What a great day for a ride, so it’s not surprising that we had 30 bikes turn up for the Uly ride to the Martinborough Wind Farm. I’d checked the tyres yesterday and put a little in the rear, so this morning I just needed to stow my gear on the bike and leave, pootling to Rimutaka to fill-up before meeting at Brown Owl. The temp did dip to 5º so I pulled the glove liners out when I got to Brown Owl, checked the right ear plug as the sounds didn’t seem to be working too well, took a few pic’s, then Ken briefed and we were on the road. I got away early to get a good run over the hill but the traffic was pretty heavy so it wasn’t that much fun. After a short regroup in Featherston, we headed around the western side of Lake Wairarapa and I slotted into the middle of the group. It was quite pleasant riding under clear blue skies and through the lush green pastureland, with the lake and eastern hills to complete the picture…..but who wants to stop once they’re moving!?...although being tucked in close to the Rimutakas, it was cool when we got into the shade and care was required with that road having several spots where the sun don’t shine and the accumulation of permanent wet spots can be potentially slippery. We paused again at the Flood Gates on the East West Access Road, then I took over as lead and pootled in toward Martinborough, then out on White Rock Rd to the windfarm. Once again, care was required on parts of the road and we were treated to some great photo-op’s at the top with a top-dresser operating form the base of the towers. (I didn’t even realize there was a strip there before this). From there I went TEC back into Martinborough for another pause for some to get gas, then around the Tablelands to the Gladstone pub and after a drink, on to lunch at the Wild Oats in Carterton. Riders had been dropping off along the way so there were only about 15-20 that had lunch and after that I headed for home solo.
I was hoping for a good fang over the hill but, once again, there was too much traffic so one would just start to get some flow when another group of cars would be caught and it was back to a crawl….Still a good ride though and I got home at 1505hrs with 299.1Km done for the day at 17.9Km/Ltr and 115,744km on the clock.
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Old Blog?
These blogs were posted on the KiwiBiker forum but I decided it was time for a change. Archives
January 2017
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