Sunday dawned another clear and sunny day, a continuation of the unseasonably dry autumnal weather we have been enjoying and I left National Park at 7.15am with a smile on my face in anticipation of another great days riding with the Back Road Riders.
I arrived early in Whanganui so as to have a coffee with Graeme as he wanted to give me some of his maps from previous rides and for a catch up. Colin W came along as well. From our vantage point at the Yellow House Café we soon saw riders arriving at the Dublin St Shell and by 9.50am there was a total of 13 riders, a very good turnout. The number included two new members to the B.R.Rs and a warm welcome to Alan Clark and Wayne Horrobin to the group.
After the standard briefing we departed Whanganui on time with me as lead rider and Colin W. as Tail End Charlie and headed for the morning’s ride that consisted of the Kai Iwi loop which would see us back in Whanganui for lunch at Oggies Café.
We head north up Somme Parade on the true right of the Whanganui River. As we reach the city limits Somme Parade soon becomes Papaiti Rd and the start of the 80k Kai Iwi gravel loop. We followed the river for about 20ks before we leave it at the confluence with the Kauarapapa Stream and onto Kauarapapa Rd. It’s not long before you get the sense of being in the middle of nowhere and that’s because you are! The road soon narrows to one vehicle width with a grass strip down the middle but it’s in good condition and our progress is reasonably quick. It wasn’t too dusty at the front (funny that!) but I could see in my rear view mirror that there was a bit of it about. Kauarapapa Rd is not too far from the Whanganui National Park and the Kauarapapa Stream traverses papa country so is quite gorgy and there are many of pockets of regenerating native bush mixed in with the farmland so on a nice sunny day it’s a good place to be. After a further 30ks we turn south onto Rangitaitau East Rd. Rangitaitau East Rd services exotic tree plantations and is two lanes wide, hard and fast and the smile on my face broadens as the speedo registers 100km/hr. on the odd occasion and we even have to stop and take on some fluids and ditch a few layers.
Ditching layers on Rangitaitau East Rd.
Tim & Colin, Rangitaitau East Rd.
From here we continue south on more hard and fast gravel for another 30ks before we hit the seal and take Brunswick Rd back to SH4 and Whanganui for lunch.
After refuelling both bikes and body we cross the Whanganui River and head out to the Whangaehu Valley via Fordell and Mangamahu on sealed roads which narrow and become twisty from Mangamahu onwards. Mangamahu Rd becomes Whangaehu Valley Rd and it’s around this time that there was a DR vs. DR incident! Don’t worry though because it was a no speed accident while we had stopped to regroup and a senior moment saw Robin A. somehow (Rob you may wish to enlighten us on this one) managed to lay his DR over onto Colin F’s. who had the misfortune to be parked alongside Robin. As far as I’m aware there was no damage done apart to Robin’s pride.
We soon hit the 15ks of gravel on Whangaehu Valley Rd which is a bit marble like and concentration is required. As the name suggests, Whangaehu Valley Rd follows the Whangaehu River and the views can be distracting. The source of the Whangaehu River is the Crater Lake on Mt Ruapehu. The river is prone to flash flooding when Ruapehu erupts and lahars are caused as happened on Christmas Eve 1953 at Tangiwai when a lahar took out the rail bridge and a packed passenger train plugged into the river causing 151 deaths.
We continue north on Whangaehu Valley Rd which turns back to seal again and head up to Karioi and from here we turn west onto Oruakukuru Rd and another 15ks of wide hard and fast gravel and more dust. Oruakukuru Rd tightens up and eventually becomes sealed again and snakes its way until it terminates at SH4 and the Parapara Rd. It’s at this point I bid the guys ado as I have to head back home to cook tea for my in-laws. The rest of the crew head south towards Whanganui before the disperse to their various home locations.
All in all a very enjoyable day’s riding with 100+ ks of fantastic gravel and a good turnout.
Here is the link to BanditRider's blog with some good video footage. http://banditrider.blogspot.co.nz/20...whanganui.html
The next ride will be on Sunday the 20th of May and will be on the Eastern side of the Ruahines. Details will be emailed out shortly.
It's Gr82briding!
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