My "smiling faces" adventure (Manfeild women's training day)

[Dutchee]

Well, what can I say (a hell of a lot, really). What an awesome time I’ve just had. Totally different from planned. I don’t do much riding on my own (commuting doesn’t count), generally because it’s lonely and I’m cautious.

I saw the post on KiwiBiker about Karel’s training day at Manfeild and was tempted, but thought, it’s too far away, it’ll mean 3 days from home, we can’t afford it, and 1001 other reasons not to go. I spoke to my husband about it and he told me to book myself in. Step 1 done.

On the Thursday before the course, something happened, and I was no longer sure I’d be able to go. I could barely walk, but hoped that antibiotics would cure the problem, so booked into the doctor and found out that I was right about what was wrong. Sweet.

Monday morning finally rolled around (believe me, all weekend I had just wanted to jump on my bike and head off early). Time to load up and head south. I left nice and early to avoid as much Auckland traffic as I could and got the timing pretty well sorted. Basically, the ride to Manfeild was a lot of road works (I’m sure they use their radios to tell the next lot there’s a blue bike coming and make sure the stop sign is out at that time).

By the time I got to Feilding, I was a bit deflated and wondering what was wrong in my world, as I’d not gotten lost all day. I totally fixed that and couldn’t find the campground a group of us were staying at (pity really that I did find it). After sitting around for a few hours, I was wondering what was up and no one else was there. I knew where we were meeting up, so tracked that down expecting to see a heap of bikes out front, but nada. Basically, the Wellington girls took longer than expected and hadn’t changed plans.

Tuesday morning dawned on a perfect day for riding, so we all geared up, headed to the track, nervously taped up lights, indicators and mirrors. We worked on corners, braking, riding slowly through cones, familiarizing ourselves with the track (with some finding the total limits of brakes). The number one rule of the day was no separation of bike & person – 42 women managed this, which is impressive.

That night we sat around talking about the day, and if we got anything out of it. The highlight for me in hindsight, was that rule 1 hadn’t been broken. I’d thought with my luck that the one person going down would be me, so that was a huge thing.

more to follow

[Dutchee]

I’d been intending to ride back to Auckland on the Tuesday night/Wednesday with someone else, but she decided to ride up on her own. After talking to my husband for a bit, we agreed to totally change my plans to mix in with his. He was going racing/riding buckets at Kaitoke over Easter, and I had been sure I was going to be too tired and disinterested to drive back down the countryside to spectate.

Instead, I was going to ride over to Taranaki and have a look around, as I’d never been to that part of the country. Wednesday morning rolled out another stunning day. I’d spent half the night studying the map and decided to look up a friend in Carterton, so headed to Palmerston North. I’ve been fascinated by the windfarm, so headed that way. I thought while I was in the area, I should check out the Woodville MX track. As I’d not eaten, when I spotted a sign for a café somewhere by the gorge, I thought it a perfect place to stop. The sign said it was open from 10am, but the time was only 9.58am. Hmmm, too early. I’d spotted a gravel road on the way there, so decided I wanted to have a look at what was there. Riding along, I still had no indication what was at the other end or where it headed. I thought it was cool as I could see the windmills at some points, and eventually figured I was getting closer all the time. It led right into the middle of it, and past the summit, I could overlook Palmerston North as well. I’d spoken to someone who worked up there as to where the road went, so decided not to bother following it to the end, but turn around and head back down.

Once I got to Woodville (where I did finally get a coffee), I couldn’t spot the MX track, so rode on. Phone boxes no longer have phone books in them, so I was unable to locate my friend before Carterton (I thought she might have moved north in the years since I’ve seen her). Stopping off at the post office meant I was able to look through a phone book and find she’d moved out of the area, so no point in hanging around. Food was more tempting here, so a quick meal was in order.

Every time I thought about stopping for a decent break, or even somewhere to stay, I’d spot another sign saying whatever town was just around the corner. Riding over the Rimutaka’s I found interesting. I’d always thought you people from Wellington/Wairarapa were saying windy (lots of corners) road, but now I know you’re saying windy (gusts of wind) road (along with lots of corners). All of a sudden I spotted the Kaitoke cart track sign, so had to stop to have a look. I then also got told to find us somewhere to stay for the weekend, but got fed up with that and carried on over the Aka’s to Waikanae. After stopping at a beach somewhere, I decided maybe I should find somewhere to stay for the night, and stopped at a motel to find it was more than my budget/brain allowed for that night, so had to continue up the road. I ended up somewhere between Otaki and Levin with a short ride to get dinner.

Thursday morning dawned yet another stunning day (I had left wets at home, and just counted on luck really, but for two nights, that was a calculated risk). As I’d never been to Wanganui (with or without an H), and seen plenty of it on the news, that was a good destination for the day. Foxton gave me a pretty disgusting breakfast, but it was fuel. I saw what I’d wanted to see in Wanganui (I don’t find towns fascinating), spotted it was only 160k to New Plymouth, so decided I really wanted to see the mountain, so headed north.

yet more to come

[Dutchee]

(final part, finally)

I studied the map along the way and figured that NP wasn’t overly doable with meeting my husband the next day, so thought I’d see the mount and turn around and stay in Wanganui for the night. I stopped about 15k from Hawera, chatted to some people exercising their dogs, jumped back on the bike and headed back south. Once I got back to Wanganui, I decided I really didn’t want to stay there, so would head for Raetihi, thinking I wouldn’t make it quite that far as time was marching on.

I was once again assaulted with road works (I’m over them), and couldn’t see anywhere to stop for the night, so trucked on to Raetihi, only to find the campgrounds booked out. I headed off (exhausted by this stage) to Ohakune, booked myself in to a cabin, and walked off into town for food. Losing the backpack was always a wonderful feeling and freshened me up immensely. A bit of sustenance helped further. The shower at the Ohakune camp ground was fantastic, so well utilized by me.

Friday morning dawned another perfect day (bit chilly though), and worked out I had time to ride up Mt Ruapehu and get gas for the bike and some food/coffee before meeting my husband. Riding up the mount, I was terrified. I hate downhills and was panicking about the whole thing but stubbornly carried on to the end of the road. I saw Mt Egmont in the distance (the previous day the top had been shrouded in cloud, today I could see the top, but not the base, so I’ve seen the whole mount). A few more photographs and time to head down.

Once I met up with Henk, I could dump my pack and we could head down to Kaitoke. As we had time, we stopped off at different places, I got to ride over the Aka’s in the reverse direction from previous and have dinner with someone to talk to.

The next two days was him just riding his bucket. I was over bikes and happy to be off my baby for a while. She got loaded into the van and we drove back up to Auckland.

I have people ask me why I ride a 250 when I’ve got my full licence. The bike is small enough that I’m comfortable on it, and I’m not stressed about getting stuck somewhere when I decide to go exploring on my own. I’m not a fast rider, nor overly confident, but I’m nosey and love being able to go to off-the-beaten-track spots.

Did I gain anything from doing the training day? I could hear us being told about cornering, I got to practice plenty of u-turns (stuffing up the odd one as I got thinking about things other than what I was doing). I got to hear Karel say “helmet on, brain focused”. I have a bad habit of my mind wandering while I’m riding. I still did it occasionally, but would bring myself out of that state quicker. I looked at my smiley face on the dash and remembered to relax. I got a lot out of Tuesday but know I’ve got lots of practice to do over time and need to work on breaking some bad habits I’ve developed. It’ll take time.

If anyone has read this whole thing, I’m impressed you’re that bored. I hope I can put a few photos up at some stage, (none from the training day, though). I basically fell in love with NZ again, and definitely fell in love with motorcycling once more. I’ve not ridden much in the past 6 months, so to have clocked up over 1500km in 5 days was good for me (less than 100km on the Tuesday, but it was tiring have to think the whole time and intense – a good feeling).

Oh, a huge thanks to Karel and team. Definitely recommended by me.
Michelle

[sinfull]

Wicked read !! Wicked ride !!
Well done Dutchie, shame we didn't know you were camped down our ways on wed night, could have sent ya on yr way thurs (or escorted ya) with a hangover lol !
Oh and love the way you made no detrimetal comment about the Aka's (even went and did it in reverse) I'm impressed !

[Quasi]

Hi Michelle,

Great write up and totally envious of your grand tour afterwards. Pity you didnt wing by Martinborough in the Wairarapa and i would given you a bed for the night and shown you some of my great rides.

I am thinking about doing the May day, so if you also do it, lets catch up.

Carla

[Lucy]

Nice write up! I read the whole thing too. Agree about the 250, I've just gone back to one. Haven't done any long touring yet, but have ridden it heaps more than when I had the 800. One of these days I'll get around to a track day.

[Gone Burger]

Hey Michelle - WELL DONE! What an awesome write up. It sounds like you had a fantastic adventure for the week. You must be exhausted now. I know I sure am.

My ride up to Auckland was good fun, but a long slooooow trip. My luggage weighed the poor bike down, had to push my bike for 15 minutes through roadworks because the new "chip"they had just laid was mini boulders - no bikes could ride it, couldn't get past 80km on uphills, and ran out of gas a few times. But it was great fun. The trip back from Auckland to Wellington yesterday was funny too. Ran out of gas on the desert road. The 250 just can't make it between gas stations it seems. 126km and she was completely dry. But I too took some roads that I hadn't discovered before, and all in all, I had a ball. Went bike hunting up in Auckland actually, was dreaming about riding something a little larger home

Yep, the Tuesday training was just fantastic! You looked great doing laps on the track on your bike, and it was a most impressive sight when all 42 of us were out there getting used to the track together.

A huge mission for you Michelle, so I'm so pleased to hear how much you have gained from it. Should be very proud of yourself, I'm sure your hubby is!

[Dutchee]

Lucy, if you can swing a day (or two) off work, head down for the May course. I'm surprised by how much I got out of it. I have a hell of a lot of theory in my head, but struggle to put it into practice. Somehow they managed to get it to a part of my brain that functions when I ride. I'd do something or start doing something wrong, and hear their voices saying what to do. When I got tired, that part of the brain did switch off a bit, but I still felt better.
So, do you ride the Parapara's often? I'm not sure about them, but it was at the end of the day for me, so knew I was getting tired and needed to take my time (yes, I move over to let cars past, I'd rather have them ahead rather than finding my focus being on my mirrors to see if I'm about to be run over). The roadworks on the Parapara's gave me the heebies, as I wasn't 100% comfortable riding on the clay down hill with a couple of machines nicely on the road I wanted to take lol.

Quasi, I don't think I'll be doing the May course, but may book in for one next summer - see if I can move up a group (yeah, Tui moment for sure). I could spend a month down that way exploring, but this stupid thing called time seems to interfere in life. Who knows, maybe I could organise something another time. It would be neat to ride with locals and check out their sights.

Sinfull - loved the Aka's. Loved the fact it's a single lane road with traffic in both directions, blind corners and narrows down even further at times. Heading back from kaitke (in the van), we totally ignored the GPS telling us to go down the road, and went via haywards (much easier). Somehow I always found these sorts of roads as I was winding down for the day and thinking about where to stay - never when i was fresh in the mornings lol. (oh except ruapehu, but the cliff face scared the beejesus out of me).

katiepie - glad you made it home safely. We'll need to try and hook up at some stage when you're up here next to go for a ride. Unfortunately with Auckland, it takes forever to get out of the boring roads up to the fun roads and often puts me off going for a decent ride. Be nice to catch up if possible

[paulmac:Me]

You stopped 12 km short of our place !! Always a bed, dinner, wine here for passing riders. Full workshop too.
Good stuff on the training day too - more riders should do them.

[kerryhare]

Awesome read. I did the training day down here in Christchurch yesterday (Sunday) I got so much out of it. I will definitely do another one as there was so much info to take in. I have a 250 to as i am still on my restricted. I have decided I am quite happy with my 250 and plan on continuing to ride it once I have my full licence even though my husband thinks I should get something bigger.

[Dutchee]

Kerry, it depends on you, what sort of riding you want to do, your confidence and ability. There is nothing wrong with riding a 250, even if you're allowed to ride a bigger bike, if you choose to do so.

It actually annoys the crap out of me when people slag me off because I chose a 250. I don't want a 600 or bigger at the moment and they no longer import new 400's into NZ. I could get an older bike, but then there's the whole reliability issue. I've done (just) over 28,000km since I bought the ninga 18 months ago and the only thing to go wrong was the bolt holding the shifter fell out one day on the way to work, which meant I couldn't change gear. Found a bolt on the side of the motorway, and continued on. I now know to check that bolt sometimes but it has been loctited in as well.

The bike can go better than I can ride. I do have to choose when to try and overtake, but after having ridden the bike last week, with me leaving each day about 8-9am and finding somewhere to stay around 6-7pm, with just a sore back from carrying a backpack, still able to walk, and having had a huge grin on my face the whole day, I know I'm on the right bike for me. My DR650 doesn't have the same grin factor, as my butt gets so sore that ends up being all I can concentrate on. She's more fun to ride on gravel roads, but I'm going to have to say goodbye to her soon.

Paulmac - I knew some folk live Hawera way, but thought it'd be nice to have a cruisey morning on Friday with a haul back down to Wellington, so decided on the best course of action for me on the day. Saw plenty of bikes going to & from NP way, as i stopped often along that road, it was just so cool. Patea totally fascinated me and I spent ages there. I'm going to have to go back that way at some stage, with details about the history of the area. Maybe next time (a trip to the Forgotten Highway is often mentioned, just getting a group of us organised to do it seems to be a bit of a mission in itself lol).