I had three small rides this week. After work on Monday, I felt the urge for a wee blat so I rode over the Paekak' Hill, then continued up to Waikanae in order to sample the Akatarawa Rd, which I haven't been over on a bike, and haven't driven over for many years. I figured that New Years Eve would be pretty quiet and therefore I should encounter very little traffic, but it was certainly an odd ride. I found the road was so narrow that if I encountered a 4WD coming the other way there would be very little room, if any, to get by and many of the left-hand corners were so tight that I couldn't see round them and couldn't risk extending my view by keeping to the right. The result was that I found myself leaning the bike into the corners, but swinging my body out the wrong way to keep the bike as far left as possible but trying to retain as much view as possible round the corners. I did encounter some vehicles and got through okay, but it's not a ride I'll be planning to do again as even at night there would be little warning of approaching vehicles. On New Years Day, Nanny-Ann and I headed up to Riversdale to visit a friend. We travelled up via Martinborough-Gladstone and returned via Masterton, stopping at Wild Oats in Carterton for a home made Ginger Beer and snack. It was a great ride in about 24º and a pleasant day out. This weekend, Nanny-Ann was to play in a Vet's Tennis Tournament in Martinborough. She wasn't playing on Saturday so we decided to have a pootle around, planning to have a hamburger in Ngawi and maybe ride up to the wind farm. We departed at about 1115, headed over the hill and took the Western Access road, which was an intriguing little diversion as I prefer riding with my visor up, but as the temp was so high I had the screen right down. This led to vicious attacks by giant-sized kamakazi bugs with one such bug lodging between the foam padding and my left temple, which soon resulted in an odd burning sensation....I guess it was a bee and although Ann was used to the odd twitch as I got hit, it must have seemed rather odd as I braked hard with one hand while vigorously trying to clear the foreigner from my helmet with the other. After that I thought better of it and dropped the visor. We continued on deciding a visit to Ocean beach was in order, after Mr H had extolled it's virtues, and although I tend to loathe gravel on the ST, I guess it was firm enough and the views were rather pleasant, but by this time the temp was over 26º so the slower pace was causing a little discomfort and having missed breakfast, we kept moving as the urge for a Mrs Macs Pie at Pirinoa was upon us. The next short burst to Ngawi was rather pleasant, especially the drop in temp as we cruised along the coast road, and I was soon devouring the long awaited Hawaiian Burger after dipping my toes into Cook Strait. We lazed in the sun for a while then headed for Martinborough to watch a few games of tennis and enjoy a friend’s 40th birthday celebration. Sunday was an early start with breakfast at 0730 and when the others headed off to the tennis courts, I headed up to the wind farm as I haven't ridden there for some time. It's only a short ride from Martinborough but a very nice road and definitely worth the effort. I was in the groove so decided to continue on until the end of the seal which is just past Tuturumuri on the Tora Road, approximately 35Kms from Martinborough. After the windfarm the road narrows a bit and is in need of a couple of minor patch-ups but I had had a great wee pootle by the time I got back to the Tennis and watched a few games before heading back to Wellington just before lunch. The bike now has 30,000Kms and is booked in for a service and first WoF on Tuesday.......Happy Birthday Bike (for the 11th) and a Ridey New Year.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Old Blog?
These blogs were posted on the KiwiBiker forum but I decided it was time for a change. Archives
January 2017
Categories
All
|