We loaded up our new toys and headed off to my brothers place in Onga Onga. The first stopover on our journey to Lake Ferry to attend the NZ Vincent Owners Club Riders Rally.
(For those non Nzers that may be reading this try looking at this map to see where we went)
By the time we reached the bottom of the Kaimais the heavens had opened. Marty stopped to put on his wet weather gear but I decided it looked clear in the direction we were going so decided to trust the riding gear I had on. A decision I regretted fairly quickly. We stopped at a little museum cafe just south of Putaruru (my home town) where we met up with our friends John, Heather, Tim and Beate.
Caffined up and wet weather gear on we set off for Taupo. We arrived a little before the others and had ordered our lunch when they arrived and said they'd decided to continue on to Tarawera and have a venison steak sandwich for lunch. We ate then carried on in the rain to Tarawera where we once again met up with our fellow travellers and joined them for a coffee. They were less than impressed with their lunch and we were stunned to find a small pot of perc'd coffee cost us $10. The rain continued to fall but at least my new gloves were proving to be waterproof but not so my boots. They were offering no resistance at all but my possum/merino wool socks were doing a great job of keeping my wet feet warm.
About 30 odd km from Tarawera we turned off St Hway 5 and took some really neat little backroads that bought us out at Fernhill where we turned onto St Hway 50 and had a straight run to Onga Onga. We thus missed Napier altogether which was great!! And the added bonus that when we turned off we left the rain behind us and had lovely dry roads. We arrived at Onga about 4pm to a very warm welcome from Reg and Holly (the dogs). Reg was ready and waiting with his stick for anyone who was silly enough to throw it for him.
Trish had cooked up a storm and Andrew (PA here after)excelled on the BBQ so no one was left feeling anything but full.
A wet night and showery morning meant that the chosen route south through the backroads was shelved and we took St H'way 2 stopping at Ekatahuna to regroup as we along with Trish and PA had gone into Waipukurau to do a small bike repair on Marty's PD. He couldn't get the bit he
wanted so a piece of welding wire was used instead.
The back road from Masterton to Martinborough is a magic. We were all raving about it when we sat down to a very late lunch. Had time permitted I think some amongst us would have turned and ridden it again. From Martinborough it is a 30km ride to Lake Ferry along a pretty straight piece of road. Marty and I decided to ride out to Cape Palliser before checking into the Hotel at Lake Ferry as the weather was looking a little gloomy and we didn't fancy climbing to the lighthouse in the rain. It is a lovely scenic ride out to the Cape with about 8km of gravel road thrown in for a bit of extra fun. The grader was busy doing it's thing when we went up so it was little like riding on marbles.
The climb to the
lighthouse is 262 steps straight up. We made it and were rewarded with
awesome views. We saw a few seals - some Marty got up close and personal with.
By the time we arrived a good number of others attending the rally had arrived and were supporting the bar. There was a glitch with our room booking so to cut a long story short we were upgraded to a motel room in the local campground at no extra cost.
Next morning after checking out the whitebaiters, numerous coffees we headed off towards Taihape. At Martinborough we left Trish, PA, John and Heather to have brekky and Marty, myself Tim and Beate headed off to Pahiatua and Phil's house. A crowd had already gathered there looking at his broken Vincent and offering the normal condolences and helpful advice. A small band of 7 bikes left from here and went up to look at the wind farm. The gate was open to the observation point so we were able to get a birds eye view of these blots on the landscape.
As I wasn't as
fast as the leading bunch we missed a sharp right hand turn they made coming into Ashhurst so we followed some neat little back roads that eventually bought us onto Kimbolton Road where we thought we might meet group again but no such luck so we stopped in a little town called Cheltenham and had lunch. Marty's pie had been in the pie warmer about a week and was inedible and the ham in my sandwich must have been off as I by the time we arrived in Taihape I had a good dose of the runs. Fellow riders Bob and Claire spotted us here so we teamed up with them and had a magic ride on backroads we hadn't been on before, eventually meeting up with St Hway 1 at Ohingaiti. It was a short stroll from there to The Gretna Hotel in Taihape. we were first to arrive so after dumping our stuff in our room s we headed into town to try and find a coffee shop. 4pm and all shops are shut so we had to settle for coffee in the BP station. At least from there we had a birds eye view of everyone arriving in town.
Had a great night in the pub. NZ beat the Poms at netball (thrashed actually) and Trish and I had a win on the pool table. The locals then challenged us but like an Olympic relay team we replaced ourselves with better players who almost won!!
We had a farewell breakfast with our fellow travellers in a local cafe before beginning the long ride home. We rode with Bob and Claire as they were beginning their Nth Island holiday. No backroads today just a cruise up the main drags. It was bloody cold along the Desert Road and fresh powder snow was clearly visible on the foothills. It was about here that Marty discovered he had left his scarf behind at the pub. Not really a big deal only it was the first present I ever bought him way back in 1975 when we met. Is this the beginning of the end?
Lunch in Taupo where we caught up with John and Heather and one of the few Vincent riders on the rally, Neil from Whakatane. We continued on our way with him as we were making a detour to Matata to catch up with friends there before heading home.
The weather stayed fine till it came time to leave Matata but half way home the sun was trying to shine on what was left of the day. Arrived home about 6.15 having covered some 450km for the day and about 1500km for the weekend.
Both new toys performed well although mine does have a wee clutch problem that needs looking at. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips this summer.
Post Script:
The Pub found the lost scarf and it is currently on its way home via the post.
We anchored at Marker 13, one of Tony and Adrienne's a favourite spots where we threw out our lines and watched the sunrise. It was glorious. 
managed to land a small Kawahi so I am still in the lead. 
managed to land a small Kawahi so I am still in the lead. 
