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Finished looking around the classic car show at the Te A racecourse by 11.30, so decided to take the scooter for a run. I took the back road through to Otorohanga, skirted around the township and headed up the Waitomo valley road. Lots of tight corners, a few short strips of re sealing gravel. The country south of Oto certainly needs a lot of rain.

At Waitomo it was left then right into Fullerton road. Thankfully the two tourists cars in front of me were turning off just a few k's further. If you think scooters are slow, try sitting behind two krauts doing 10kph while looking for a sign. . Fullerton rd is made for motorcycles, at least it would be if some BASTARD would come along after the re sealing crews and sweep the road clear.

At the Oparure rd, I turned left to Te Kuiti where 2litres later Buggsy and I barrelled up the hill out of town heading to Piopio.

My target was to locate the Piopio cemetery and find the great grand aunty thats been hanging out there since 1923. Interesting backdrop to her story. The husband Isaac took out a life insurance on her in 1920. two years later Isaac is bankrupt, a year later, 1923, Emily dies suddenly at age 53. 1924 sees old Ike re married. Lots of stories from the oldies of the time. Seems Isaac was the black sheep of the family. Anyway, the cemetery is way up a side road on a hillside with a lovely outlook over the country. Not much use to the residents I guess, but there's something serene and peacefull about a small country cemetery that's kept mowed and well tended.

Goal accomplished, I rode back out to SW3 and a few k's back toward Te Kuiti, I turned up Troopers road. Heaps of S bends tight corners. The scenery was lovely. Very brown but the rolling hills and clumps of bush in the hollows and lots of rocky outcrops made the ride very enjoyable.


From Troopers rd it was back to Waitomo and into Otorohanga for a quick feed at Maccas. From there, I kept to the main road looking for slofox's Waikato tag. Back at home in Te Awamutu, the penny dropped. The tag was on the Pirongia road. So whats another 25ks? Off I went, got the tag ( I had taken a new tag photo on my way out to Piopio ).

All up just over 200 ks. The back roads dont make riding a scooter seem particulally slow. I'd like to meet up with others that are keen to do something different.