Hitcher
18th October 2005, 16:28
Well, Mangell6 has covered the guts of this event in his write-up, so I'll try and do a highlights package that builds on his fine report.
We bettered last year's 23 hour 58 minute effort with a 23 hour 30 minute outcome this year. A bit of fart-arseing around cost us at least half an hour, some of which was my fault. We were both alive and well at the end, despite some "moments" en route, albeit completely stuffed.
Firstly it was great to catch up with familiar and new faces at Turangi during Friday evening scrutineering and at the pre-start festivities on Saturday.
The weather was brilliant, especially compared with last year. No wind anywhere. The full moon (ah woooo) made the night stages very pleasant. A couple of decent patches of fog at the Taupo end of the Napier-Taupo road after midnight (apologies to Eric Clapton), low cloud/heavy mist down the Waioeka Gorge, and a decent downpour between Rotorua and Taupo. Otherwise fine (apologies to Dave Dobbin).
Despite launching mid-field, everybody else had pretty much mowed us down by Taumarunui.
The Ongarue road was good fun. The guy on the horse must have wondered what had happened to his Saturday when 102-odd bikers roared and puttered past.
The kids in Te Kuiti were a hoot. The GC riders must have been a highlight of the millenium for them so far.
And that "step" in the road to Otewa. Speedo error made me thought for a while that I had misread the instructions. But no, we eventually rocked up to the "time check", the anti-penultimate and penultimate riders respectively. While we were checking in, the last rider in the field arrived.
Those Waikato roads are wonderful, and the late afternoon spring weather showed them off at their best. Lush and verdant. Happy healthy cows abounded.
Up the Kaimais and then down the other side to checkpoint 1. And pie number 1. Daylight was fast fading by this stage.
By the time we embarked on Pyes Pa Road to Rotorua, darkness had fallen. Goat track number 1.
I was momentarily confused by the sulphurous atmosphere of that geysered trailer park that is Rotorua and ended up detouring for gas.
Mrs H then led the leg through to Whakamaru and back to Turangi (checkpoint 2). We actually put some other bikes behind us during this stage, three of which Mrs H mowed down with great aplomb on the Western Access Road.
We bettered last year's 23 hour 58 minute effort with a 23 hour 30 minute outcome this year. A bit of fart-arseing around cost us at least half an hour, some of which was my fault. We were both alive and well at the end, despite some "moments" en route, albeit completely stuffed.
Firstly it was great to catch up with familiar and new faces at Turangi during Friday evening scrutineering and at the pre-start festivities on Saturday.
The weather was brilliant, especially compared with last year. No wind anywhere. The full moon (ah woooo) made the night stages very pleasant. A couple of decent patches of fog at the Taupo end of the Napier-Taupo road after midnight (apologies to Eric Clapton), low cloud/heavy mist down the Waioeka Gorge, and a decent downpour between Rotorua and Taupo. Otherwise fine (apologies to Dave Dobbin).
Despite launching mid-field, everybody else had pretty much mowed us down by Taumarunui.
The Ongarue road was good fun. The guy on the horse must have wondered what had happened to his Saturday when 102-odd bikers roared and puttered past.
The kids in Te Kuiti were a hoot. The GC riders must have been a highlight of the millenium for them so far.
And that "step" in the road to Otewa. Speedo error made me thought for a while that I had misread the instructions. But no, we eventually rocked up to the "time check", the anti-penultimate and penultimate riders respectively. While we were checking in, the last rider in the field arrived.
Those Waikato roads are wonderful, and the late afternoon spring weather showed them off at their best. Lush and verdant. Happy healthy cows abounded.
Up the Kaimais and then down the other side to checkpoint 1. And pie number 1. Daylight was fast fading by this stage.
By the time we embarked on Pyes Pa Road to Rotorua, darkness had fallen. Goat track number 1.
I was momentarily confused by the sulphurous atmosphere of that geysered trailer park that is Rotorua and ended up detouring for gas.
Mrs H then led the leg through to Whakamaru and back to Turangi (checkpoint 2). We actually put some other bikes behind us during this stage, three of which Mrs H mowed down with great aplomb on the Western Access Road.