CD labour weekend 3 points

[sarahtvet]

Trumpy Mark decided we should do the 3 points as there is no 4 points rally this year and we could fit 3 into labour weekend. Who needs an excuse for 3 days of riding

Here is the report to tempt any would-be CDer's or would-be 4 pointers to go for it!!!!

[sarahtvet]

Day 1 Palmie to Mahia via Lake Ferry

Usual CD start (late) the major problem was a non-starting ZX-10 and the president (Andrew) having to pack his gear onto the TL in order to join us.

Left BP metro at about 0830 and met Robin (Cpt Black) at Levin by which time the president was in tow too, 1st push start for the T595.

So Gerbil, Trumpy, Pressie, Eddie,Robin,Thommo and I were on our way

Short warm-up run to the look out at Paekak hill and a pause to enjoy the view. Trumpy took advantage of the downhill part to start the T595 this time (do you spot the theme).

At last I broke the Rimutaka curse and got the Daytona over it : Loads of traffic and 2 wet streaks the entire way over made it interesting. I look forward to an early morning blatt over it when there are neither of the above.

Fuel at Featherstone (4) and out to Lake Ferry, the first of many roads I hadn't been on before and the first of a few interesting turning manouveres from upfront

My brakes work well but thought for a moment I was going to be the bonnet emblem for a concourse!!!!

Lovely fast roads, must do them again soon. The cafe at the end is a great place to refresh and the three dogs provided plenty of cuddles.

Went through Martinborough and Carterton then took Paierau road around Masterton as we headed to meet Stevie at Woodville. Robin left us there and we waited for a while for Eddie who had stopped for fuel in Masterton and not rejoined us. We agreed to regroup in Napier.

A rapid run to Napier via SH2 and saw Horse's rescuers in their garden enjoying the gorgeous sunshine. Tooted and waved, which might be why the cop olice: coming out of Whenuahou road decided to follow us, poor Eddie managed to get an escort to SH50 as we were long gone by the time he had pulled out

Bonez was spotted in his yellow trousers going in the other direction and we all waved. I guess he had been visiting his folks.

Pulled into BP in Napier and Eddie arrived 1minutes later. We then had a spirited run through to Mahia. What a lovely site, gorgeous views along the beach and a warm welcome at the holiday camp

770K and we were all ready for a cuppa and a freshen up. Off to the local for a few beers and dinner before tucking into some relaxing rum

The Sunset bar singer was very talented and yet did start to grate on the nerves after a while, we had to shout bike sxxt rather than just talk it .

The staff were fantastic and I was especially impressed that the barmen gave me the only blue straw without any prompting, he is on the xmas card list. Lovely fresh fish was the order of the evening for all. Sadly Eddie felt poorlyso left early.

The rest of us stumbled home with tired and happy grins, trying not to think how early Steve wanted us up in the morning.

Trumpy kindly, and slightly drunkenly, showed me the intended route for the next day and then kept Eddie and I awake for a while with his snoring.

[sarahtvet]

Day 2 Mahia - East Cape - Turangi

I am up for the 'Wally award' big time now!!

I convinced Stevie that a 7am start was a little rich and maybe we should go for 8, then I agreed to wake my roommates up at 7ish. Had a dream that I had overslept so woke up, checked my phone and paniced. In my sleepy post rum daze I thought it was 7:35 (it was 6:35) shot out of bed and woke the team up loudly and suddenly. They did get tea in bed though. The funniest part was nobody pointed out my mistake until we were loaded up, had tightened my chain and were about to leave. I turned the bike on and saw the time ops:

What a gentlemanly bunch, nobody said a word until then (yes they surely made up for it later).

We left at 7.30am and headed for Gisborne, disapointed that the Wharf wasn't ready to serve brekkie we took a spirited morning along the coast and found a cafe in Tolaga Bay. The East Cape for the first time
Yes there were some slips, gravel and a few decent subsidence ramps so I was glad of the 'heads-up' from the Pressie before we started.

Steve, Pressie and Thommo provided great lines to follow and if they braked I knew I was about to find something fun. Some very pleasant encounters with the East Cape constabularly, if only all cops passed us lights flashing etc and not for us !!!!!

We reached Te Araroa in glorious sunshine having passed a number of other riders having fun in the sun on these amazing roads. Imagine my surprise and the chances of a Blue 02 Daytona and a Gold 04 Daytona pulling into the petrol station whilst we were there!!!!!

Guys on a day trip from Tauranga. The 04 rider is now based in Sydney and has a Duc there, cute and sociable, so why did I not get his number
Too engrossed in talking Triumph electrics and ride plans for the day.

The oldies headed for Opitiki whilst Thommo, Eddie and I went to see the lighthouse. Another challenge for the week 40K on the gravel on the Daytona, who said it wasn't an adventure bike. It masterfully goes anywhere I point it with little complaint and always looking good

We had great fun on the twisties from Te Araroa and I was fortunate to have Thommo in my sights most of the time. We reached Opitiki 30min after the others,who were just relaxing,they had obviously taken a while to leave Te Araroa.

A mass of bikes gleaming in the sun, plenty of Triumphs amongst them and I chatted to a group from Auckland and their Palmie mate out for some labour weekend fun. They had enjoyed the East Cape and the Matawi road over the previous two days. Good to catch up with passionate bikers from other parts of the island

Also saw a bunch of lovely Jaguars out and about, my favourite car so I was enjoying sharing the road with them.

The three adventurers went to fuel up and had to return to pick up the rest who were lying on the grass sunbathing by their bikes, under the illusion that the road to Whakatane went past them

Stevie had gone home and now we were six and still raring for the riding. We enjoyed another new road, for me, that headed towards Murupara and then onto SH38 near Waiotapu. Lovely windy road with limited traffic and a good surface. A Rotavegas bypass I shall be using in the future

The TL wanted fuel at 188K so we headed for Taupo via SH5 and got the the fuel stop at 210K, must have been on fumes, lucky we were going downhill. A flash trike was fuelling up at the same time , very cool. Sure it was the same guy who provides the fun at the Cold Duck and Cold Kiwi but a much flasher trike.

We convinced Eddie to stay the night so we headed east along the lake for Turangi. Trumpy gawping at babes running along the road was amusing to watch as we tolerated the traffic.

We stayed at Club Habitat and I am not sure that Trumpy would have sold me on sharing a dorm if he had mentioned the fxxting and snoring before the event.

We drank at the Fish and ate at Valentinos but were restrained in comparison to the night before. I spent the evening trying to convince the team to come south in March for the TT2000 and we discussed the other forthcoming CD events.

740Ks today and we all felt on great form. I was starting to hope for a lotto win so I could afford the 10K in 10days
Been bitten by the endurance drug and the gorgeous roads in this country for sure.

Another day of great roads, riding, weather and companions, what life is all about :

[sarahtvet]

Day 3 Turangi- Forgotten Highway-West Cape - Palmie

Another early start due to glorious sunshine streaming in the window.
Eddie headed for the truck stop and home and the rest of us to a prebrekkie sprint to Tauramanui. Everybody got some exercise trying to start the T595 after the fuel stop. We then headed for the cafe and let Trumpy push his 'not so' trusty steed along the main street to join us

Pressie did the honourable thing and offered to help, Gerbil walked back to supervise and Thommo carried Trumpy's helmet on his bike!!!

I took photos as was my remit for the weekend

I was touched by the kindness of strangers,two different people came into the cafe to let us know the Triumph was leaking fuel ( I had overfilled a little and parking on the slope hadn't helped).

One of these kind souls and his mate also talked bikes and hung out to make sure that the T595 started so we had extra push power if needed. The cooling off had worked and it started without a hitch, although with a few rattles.

The Forgotten Highway was perfect, dry roads and the morning mist already burnt off. It is in pretty good shape at the moment. There are a few slips with a little mud on the corners and a few gravel repairs. These were mainly 20-40K north of Phonga and nothing really of note in the dry conditions.

Great to see some more Jaguars and that their owners were enjoying the twisties and had made it unscathed over the gravel :

At the Phonga hotel I swapped with Trumpy and proceeded to stall the T595 just as the other two had disappeared. The local gave us a push and luckily it started OK. I was a little more careful with the clutch after that

My closest call was about 3min later through the tight twisties, I was close to the white line on a L bend and the oncoming 4x4 was over it on my side. Sat me up a fraction but all good. I didn't want to solve Trumphy's problems by buying his bent bike

A nippy, more upright ride, don't like the tyres and the lack of torque caought me out on a few corners. Thommo thought I was missing gears and kindly was sat behind me counting. I was just a slow learner but soon sorted it and enjoyed the different feel.

We made Stratford in good time and then took Celia street into Opunake road and then Wiremu road to Arawhatia road and briefly on SH45 to Cape Road. Thommo initially turned left onto SH45 then made a fortuitous turn around just as a mufti pulled over a car!!!

There was a good swell and a breeze at the West Cape but I wished I had my shorts so I could have cooled off with a paddle, the water looked lovely.

Lunch at Sugar Juice in Opunake which was packed and had a v smart Jaguar convertible parked outside. All road lovers were out making the most of the long weekend and sunshine.

Fuel in Hawera and then along the 45 to Wanganui were we picked up SH3 for the last run. I had hoped we would take Fordell or Turakina valley roads but the concensus was the main drag. Busy and well patrolled says it all.

The final tally on push starts was about 10 over the 3 days. Trumpy got lots of teasing but to be fair the ZX10 didn't even make the ride so I am not sure the Pressie can be too smug

The other road users were corteous and even the pig and pheasant didn't make it home with us.

No dramas so after 3 days, 2050 km, no rain, no offs, no tickets, no flats and great fun we said our farewells on the outskirts of Palmie.



Apres ride at Cuba with Horse and Dean and caught up with another CDer who has been prepping for the racing next weekend.

Looking forward to another trip

[sarahtvet]

pics are here

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/saraht...LabourWeekend#

and map from the SPOT tracker which worked really well even at high speed

[ynot slow]

Saw 1 cop from Hawera to Bulls,then 2 while stopped,but had left at 10am,and traffic starting to build up,beaut day early on and was showery about 5pm back home.

[sarahtvet]

Saw 1 cop from Hawera to Bulls,then 2 while stopped,but had left at 10am,and traffic starting to build up,beaut day early on and was showery about 5pm back home.

4 cops in about 5k

[ynot slow]

4 cops in about 5k

Did you get an invoice?

[sarahtvet]

Did you get an invoice?

me why on earth would I it was just a pootle homeward bound.

Unlike the Triumph run next weekend

[BladeBoy]

dam sounds like a mint ride. i had to ride from lower hutt to tauranga to check on my rental property was awsome weather but no company ,apart from the hundreds of other bikes on the road, good times. hopfully we get a good summer aye.

[sarahtvet]

dam sounds like a mint ride. i had to ride from lower hutt to tauranga to check on my rental property was awsome weather but no company ,apart from the hundreds of other bikes on the road, good times. hopfully we get a good summer aye.

Should join CD then you could have made a weekend of it or joined us for part of the trip. We have members from wellie to the hawkes bay
Was a fab weekend, then went back to Tauranga this weekend to pick up a bike