Hitcher
7th August 2005, 17:29
Yesterday (Saturday 6 August) we woke to the alarm clock. Hates it she does, my precious. And by 9:00am we were away.
To Wanganui, for lunch. What a cracking good day. One of those perfect-morning-after-a-frost sort of days. Six degrees in the shadows and about eight degrees in the sun. Definitely heated-hand-grips-on conditions.
Despite the early start, the traffic up the coast ground turgidly onwards. Even the Levin by-pass didn't help. Just north of Levin we caught a stream of traffic behind a truck carrying some unusual cannisters and didn't get clear of all of that shite until the Himatangi turnoff!
We basked in the sun at Bulls whilst supping a coffee, and basked some more outside the old Post Office on the main street of Wanganui as we consumed a most excellent lunch. Despite numerous and aggressive judderbars, the boi racers of Wangavegas do endless laps up and down the main drag while the young girls of this fair city loiter in that way only trailer trash can manage. But I digress...
After gassing up, we were off on the back road to Fordell and then through to Hunterville. A terrific road with great scenery. If you find gravel, you've gone the wrong way... It's 62km from Wanganui to Hunterville on this road. No traffic, so if you want to cane it there's little risk of meeting other traffic apart from slow-moving tractors and Landcruisers (in their proper environment). But why hurry? The views are amazing.
From Hunterville we legalled up SH1 to the Vinegar Hill road turnoff and then took that most delightful of roads down to Cheltenham. Beautifully sunny and no wind anywhere.
And then on to Ashhurst. Here the wind picked up. Bloody windmills! An easterly. The ride through the Gorge was blustery and we turned off over the Ballance Bridge and headed down to Pahiatua for more gas.
By now the wind had dropped appreciably and we had a great run down through the Wairarapa for a late afternoon coffee stop at Greytown. The riding conditions over the Takas were near perfect and we arrived home at about 6:00pm. Fantastic!
Today's excursion was over to Martinborough for a coffee and brunch at the Fush.
While heading up the motorway we were overrun by about 50 bikes, all of which stopped at Caltex Rimutaka. After a top-up we left first but were soon overtaken by many of these bikes on our way to Featherston. I suspect this was the monthly TSS outing. While the standard of riding and courtesy to other road users was better than other mass rides I have observed, there were still a few examples of crass silliness on offer -- passing on blind corners, streams of lemmings passing on blind corners and double-yellow lines. And bikers wonder why car drivers and legislators don't like them...
Martinborough had attracted a few goodly handfulls of bikers at its assorted hostelries and it was good to catch up with some familiar faces.
From there we sortied down to Lake Ferry, before returning to Featherston via the East-by-West Road.
500km on Saturday and 250km today. Excellent fun in the sun!
To Wanganui, for lunch. What a cracking good day. One of those perfect-morning-after-a-frost sort of days. Six degrees in the shadows and about eight degrees in the sun. Definitely heated-hand-grips-on conditions.
Despite the early start, the traffic up the coast ground turgidly onwards. Even the Levin by-pass didn't help. Just north of Levin we caught a stream of traffic behind a truck carrying some unusual cannisters and didn't get clear of all of that shite until the Himatangi turnoff!
We basked in the sun at Bulls whilst supping a coffee, and basked some more outside the old Post Office on the main street of Wanganui as we consumed a most excellent lunch. Despite numerous and aggressive judderbars, the boi racers of Wangavegas do endless laps up and down the main drag while the young girls of this fair city loiter in that way only trailer trash can manage. But I digress...
After gassing up, we were off on the back road to Fordell and then through to Hunterville. A terrific road with great scenery. If you find gravel, you've gone the wrong way... It's 62km from Wanganui to Hunterville on this road. No traffic, so if you want to cane it there's little risk of meeting other traffic apart from slow-moving tractors and Landcruisers (in their proper environment). But why hurry? The views are amazing.
From Hunterville we legalled up SH1 to the Vinegar Hill road turnoff and then took that most delightful of roads down to Cheltenham. Beautifully sunny and no wind anywhere.
And then on to Ashhurst. Here the wind picked up. Bloody windmills! An easterly. The ride through the Gorge was blustery and we turned off over the Ballance Bridge and headed down to Pahiatua for more gas.
By now the wind had dropped appreciably and we had a great run down through the Wairarapa for a late afternoon coffee stop at Greytown. The riding conditions over the Takas were near perfect and we arrived home at about 6:00pm. Fantastic!
Today's excursion was over to Martinborough for a coffee and brunch at the Fush.
While heading up the motorway we were overrun by about 50 bikes, all of which stopped at Caltex Rimutaka. After a top-up we left first but were soon overtaken by many of these bikes on our way to Featherston. I suspect this was the monthly TSS outing. While the standard of riding and courtesy to other road users was better than other mass rides I have observed, there were still a few examples of crass silliness on offer -- passing on blind corners, streams of lemmings passing on blind corners and double-yellow lines. And bikers wonder why car drivers and legislators don't like them...
Martinborough had attracted a few goodly handfulls of bikers at its assorted hostelries and it was good to catch up with some familiar faces.
From there we sortied down to Lake Ferry, before returning to Featherston via the East-by-West Road.
500km on Saturday and 250km today. Excellent fun in the sun!