Golden Leaves and Green Fields. April Ride

The weather in the morning was looking a little bit dodgy with some light drizzle and damp roads on the way in to town. It was pleasing to see four others lined up outside Manawatu Motorcycles looking for a place to go for our end of month ride. Looking to the east, the Tararuas were looking very damp, but the north was looking a lot brighter with a lovely patch of blue settling our ride direction. Hunterville was going to be our destination. After filling up with BP 98 at Rangitikei St, Dave led the way out of town taking us out to Bunnythorpe and showing us a new way to get to Colyton through Dixons Rd with our first stop being Cheltenham. Our original plan was to head for Hunterville via Vinegar Hill, but we decided to head towards Kimbolton and up to Rangawahia and across to Ohingaiti via Mangamako and Otara Roads. As we climbed up towards Kimbolton the temperature became noticeably cooler which seemed to fit with the autumn red and gold colours in the now green landscape. It wasn't that long ago it was a brown hued drought landscape! Quite a transformation. The drive through Kimbolton signaled a road change as the corners north of the town were a stark contrast to the straights to the south. The puff of smoke (well, smoke trail really) from the rear of Alans A7 signaled that it was time to play! Pauls H1b and Richards T500 followed suit whilst Dave and I on our four stroke fours made our valves and pistons do some work as we made our way through some of the best riding roads you will find anywhere. We didn't push things to much as the road was damp in places and this combined with pine needles, sheep, animal pooh, and autumn leaves meant caution was an excellent strategy. After regrouping at Pemberton Corner it was more of the same through to Ohingaiti. The run down State Highway one to Hunterville was very "relaxing" with our usual watering hole very busy. Whilst eating and drinking a local Hunterville resident introduced himself and took a liking to our bikes. Such good taste means he is the latest member to the Blue Haze and henceforth his name is Red Haze! We concluded our run by taking the back roads out of Hunterville to avoid the boredom of State Highway One. They are a nice mixture tight sections and sweeper's with some nice scenery along the way as well. We ended up outside Mount Biggs School for our final stop and Dave headed back into Feilding to catch up with the local and Wellington Classic Bike Club lads whilst the rest of us headed home. It was between here and home we encountered our only precipitation of the day with a brief shower or two and it certainly didn't dampen what proved to be a great autumn ride. See you on the next one!