Did a nice little jaunt around the central North Island last week. Our 16-year old son had a downhill mountain bike event in Rotorua (big sport over here) and I had a seminar in Hamilton which I took to be sufficient excuse to coordinate a few days away on the ST.
After work on the Friday my son drove the car while I rode the leisurely 4-hours from our home base in Palmerston North up to Rotorua. The Desert Road through the centre was a pleasant minus 2 degrees as the sun went down but it was dry so not too much ice to be concerned about. A couple of coffee stops along the way ensured the fingers stayed reasonable responsive when called upon to operate brake or clutch. I must say I’ve ridden in Australia over a few years now and I still appreciate NZ night-time riding where I know the biggest thing likely to jump out in front of me is a well fed possum. In NZ when it comes to bike versus marsupial, the bike doesn’t generally come off second best like it does over your way.
The next day after watching enough of my sons downhill racing to show I cared, I slipped away for a ride over to Whakatane on the East Coast. There’s a great motorcycling road that starts a bit south of Rotorua and pretty much follows a river and crosses the Matahina Dam (as per photo) to the East Coast. This is all volcanic country with spectacular multi-coloured scenery to admire if one slows down long enough take ones eyes off the awesome twisty roads.
From the East Coast there are heaps of excellent riding options to choose from both north and south but time constraints forced me to continue the loop back to Rotorua via our Highway 30 (another good riding road). I was back in time to catch the end of the day’s downhill racing and pretend I’d been there all along.
That evening my son drove home while I rode over to Hamilton for a couple of rapturous days being lectured to by some of your countrymen on everything that’s wrong with how we’re managing our environment (another story I won’t bore you with).
A few days later the ride home was down the western side of Lake Taupo which, although being mainly just farmland, is still one of my favourite roads due to its 100km of fast curves and few other vehicles. From the bottom of Lake Taupo the ride generally involves making a quick assessment about the weather to decide which side of Mt Ruapehu to ride for the best views of the snow (one can ride up and experience it first hand if really keen).
Not a huge ride by Aussie standards but a nice trip away to enjoy the bracing Winter air and keep the km’s ticking over.
Cheers,
Rob
