gijoe1313's Blogs

Well, the day started as normally as I would expect, I got up, had breakfast and contemplated about what indulgences I could get up to. As it turns out, I remembered to go to Sylvia park to purchase two novels from my favourite cash draining locality. From there, it was but an easy decision to head off to the wild west and peruse some of the roads and locations.

I wandered willy-nilly around the back blocks and hills of the Waitakeres. I went around to Piha and through to Karekare. Great dollops of fat rain lifted the afternoon heat from my clothes, several times I dried out, several times I got wet ... good fun! Even a spot of lunch at Huia of chips and a fishburger was all part of a very delightful afternoon, indeed, with such good riding, I decided to use it as the basis for the gathering of relaxed riders on the Hornet Night City Swarm ride in the evening.

But, before that, there was more riding to be done. At Huia, after my repast, I scooted over a little stream of water and into the hills of Whatipu, to gingerly ride the gravel and avoid the gravel taniwhas. At the end, I had a good read of the DOC information station before heading back to the city to meet any other keen riders.

A quick refill at the servo in the demi-monde of K-road and I made my way to the meeting spot, the Auckland Public Library. As is the custom, I doffed helmet and went around the corner to a small shop that sold quizzical asian ice cream. This time, I chomped on a red bean ice cream offering, for those new to the charms of red beans, they are usually ground into a paste and liberally sugared, this creates a dark chocolately paste which is spread into a bun and steamed. Absolutely gorgeous. This ice cream confection was an interesting experiment, but failed to illicit the same delight as a newly steamed red bean bun.

By this stage Interceptor arrived and dropped off a load of borrowed books to the lending facility and TOTO turned up next to claim his ice cream as well. Interceptor, being his first appearance on the ride, commented he did feel left out of some dark, secret arcane ritual he was not privvy to.

Anyway, the town hall hit seven and we rode off to the West of Auckland again, the weather in it's mercurial ways clearing and allowing us to enjoy the scenic drive (ride) around to Piha where we marvelled at the meteorological performance of sun and rain on the sea's surface. It was like a triptych that showed all the seasons in one day, with Piha in the middle and the other panels showing off nature's marvels in all her guises.

But as I said to my earstwhile companions happily snapping away, we were for the riding not for the viewing! The road from Karekare to lone kauri road was all twisty, turny and tight, the occasions of gravel and pine needles with the odd oncoming vehicle hogging the entire road was part of the charm. Indeed the journey flowed like a bowl of chinese noodles, speckled with flavour and delightful in its ability to satisfy.

At the end when we rode from Titirangi back to Point Chevalier, we bade farewell to Interceptor who was a recently minted father and had duties to attend to (he must have been a very good boy to get a riding pass for the evening!) while TOTO and I had a dinner at our local haunt on these rides, namely Daikoku. Curry noodles slurped down my throat, we whiled away the time in happy munchings, I quaffed a lychee tea and with that, our evening came to an end.

Of course, I rode back via the traditional St Heliers GP and to home, ensconced in the knowledge that I had spent the better part of a day riding and doing much ado about nothing in particular.

Thank you once more my fine literate observer,
gijoe1313