Victory Lap 15/03

**AD345** · 15th March 2009, 20:15

A ride was (very loosely) organised for today to allow one of our members to blow the cobwebs out before going back over to Oz.

The arrangements were to meet at SFI at 10:00am to depart by 10:30 to parts unknown. A group of us duly rolled up around 10:00 - 2 Kingpins, 2 Ness Series Jackpots, 2 Hammers and an 8-ball (sounds like a very odd hardware store...) and the destination is unveiled.

"We're going to Wairangi for lunch!"

Great - uh, where the fuck is Wairangi?

"By Taupo"

Uh?

Wairakei??

yes!

Once that was sorted out we rolled off the the BP at Bombay to pick up another Jackpot plus a Fatboy, a GSX 250 (I think) and a Kawasaki cruiser 650 (I forget the name). By this time its getting on towards 11:00M and we havent covered a while lot of distance (Takanini to Bombay essentially) Its looking like a late lunch.
I was asked to lead off and we hit the road, slotted in behind the Corvette Club (for about 2 minutes) and rumbled off down SH2 and onto SH27 - first agreed stop to be Tirau.

SH2 is its usual paradise of traffic clumps, ya just bop from one queue to another. The group started to string out as the vagaries of passing meant that 3 of us were able to get the jump on the rest and just kept going. A good ride down 27 - it really is cruiser heaven - saw the first 3 roll into Tirau about 12:15 with the other 8 bikes arriving en-masse about 15 minutes later. Everybody is enjoying stretching first their bikes legs and then their own - the guys at the back were muttering about ear-plugs due to the preponderance of after-market exhausts. Two of us topped up and the rest decided to leave it to the final destination.

We rolled away towards Taupo at about 1:00pm on schedule for a (now) mid afternoon feast. The stretch into Tokoroa was just a preamble for the run through the forest into Wairaki itself. Its a great piece of road and we were all starting to get into the groove - when we hit the bloody diversion for an accident. 10 - 15 minutes out of Taupo became 30 or so minutes wandering to hell and gone around the Western side of the forest. It was a nice enough piece of road but waaaaaaaaay overloaded with traffic due to the divert and glances in my mirror showed a few faces wishing they had topped up at Tirau (never let a chance go by).

We eventually came out right at Taupo with everyone bathed in the glow of their reserve fuel lights (apart from us 2 clever buggers of course). A wing and a prayer saw us dash down to the Wairaki BP with sighs of relief. Bikes duly watered we headed over the the Prawn farm - our ultimate destination.

We finally sat down for a meal at about 2:45. The Prawn farm was great. We just rocked up out of the blue

"Table for 11 please"

"No worries"

So while busloads of Asian tourists lit the sky up with flashbulbs while ooohing and aaahing over the bikes we tucked into a great feed of prawns and garlic bread and fish and beer and laughs and general good times.

Around 4 - 4:30 we pushed back from the table and geared up for the ride home. Everybod was feeling nice and relaxed and ready for a good finish to the day. We head up SH1 again - only to strike the same bloody diversion - still in place!!! So we roll allllllllllllll the way back and then allll the way around and make our way towards Tokaroa.

Myself and another gentlemens bladder had suddenly shrunk to the size of peas which necessitated a rather brisk pace to Tokaroa and a fairly undignified rush through the BP service station. 10 blissful minutes later we were ready to get back on the road - with no clue if we were still in front or now behind the main bunch. The other gent said he was going to push on back through SH1 while I headed for 27 again - eyes peeled.

Just after I turned off at Tirau I saw one of the other members come flying around a corner heading in the other direction! I pull over to the side of the road and counted to 100 while looking in my mirror (I have no idea why 100 - it just seemed like a good round number). No sign of him so I carried on to the GAS station at the crossroads to fill the bike and drain the pesky bladder again. While humming happily away I hear the unmissable rumble of a Jackpot.

Long story short - I'd completely missed seeing the group at the Tirau pub and he had been cruising up and down the road looking for me. The 2 of us decided to head on to Matamata Shell for a coffee and arranged for the rest of the group to meet us there.

Eventually we all reunited (minus the bloke who had headed straight home) and 10 kick-ass cruisers (well 9 plus a sprotbike) headed away from Matamata about 6:30pm

We decided to stick together for the whole run back and, if I do say so myself, we looked and sounded fecking awesome travelling as a pack up 27 and then along 2. Cars, by and large, gave us reasonable amounts of room and we were able to keep up a good clip (not always easy for a tight group) until we turned onto 2 and straight into the setting sun. It mae for a very interesting last half hour as we pretty much stuck to the flow of traffic (if we can't see - its not likely the cars could either!). Some great visuals made me wish I had a top flight on-board camera but several stretches where you were just aiming for the brakelights in front and peering made for some intense riding.

Finally rocked in home about 8:00pm

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