Chaos_Warrior

Well, where do i start i find me asking myself. After knowing this guy (Brendan) for barely a month we were talking about V twins as we are both owners of V twins at the moment, mine is due to land from the UK on 06/12/2010, his is a Motto Guzzi V1100, he dropped into the conversation with me and the Wife, " hey man if you fancy a ride at the weekend you can take mine out ". Talk about chilled out ! lol.
As the only riding of the motorcycle variety that we have done since 08/10/2010 has been two test drives, one on a Ducati 999 and the other a Honda CBR1000rr Fireblade, (that we have bought and are due to pick up mid December) we jumped at the chance.
So, after discussion we picked our route and arranged to pick the bike up on the saturday morning, (27/10/10) fuelled up and headed off from Devonport onto the Motorway.
Heading north we made our way up to Silverdale, turning off and joining the Valley Road with the intention of going through Kaukapakapa then onto Wellsford, finally ending up at Puhoi where we were to have a Devon cream tea, yummy !
As soon as we got onto that Valley road i remember thinking " this looks like one hell of a road and like it's going to be a great ride " but even then i had not bargained for what was in store for us, the only road i have been on that comes close is the US Highway 101 but that was not a ride, it was a road trip with a mate in a Mustang, and so the bends started sweeping left, right, snakes then double lefts and rights and swooping down and ascending climbs over the contours of the landscape with breathtaking scenery all around, so much so that i remember thinking, " there are at least half a dozen places where we could have pulled over and stopped to take photos " so that we had those picturesque reminders post ride to look back and reflect on, but in the forefront of my mind i knew if i had done that we would have lost the road, and i wanted that more, so much more, so i decided i would apologise to the Wife when we stop and continue piercing into the countryside like a sharpened needle through flesh.
With such views and being that it was my first experience of those kind of roads it was tricky to stay focused on keeping the big old Guzzi girl true to the driven path, " no f**k-ups here " i thought, the last thing i needed was to repay Brendans generousity by taking his girl back to him in any other condition than when he threw us the keys and chirping " enjoy your day guys ", so with blended and divided concentration we surged onwards, through Kaukapakapa where we respected for a change the lowered speed limit as it was a little built up, (and to make adjustments for some, either drugged up, or hangover ravaged lunatic that decided to U turn his Ute right in front of us, grrrr !) then off again once the road opened up for some more of those luscious bends and sumptuous hills.
I finally conceded to the romanticism inside me about twelve k's outside Wellsford, where there was a signposted picnic area with a scenic beauty spot high up on the top of a hill where the view was absolutely stunning, i had had my breath taken away so much up to this point that i was wowed into pulling into the inviting layby where after removing our lids and jackets we both revelled in what we had just done and witnessed with fevered excitement, both rushing to explain the gorgeousness of it all to each other with big beamy smiles on our faces.
Once we had calmed down enough, we re-attired ourselves and made our way to Wellsford, a quaint little place, where we stopped for lunch, which sadly was not as memorable as the rest of the day but we made do with it, somewhat regretting our decision to wait for the cream tea at Puhoi but instead pull our journey short as that would have involved joining onto the Auckland bound Motorway 1, which after what we had just been a part of the last thing we wanted to see in front of us was a long straight boring road, ughhh !
Instead, we agreed to go back the same way we came and re-live in a kind of slow mo dreamy way, what we did before, but this time in a more leisurely manner, taking the time this time around to pull over, stop and take those digital paintings of awe and wonder so we could be reminded and have those memories to look back on, so we plodded our way homewards, not picking up speed again until we got back to that now ugly Motorway 1, continuing our progress until we were near the end of our journey where we pulled into a petrol station so i could fill Brendan's girl up so we could return her to him with the thanks and gratitude he deserved, (was the LEAST we could do).
We got back and explained our day to him while he was wearing a grin which you could assume that he knew only too well what sort of time we had had but was patient enough to let us indulge in reminding him.
We've vowed to return and re-do that trip when we get the Blade on the road, this time taking a picnic so when we stop off at that picnic area we can be the masters of our own lunchy type destiny, the only downside of what, was a truly magnificent day, the first of many no doubt ! Cheers. Chaos & Kaye-Louise.