What a great run south, we left Friday morning and headed out acrooss the harbour bridge, through the morning traffic jams and out down the bombay hills, finally with some open roads and lighter skies. The weather from the North shore was very dark rain clouds and they were going to bucket down any minute, but as we motored south the clouds lightened up and the roads were mostly dry.
Took the back roads to Cambridge as usual and locked in the cruise computer and settled in for a great ride. Seems the road repair team always choose long (holiday) weekends to carry out as much as they can to disrupt traffic, this weekend was no exception, roadworks everywhere, and repairs happening all over, (temporary repairs of course) they never do a job that they dont have to come back to within 6 months and patch it again because of the poor job they di in the first place. Ive driven over 20 countries and on any scale we would come LAST in that department. probably because they insist on using ONLY bitumen, they dont know what concrete is I suspect., and preparation of the sub strata layers, or camber, wash off angles etc etc just dont get factored in to the repair equation, nor fo that matter even making it the same level as the rest of the road. no wonder there are so many suspension repairs done in NZ
None the less the nature of our landscape and hills means that we certainly have some of the best twisties with the most spectacular scenery in the world, especially with autumn running late and the colours of the trees as they moult is just spectacular (even though you spend as much time dodging potholes and when its wet those same potholes filled with greasy oilfilled water holes
We cruised in to Taupo to refill the tank and pay a visit on our great freinds the Dajas.. Dave (though Jude had to work) was right on form and had prepared a feast for lunch. Man what a view they have over lake taupo, spectacular. boy am I envious, all those great backroads to cruise around the mountains and lakes.
After a couple of hours we headed off again up the Taupo/Napier track, this peice of road I have ridden regularly since 1965 and I just love the spectacular scenery firstly through the forest then through the valleys and finally over the mountain ranges, just to come over the otherside into sprawling vineyards and miles of greenery and colour.

Bayview and Napier looks as it always does, sleepy hollow art one end and busy city at the other.

We rode on to our Grand childrens home only to find mum (Aleischa) was home but the kids were still making their way  home from school, Well, when the twins stepped in the door I was taken aback, they had not only grown lots but they were just the most gorgeous young lasses you can imagine. Crikey, we just dont seem to be able to get to see them often enough, and it just made us feel how much we miss them.

Dad Gary, called the wayward Jordan to see where he was at and a short while later Jordan arrived, flabbergasted again , our number one grand son has also become a young man, darn near as tall as I am, and will soon tower over me I suspect, man it was  good to see him, and after lots of hugs all round with Mum (Aleischa), Hendrina, Keischa & Jordan we also got to say hi to Garys beatuiful daughter Casey, (hope I spelled that right)

Anyway, you now how it goes, one thing led to another and the girls talked Opa into taking them for a few blats on the beast, the twins of course were game for anything and seemed to love it, young Casey was not to sure, so we took her for a wee spin up and down the street, and soon the terrified look was replaced with a smile. and ofcourse the rest wanted another blat as did Casey three biker chicks there LOL

All in all, we had a great day, just loved the time we spent with the Grandkids, thats always a highlight , Finally its pitch black out and time we headed to our motel for the night in Hastings.

After a quick unload of the bike we popped over the grab a bite to eat from a local restaraunt and then headed over to catch up with Lo’s sister Joan and her partner Rangi, also a most enjoyable visit, we hadn’t caught up for some time so there was lots of catching up to do

Saterday morning and its very overcast but no rain, so we loaded up the bike and headed north to Napier and refilled the beast then off up the valley to run the Napier / Taupo track again, stayed dry all the way, and it was a really relaxed cruise. Arriving on the outskirts of Taoupo and its bucketing down, the roads are just awash and greasy as can be, from here on its no more cruise control, I need to control the throttle with utmost care, a little too much power even on a straight piece of road and the back wheel steps out, we had a few moments where I could see the slippery patches but they were right across the road so no dodging them and sure enough the front and rear wheels stepped out a few hundred mm each time, we motored on  picking each section of road to dodge the atrocious  road conditions, some sections (state highway 1 would you believe)  were just so badly engineered that water lay in the huge hollows in the road, full of water and of course also the oil/deisel etc off the roads) I really pity any new inexperienced riders they are riding into death traps. some of the driest parts of the road were actually in the gutters, which is where I went on occassion safest place to ride ..

Arriving at Tirau we pulled in for a hot chocolate  and a bite of lunch, this poor restaraunt was ful to the brim, all the travellers pouring out of there cars and heading in looking for tables that didnt exist, service was slow to say the least.

Still raining, we helmetted up and headed north to Cambridge and a fuel stop, once again out into the torrential rain and back via Gordonton,  it seems everyone is trying to dodge the main roads today, no idea why, so it was hard going from there all the way to Auckland. the motorway was busy and when we finally pulled into our garage we were glad to get out of our bike gear which was pretty heavy with water, though we were warm and mostly dry, my summer gloves which I couldnt be bothered stopping to change for my heavier winter ones, were soaked through, I just turned on the handgrip warmers and that solved the wet hand problems

Just over 1000kms round trip and a most enjoyable few days. The mighty Vulcan Voyager didnt miss a beat and was a joy to ride.