Dazza
11th July 2008, 14:18
Your sitting @ work & you haven't been for a decent ride for what seems like forever, the weather looks like shit for the weekend, whatya do ?.Thursday looks good so you contact a couple of your riding buddies "I'm off to Kawhia via the coast road on Thursday,ya keen " Two of them respond with hell yes, work can wait for another day !
Urenui is our northern leaving spot, so head out of town (village realy) @ 1015hrs & head north. A couple of frost pockets getting to Urenui so not looking forward to the Uruiti Valley but the roads mostly dry (the frost was from the Valley floor to the top of the ridges on the Southern slopes,burrrr ! Two corners South of Mount Meesenger (usually icey this time of year) & true to form, ice, just a wee slide sideways & alls good. Mt Messenger looks like black ice most of the way up so nice & easy does it.
Gas up in Awakino, pleasant lady @ the servo ask's where we are going, informed her it's Kawhia via Marakopa & the coast road. She informs us that about 3k's in by the quarry on the LHS are three icey corners, nice, thanks for the warning. Funny thing is on this stretch of road there's a bloody quarry/rock slide what seems like every 3k's.We stop @ a huge one before the gravel starts for a breather & take the surroundings in because every shaddy corner looks like black ice.
Not far from here the road dries out & some nice flowing corners appear, nice, time to up it a wee bit, tip her into the first left hander & the front slide, bugger having my sunnies on, didn't see that gravel.So confidence burst again & head suitably pulled in, it's not long before we hit the gravel.
The gravel's in pretty good condition with not too many potholes on the straights. Dang you can get up to some good speeds on the gravel straights, this part of the ride was better than the wet shaddy tarseal.
Stop on the side of the road over looking Marakopa & take in the surroundings,shit there's some nice big country in there.Marakopa is about half way (60k's north of Awakino) to Kawhia so press on.Gravel turns into more seal & yes the wet shaddy areas still look like black ice.
Get to Kawhia after hitting some ice grit not far out of town by a home made sign on the side of the road saying "not far now".
Gas up & get ripped off by their pump system & lady reading the pumps, no flash display of $$$$ @ the counter (but hey I'm over it) & have an open fish sammy @ Annies Cafe & bar, not too bad,boys enjoyed theirs aswell.Over lunch it was agreed to go out to Otorohanga instead of going home the same way.Phew glad they weren't keen going home the reverse route as it was pretty physically & mentally draining.
Stop @ the look-out that looks back to Kawhia & my mate comments "hey I don't remember this view on the way in" I state "that's because we didn't come this way"! (he is geographically challenged). I bet the cocky who's land boundaries the look out is chuffed with all the empty bottles tossed into his paddock,@least 500 of them. Also the dirty bastards that drive into the country, stop @ a rest area & dump their f'n rubbish in big black rubbish bags, nice look :sick: not.
Gas up in Pio Pio & hit my some of my favourite pieces of road,Mahoenui stretch not too bad, roadworks nearly all complete now. Awakino Gorge is in good nick & make the compulsory stop @ the Awakino Pub in good time for our debrief before the last leg of the day.
Pretty uneventful last leg except the road was looking better than it did that morning & back home in time for dinner.
Big thanks to the weather gods for turing it on yesterday (it's pissing down here today), MR KTM for an awesome machine (1000k's off 50000k's now),possum& merino socks as it was f'n chilly, my 2 riding buddies Dave on his 03 Tuono Racing & Biran on the 07 KTM SuperMotard. Oh & to the boys in blue for not been out when we where.
All'n'all a bloody awesome mid winter ride & still smiling.:2guns:
Urenui is our northern leaving spot, so head out of town (village realy) @ 1015hrs & head north. A couple of frost pockets getting to Urenui so not looking forward to the Uruiti Valley but the roads mostly dry (the frost was from the Valley floor to the top of the ridges on the Southern slopes,burrrr ! Two corners South of Mount Meesenger (usually icey this time of year) & true to form, ice, just a wee slide sideways & alls good. Mt Messenger looks like black ice most of the way up so nice & easy does it.
Gas up in Awakino, pleasant lady @ the servo ask's where we are going, informed her it's Kawhia via Marakopa & the coast road. She informs us that about 3k's in by the quarry on the LHS are three icey corners, nice, thanks for the warning. Funny thing is on this stretch of road there's a bloody quarry/rock slide what seems like every 3k's.We stop @ a huge one before the gravel starts for a breather & take the surroundings in because every shaddy corner looks like black ice.
Not far from here the road dries out & some nice flowing corners appear, nice, time to up it a wee bit, tip her into the first left hander & the front slide, bugger having my sunnies on, didn't see that gravel.So confidence burst again & head suitably pulled in, it's not long before we hit the gravel.
The gravel's in pretty good condition with not too many potholes on the straights. Dang you can get up to some good speeds on the gravel straights, this part of the ride was better than the wet shaddy tarseal.
Stop on the side of the road over looking Marakopa & take in the surroundings,shit there's some nice big country in there.Marakopa is about half way (60k's north of Awakino) to Kawhia so press on.Gravel turns into more seal & yes the wet shaddy areas still look like black ice.
Get to Kawhia after hitting some ice grit not far out of town by a home made sign on the side of the road saying "not far now".
Gas up & get ripped off by their pump system & lady reading the pumps, no flash display of $$$$ @ the counter (but hey I'm over it) & have an open fish sammy @ Annies Cafe & bar, not too bad,boys enjoyed theirs aswell.Over lunch it was agreed to go out to Otorohanga instead of going home the same way.Phew glad they weren't keen going home the reverse route as it was pretty physically & mentally draining.
Stop @ the look-out that looks back to Kawhia & my mate comments "hey I don't remember this view on the way in" I state "that's because we didn't come this way"! (he is geographically challenged). I bet the cocky who's land boundaries the look out is chuffed with all the empty bottles tossed into his paddock,@least 500 of them. Also the dirty bastards that drive into the country, stop @ a rest area & dump their f'n rubbish in big black rubbish bags, nice look :sick: not.
Gas up in Pio Pio & hit my some of my favourite pieces of road,Mahoenui stretch not too bad, roadworks nearly all complete now. Awakino Gorge is in good nick & make the compulsory stop @ the Awakino Pub in good time for our debrief before the last leg of the day.
Pretty uneventful last leg except the road was looking better than it did that morning & back home in time for dinner.
Big thanks to the weather gods for turing it on yesterday (it's pissing down here today), MR KTM for an awesome machine (1000k's off 50000k's now),possum& merino socks as it was f'n chilly, my 2 riding buddies Dave on his 03 Tuono Racing & Biran on the 07 KTM SuperMotard. Oh & to the boys in blue for not been out when we where.
All'n'all a bloody awesome mid winter ride & still smiling.:2guns: