what is probably the best seafood chowder available on this planet.
Then onwards up SH2, deciding to veer off through Mauriceville, because I love that road. Then on a whim I decided to cut across to Alfredton, rather than return to SH2 just south of Eketahuna. Still unsure of where I was going, I was now nicely zoned. The TNAB's new tyres, Metzeler Interact Z8s, were seducing me and I was smitten with the bike's newly-acquired nimbleness.
Twenty-seven minutes after leaving Alfredton, I was in Pongaroa. Yes, I know. Bad Hitcher. Despite being dampish, Route 52 along this stretch is in great nick. Critters were well confined to roadside paddocks. There was no wind, unusual for those parts.
Earlier I had thought of pushing on through to Weber, exiting at Dannevirke for a pie at the BP Wild Bean Cafe there.
But no. In the metropolis that is Pongaroa I had a strange urge to turn left to to 40 degrees 32'44.73S, 176 degrees 01' 56.38E, onwards to Makuri and Pahiatua.
No epiphany was had. I stopped briefly and looked for a set of custom earplugs, the only part of my kit that diligent people hadn't gathered up off the roadside on 16 October last year.
I then pressed on over the Pahiatua track and into Palmerston North for fuel and a short sortie around some of the back streets I used to frequent when I was a student in that place over 30 years ago.
By this stage I was comfortable with my Zen Navigation System, and took the Himatangi Block Road, returning to civilisation at Shannon, where I stopped for a coffee and a pie. Manawatu back roads are fun. It's also quite surprising what a TNAB can do as its revs approach its red line. Bad Hitcher.
Zen Navigation then returned me to hearth and home in Ngaio, with still enough warmth left in the afternoon to wash out all of the pasty ick adorning the TNAB.
An interesting day. If I was looking for answers about 16 October 2010, I didn't find any. I do know that I miss Mrs H like mad when she's away. I'm also quite smitten by a GSX1250FA rolling along on Metzeler Interact Z8s.
Life can be interesting at times.
Today I just had to go to 40 degrees 32'44.73S, 176 degrees 01' 56.38E.
This location has been playing on my mind for a while. The last time I was there was at about 6:45pm on Saturday 16 October 2010. Apparently. I can't remember being there or any part of my getting there from Turangi at 3:15pm on the same afternoon. This location is 47.1km riding distance from Woodville, a journey that on 16 October 2010 took me 38 minutes to execute at an average speed of 73kmh.
I went there alone. Mrs H has been visiting a girlfriend in Buderim (north of Brisbane) this week and flies back later tonight. While she's been basking in the sub-tropical sun, like other Wellingtonians, I've been coping with snow, hail and frigidity. Cabin fever.
So I awoke early this morning and decided to go for a ride, with no destination or purpose in mind.
Over the Rimutakas - roadside still with piles of snow where the graders had pushed it off the road earlier in the week. Roadworks good but covered in several cm of pasty ick. Adhesive pasty ick that filled every available nook and cranny on a previously clean GSX1250FA.
The Wairarapa was warmer than the summit of the Rimutakas. Not saying a lot really. I drifted along until Masterton, where I stopped at a main street cafe and had a bowl of what is probably the best seafood chowder available on this planet.
Then onwards up SH2, deciding to veer off through Mauriceville, because I love that road. Then on a whim I decided to cut across to Alfredton, rather than return to SH2 just south of Eketahuna. Still unsure of where I was going, I was now nicely zoned. The TNAB's new tyres, Metzeler Interact Z8s, were seducing me and I was smitten with the bike's newly-acquired nimbleness.
Twenty-seven minutes after leaving Alfredton, I was in Pongaroa. Yes, I know. Bad Hitcher. Despite being dampish, Route 52 along this stretch is in great nick. Critters were well confined to roadside paddocks. There was no wind, unusual for those parts.
Earlier I had thought of pushing on through to Weber, exiting at Dannevirke for a pie at the BP Wild Bean Cafe there.
But no. In the metropolis that is Pongaroa I had a strange urge to turn left to to 40 degrees 32'44.73S, 176 degrees 01' 56.38E, onwards to Makuri and Pahiatua.
No epiphany was had. I stopped briefly and looked for a set of custom earplugs, the only part of my kit that diligent people hadn't gathered up off the roadside on 16 October last year.
I then pressed on over the Pahiatua track and into Palmerston North for fuel and a short sortie around some of the back streets I used to frequent when I was a student in that place over 30 years ago.
By this stage I was comfortable with my Zen Navigation System, and took the Himatangi Block Road, returning to civilisation at Shannon, where I stopped for a coffee and a pie. Manawatu back roads are fun. It's also quite surprising what a TNAB can do as its revs approach its red line. Bad Hitcher.
Zen Navigation then returned me to hearth and home in Ngaio, with still enough warmth left in the afternoon to wash out all of the pasty ick adorning the TNAB.
An interesting day. If I was looking for answers about 16 October 2010, I didn't find any. I do know that I miss Mrs H like mad when she's away. I'm also quite smitten by a GSX1250FA rolling along on Metzeler Interact Z8s.
Life can be interesting at times.