Fush & chups at Kawhia (Wed 14 Jan)

**Crisis management** · 13th January 2009, 20:23

Originally Posted by Kaituna

Thats not thunder........it's my mighty DR650!

You're going to be bloody early then.......

Catch you all at various times in the morning.

**tri boy** · 13th January 2009, 21:36

Chunder Birds are go!
F.A.B. Virgel.

**NordieBoy** · 14th January 2009, 08:56

Originally Posted by tri boy

Chunder Birds are go!
F.A.B. Virgel.

Farting and Burping?

**dino3310** · 14th January 2009, 16:28

home safe.
sorry this nana had to bail early my gammy right knee had had enough.

Thanks Iain was a pleasure riding with you, look forward to doing it again

.
Great meeting and putting names to faces, top blokes.

thanks for watching my arse those last couple of hours Tri Boy

cheers guys hopefully have the DRBIG set up good and proper for the next ride.

**Kaituna** · 14th January 2009, 17:13

Great to meet you all today, awsome ride. My stream washing / river survey was perfect timing to keep me nice and cool for the rest of the hot ride. Thanks guys for sacrificing your dry boots for me!

**tri boy** · 14th January 2009, 19:15

Woot, woot!

Awesome day guys.
Gravel dust, and sea air was exactly what i needed to get rid of the belly ache.

Some pics

Pic1. It's a tough life this mid week sciving off.

Pic2. Best way to get rid of the dust.

Pic3. Slippery Creek is even worse than last season. I've up graded it from "slippery as snot", to "greasier than a butcher's prick".

Pic4. Mild trepidation.

**tri boy** · 14th January 2009, 19:21

Few more......

Pic 1,2,3
Team Katoom showed great brotherhood. Oscar did a stirling job on mine sweeping detail, as yet another behemoth took on the slime and won.

Pic4. Doing it easy.

**NordieBoy** · 14th January 2009, 21:21

"No it's more Suzuki Blue than Yamaha Blue and TM Blue is a lot lighter. More an Azure."

**agricon** · 15th January 2009, 07:37

Thanks all for a great day. Blue skies, ocean views and covered in dust!!
I got the side stand fixed last night after Yamaha's quote was $250.00 for the stand and switch. ouch! It was good to put faces to names and look forward to the next time.

**tri boy** · 15th January 2009, 19:32

Originally Posted by NordieBoy

"No it's more Suzuki Blue than Yamaha Blue and TM Blue is a lot lighter. More an Azure."

"Although the stench from the loose bowel movement was over powering, none of geriatrics dared to comment for fear shame and blame would be bestowed on him".

**NordieBoy** · 15th January 2009, 19:39

Originally Posted by tri boy

"Although the stench from the loose bowel movement was over powering, none of geriatrics dared to comment for fear shame and blame would be bestowed on him".

So they're either gay or senile...

**tri boy** · 15th January 2009, 19:46

Have to be senile. They are all to ugly to root.

**Crisis management** · 16th January 2009, 08:00

Originally Posted by tri boy

Have to be senile. They are all to ugly to root.

Thats rich, coming from a sheep shagger, Baaaabara!

We were actually discussing the fishing and whether fatty would bounce once or twice if thrown off the platform....For those interested it's the lookout at Te Toro gorge on Whanga road, well worth a stop and be impressed! Clearish view of Taranki / Egmont in the distance, impressive!

Anyway, a brief report, the truth now, none of Tri-boys hallucinations in this epistle.

A bright and early start saw me at the Waikato river at Tuakau by 8 with Dino turning up 5 minutes later and after the usual friendly greetings and grumblings we wandered off in search of Raglan. A touch chilly and refreshing in the morning but at least the cows were back in their fields after milking, the cockies were all having breakfast and the sheep hadn't broken out yet so the roads were reasonably safe to ride on. Except for pheasants, turkeys and bloody bunnies. As a point of interest, rabbits can zig zag incredibly quickly and it's never in the direction you want them to go....

We took the central route south down Ponganui road then down Baker road to the coast following the Te Akau coast road then Ruakiwi towards Raglan. Great country with tight roads and (bloody council) lots of new gravel of varying size dependant on which truck it came off, bastards! The varying conditions were a bit challenging at times with Dino getting a great work out trying to steer the trail wing front on the DR, impressive it was, I had my camera ready but he refused to fall off, something about not damaging the vintage paintwork.

Got to Raglan at 10ish to meet the other distinguished gentlemen, Tri-boy, Kaituna, Agricon, Oscar & his mate, a brief round of introductions and chest puffing followed before we launched off towards Kawhia on the Whanga road (coastal route). This road is a bit tight, rutted, corrugated and with varying coverage of gravel, a perfect road to get familiar with. Agricon got the most familiar with it and has the scars to prove it (on the bike) but again we all failed to record this momentous occasion so you'll just have to believe me, we really must mount a camera somewhere you can get at while still rolling around laughing.

The Te Toro lookout was awesome, great views of the coast and well worth a stop to enjoy.

We puttered our way on, following the coast towards Kawhia avoiding graders, council trucks stopped in the middle of the road, trailers (closely by Kaituna) and the usual mobile chicanes to get to Kawhia at 1ish...the tide was in, the fish & chip shop was open, the shopkeeper was not quite brain dead (still responsive but needed some urging) and eventually we had lunch. Very nice it was too.

Pics:
1. Tuakau bridge over the Waikato river
2. Somewhere near Waimarama.
3. Ponganui road, more lovely waikato country...
4. DR bloody huge terrifying the other road users..

**Crisis management** · 16th January 2009, 08:06

Part 2

As Oscar was the tour guide we did a loop up the side of Mount Pirongia on Pirongia west road before heading back north towards Raglan. Dino & Agricon headed off around now nursing minor injuries (excuses, excuses) so were saved the embarassment of the stream crossing....this is a short cut to avoid a slip on Kawhia road.

That bloody stream gets slipperier every time we cross it and I have to confess to a moment of complete wussiness were I started whimpering about "lets not do this I'm going to drown the 990" Tri-boy, in his usual caring manner, pointed out the error of my ways.

The stream is crossed twice, the first crossing being wider and with large slime encrusted boulders and is the difficult bit, the second crossing is straightforward. Oscar demonstrated how to do (bastard), Kaituna demonstrated how not to do it (nice drowning, I would have rushed to your assistance but didn't want to get my boots wet) and the other three of us assisted each other over...
Kaituna got his DR going again with an impressive display of steam & water production from the exhaust and we all safely waddled over the second crossing.
Oscar, in his wisdom, took us on a short cut through Te Hutawai road (part of his tour of rally stages around Raglan) which proved the undoing of Murray on the 990, luckily I had already scuffed up the same panels on my bike so he couldn't flog any replacements. Apart from that scenic detour it was a great road again, great views, lots of corners and bits sliding everywhere, what more could you want!
Back at Raglan, Kaituna retired to get dry and the remaining 4 retired to the pub. The garden bar was treated to the sight of boots draining on the ground and socks draped eloquently over benches as we all told lies about how fast we had ridden and how many death defying feats we had survived, all true I'm sure!

Pics (completely out of order now...incompetent!):
1. Towards Kawhia harbour from Pirongia West.
2. looking towards Raglan (the mountain) from the north.
3. Oscar explaining to Kaituna that he has to go first as he doesn't want any stone chips on the 950 and that the plastic on the DR wont show the damage.