Hunterville via Fordell the text said! That certainly got my attention as that can mean only one thing. Turakina Valley Road. Probably one of the nicest runs in the district with its lovely mix of tight corners, sweepers and the occasional straight through some lovely countryside. Arriving at Manawatu Motorcycles saw an interesting array of machines and even more interesting people. Sir Al and Ian were lined up on there TansAlp and W650 respectively whilst Dave T was there on his luscious blue GSX1100, Ray on his Tiger and John on his trusty BMW 600. Gary turned up on his BMW 650GS and last but not least Rich on his DL650 Strom.
We were soon on our way heading westwards with our first turn being at the top of Mount Stewart and heading towards Halcombe. This is our scenic route when heading west and our first brief stop was to pick up Dave at Kakariki on his Transalp. After skirting Marton we rejoined State Highway 3 at our first stop in Turakina. After a quick natter our next stop was going to be Hunterville and we were soon on the Turakina Valley road and cautiously enjoying using up some rubber away from the centre of our tyres. Cautiously because as we soon discovered it doesn't look like the road has been swept for a while as some of us had some interesting 'moments'. Along the way it was interesting to see a very strong police presence at one of the DOC areas and amongst the police vehicles was a Hayabusa. I wonder what that was about..... (cough, cough)?
We all made it safely through the valley and parked up in front of Hunters Cafe. The usual food and beverage was ordered to accompany the varied conversations around the table. After a good go at putting the world right it was back on the bikes and onto State Highway One until the Vinegar Hill turnoff. We were soon swinging through the bends heading home with the only incident being a stop that saw smoke coming from under my bike as a leaking oil filter housing dropped oil onto some hot headers. Another great wander around the countryside and as soon as the oil leak is fixed I will be out there doing it all again.
Can't wait.
PS
For those who haven't come along on our monthly Tuesday night get togethers all sorts of interesting things happen. (Especially if Barry is around)
Here is another little wander we went on earlier in the month. It was great to see Dion out and about on his NS400R and also great to have Jamie on his lovely VFR400. Bruce S was out on the booming Ducati 748R
