yeah... i've been contemplating if any ills of spending a day on the bike while having a sore throat might be cured by a hot cup of liquorice tea at the end of the day
great ride out there and back for me only today the guys looked like they were settling in when I left Beaut spot to stay
Great weekend, guys. Thanks for taking the initiative to organise this event, Simon. It's been too long since we've done a weekend away. This morning's rain forced a change of plans for most of us. However, as the last to leave, Wendy & I decided to do the Te Anga/Waitomo loop regardless before heading home. The roads were wet initially, but by the time we got to Kinohaku the sun was out and the roads were nearly dry. Beautiful scenery, sealed roads with minimal roadworks, and virtually no traffic, apart from encountering what must have been a tractor convention. We overtook about 15 tractors, with some towing camper trailers, around the Marokopa Falls area. The rest of the trip home was uneventful. Wendy and I are keen to see this become an annual event.
Thanks for all your work Simon, a great weekend. We need to all work together to organise more weekends like that.
Mr and Mrs Volty had a great weekend , thanks Simon. Also keen to make these more regular. The R65 performed well...can even hold 110 up the Bombays 2 up....
Thanks for a great weekend everyone, and thank you Simon for organising it. Had a bit of rain heading back home, but the bikes electrics handled it well, which was a plus.
Yeah, had a great time, thanks to those that did all the work. Seems everyone but me brought wet weather gear - but I scored a jacket liner that fitted my petite frame. I stopped at the Te Anga turnoff, but it looked very wet down that way, and clear to the north. I decided to do the Kawhia road in the wet this time - normally wet gravel is better than dry, but not this time. One stretch where I got up to 120kph on the way down no worries, I was all over the road at 80kph - hit a slick spot when doing that and it could get messy. Rain until the Raglan Rd then cleared, so went up SH22 to see Dodgy, pouring with rain the whole way. He took pity on my wet dishevelled appearance, and got a meal he was going to feed to the dog. Got to see the MkII Le Mans/SP with the fancy brakes. Rained on the way home, got there in sunshine and looked like it never rained all day. I haven't done much rain riding in recent years, I've tuned into one of those sunday fair weather riders. So good to be forced into it, took a bit to find my feet, but my tyres worked very well and never felt a slip the whole time. Stayed fairly dry too.
It was a great weekend and I loved it. The coffee machine was an inspired idea and it was great to meet up with people who had only existed in cyber space. It is hard to find a place where we can meet up and relax that is close to Auckland and central for the rest, affordable at $30/night fully catered and has brilliant riding roads. So Te Kauri ticks the boxes and there is no real reason why we have to limit going there to an annual event. It is easy for me to keep an eye on the weather forecast and the bookings and grab something. All we need is someone with a car/ute etc to carry the bags and we are away. The bikers can bring their families ( score brownie points) as there is room to spread around. Anyway now that you know about our place, fire some ideas about. You all have all my contact details.
Thanks Simon for all your work in setting this weekend up, and also for foregoing the ride for the weekend for yourself, to drive the ute with the luggage, coffee machine and food ... greatly appreciated. It was great to put a face to the names on the forum and to meet up with others I had known before. A wonderful setting for a get together and first class company .... thanks to all. Rhys
There are several options regarding the format of future weekends at the lodge too. One option would be to meet there on the Friday night so that Saturday is set aside for a ride around the area. The Te Anga/Waitomo loop is a fun stretch, with some attractive scenery and roads arguably the equal of the Coromandel yet without the automotive chicanes and the squids. Alternatively we could go through Pirongia and up to Te Awamutu through the back roads. And if we start fitting adventure tyres to our bikes, the options become greater still. We could even do stuff like stopping at the Waingaro hot pools for a splash on the Sunday, for those returning home in the general direction of Auckland.
