Had a great weekend ride apart from the rain, snow and wind. Took off from Wellywood to Napier on Friday afternoon.
Raining at Upper Hutt, but sunny after the summit of the 'Takas until I got to Masterton. Rained on and off 'till Woodville where I met up with Fraggle.
Rained more or less solidly from Woodville to Danniverke where it cleared up nicely. Caught up with my sisters in Napier.
Saturday morning. Napier was fine and sunny like always. Went up Napier-Taupo which was all fine until the summit at Titiokoura. Man I love that road. Fast corners, and so wide you can pass almost anywhere.
Rained very hard most of the way to Taupo. We saw a truck crash at the northern Pohukura road entrance, but friendly cagers were dealing with it so we didn't stop.
Pretty good over the plains to Opepe but I was getting very cold. No wets, just my leathers! In hindsight this was tropical compared to what was coming.
Got to Taupo and met up with Fraggle's parents. Her dad was on an old Velocette single so we sent them on ahead, otherwise things would get a little boring. We warmed up in a nice cafe for an hour or so and continued to Turangi. Again the weather was on and off.
Stopped in Turangi for some gas. We were warned that there was snow on the Desert road. Unperturbed we carried on. It was furiously cold and raining until we got to the Tukino access road, when it started snowing. Brrrr....Riding in the snow is hard on the old nerves. Especially with a crappy tyre.
Got to Waiouru alright and the weather improved a bit. We saw an old steam train puffing along, but didn't stop to take a picture. Carried on to Taihape for some lunch. Sat by the fire for a bit to warm up and made a real mess in the Cafe. The rain was really belting down now.
Carried on and the weather improved quite a bit as we approached Bulls. But now the wind started blowing! And blowing. Had the bike tilted at about 15 degrees of the vertical. Stopped for a cup of tea and some Dutch treats in Bulls at the Windmill cafe.
While passing a car, shortly after Sanson, I saw a whole bunch of cops. I thought I was screwed for sure, but it turned out they had more pressing concerns! Bartman escapes again!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3438467a10,00.html
More wind along the Himatangi plains, but other then that the ride was uneventful from there to Wellington.
Sunday dawned a beautiful day and Fraggle and I went on the WIMA charity ride. I got this cool pink badge. Thanks to Kate for organising the ride and thanks to Stewart and Fergus at TSS motorcycles ~ (04) 569 3989 ~ for the sausages.
All up I think we did about 900 k's.
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