Mountains and lake figure eight
A settled weather forecast and Mrs H with a couple of days off over a weekend? Go riding, of course!
Friday we both took a day's leave and left Wellington in a northerly direction mid-morning. Our plan was to ride to Taihape, avoiding as much of SH1 as possible. A nice riding day -- about 19 degrees, no wind and not too sunny. We turned off at Kimberley and took the back road through Shannon, diverting via Opiki, briefly onto the Longburn road, before heading across country to Feilding via Kopane and Awahuri.
We found a great wee cafe in Feilding (as you do) called Marlows that does "white chocolate brownies" and a moderately acceptable flat white. Tables on the pavement -- very urbane!
Highway 54 from Feilding to Vinegar Hill is passable again, but still shows the signs of the devastation caused by the floods. There's a Bailey bridge in place between Rewa and Waituna West and the approaches to a few of the bridges have been patched and there's loose gravel everywhere. Otherwise this is still one of the best rides in the southern North Island.
Now is a great time to get out and see the countryside if you're a fan of autumn colours. While many poplar varieties are past their best, the liquid ambers, claret ashes, oaks, metasequoias, taxodiums and ashes are at their fall finest! Taihape looks a picture this time of year.
We stayed Friday and Saturday night at Taihape. If you're bikers who prefer kingsize beds and spa baths to tents and lilos, then we can recommend the Aspen Court Motel -- on the left as you head north out of town. An easy stroll to the Exchange Cafe in town, for Taihape's best food and coffee.
Saturday dawned mild and clear, so off we zoomed to Ohakune for brunch. This is still a sleepy hollow, but will be a much different town in about a month's time when the ski season gets rolling. We had the roads more or less to ourselves.
We rode into cloud about National Park but still decided to to the side road detour to the Top of the Bruce. We were able to see out under the cloud (just) from up here but all of the mountains were obscured from view. Even without snow, the lunar landscape of Ruapehu is rather special. A surprising number of young Asians in Honda Preludes were wandering around smoking cigarettes.
We then rode through to Turangi, stopping at the lookout just as you descend down towards the Rangipo tailrace.
Back on SH1 so too was most of the travelling public. A steady pace with few overtaking opportunities let us take in the breathtaking lake views.
Taupo was in holiday weekend mode. Lots of Aucklanders in Pajeros and Prados, lots of young Asians in Preludes wandering aroung smoking cigarettes. We took on pies and petrol.
We then took the Taupo-Te Kuiti road -- the left turnoff at the top of the hill as you leave town. This is a nice ride. A good stretch of seal with lots of pleasant rural scenery. This road eventually links with Highway 32 (the Turangi-Tokoroa road) and we turned left. This is a fast road. Even though it has few straights, a roading engineer with a good sense for cambered corners was let loose here. After a photo stop at the one layby with a view of the lake, we were at Kuratau Junction in no time at all.
On the subject of beautifully cambered and rather quick corners, Highway 41 from Kuratau Junction to Tokaanu is magnificent! Edge to edge chicken strip on the back wheel, effortlessly! Woo hoo! I was seriously tempted to go back and do it again...
After a refuel at Tokaanu, it was back to Turangi and down the Desert Road to Taihape. In the last couple of months Transit has done some resurfacing on the twisties at the Taupo end of the Desert Road, taking out the worst of the corrugations that were there last time we were through. Not a breath of wind on this run. The late afternoon colours on the hills behind Waiouru were enough to make you think you were somewhere else in the world entirely. We arrived back at the motel in Taihape about half past five, just in time to fire up the spa!
Today it was drizzling when we left Taihape, and continued to drizzle until Palmerston North. We came back down the Vinegar Hill Road (as you do), but turned off before Feilding to ride the Colyton-Ashurst Road. This is rather nice countryside but many of the bridges have had their approaches scoured by the floods, so watch out for new seal and loose gravel.
After a brunch stop at Palmerston North, it was over the Pahiatua track, then right through Nikau to Eketahuna, round the back of Masterton to a coffee stop at Greytown. The weather improved markedly as the afternoon wore on. We detoured through Martinborough and Featherston before having our first no-wind ride in some time over the Rimutakas. Wellington harbour and the city put on a great show in the afternoon light as we headed homewards.
About 1,000km plus or minus for the weekend. The bikes are filthy! They won't get washed tonight though.
Some great countryside here to be enjoyed before winter, folks. Get out and enjoy!!
"Standing on your mother's corpse you told me that you'd wait forever." [Bryan Adams: Summer of 69]
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Originally Posted by duckman
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