Tour Day 5 (Mar 1st)
Wanganui to Napier (264km)
A cool and overcast sky was actually quite a relief today. The landscape changing from hillocks to forestry, and then to flat open plains. The roads were mostly quiet, although we did have our first encounters with unfenced wild animals.
Firstly, there was the sheep. Fortunately, it was scared rigid by the four bikes in the group, so there was no real problem there. The steer, however, was a little more worrying. For those that don't know, a steer is a bovine bull with no bollocks. It is, however, the same size as a bull (i.e. bigger than a bloke on a motorcycle) and I'm guessing a bit tetchy about having his nads removed. Anyway, the first two bikes passed without incident, but rendered the thing a bit panic stricken.It didn't know which way to run, and it was a trifle concerning when he looked straight at me in an aggressive sort of manner. Fortunately, after veering all over the road on a number of occasions, it leaped over a fence and we could all continue our joy.
We also met up with a group of Matchless riders who were on their way to a rally in Napier. One of the guides knew one of them, and we were all invited to the rally this afternoon. A couple of our group are going, but I found an internet cafe, so have to update my blog instead :-)
After a magic Thai meal, including a rather yummy deep fried ice cream, we had a major 'whoops' moment. Whilst locking the bikes together, one of the bikes slipped whilst being moved by the guides. This resulted in all five bikes on the tour going over domino style. All bikes are still rideable, but I have one less windscreen that I had earlier. The car next to my bike prevented further damage to my bike, but got one hell of a whack from another of the bikes. My (in hindsight) stupid efforts to save a 300kg lump from falling resulted in me losing balance and spectacularly rolling over to prevent myself falling badly. Annoyingly, this effort was not videoed.
The tour company owner was not happy, as this has cost him a lot of money - his insurance premiums will rocket with a claim. He was absent from the 66% schnapps drinking session afterwards. Bloody hell, that stuff hurts!
PS To avoid any confusion, there are 5 bikes on the tour. Four of the bikes ride together, the fifth one follows the support vehicle some way behind. Tour consists of two guides (one Swede, one Kiwi), two German couples, one Swiss bloke and me.
A cool and overcast sky was actually quite a relief today. The landscape changing from hillocks to forestry, and then to flat open plains. The roads were mostly quiet, although we did have our first encounters with unfenced wild animals.
Firstly, there was the sheep. Fortunately, it was scared rigid by the four bikes in the group, so there was no real problem there. The steer, however, was a little more worrying. For those that don't know, a steer is a bovine bull with no bollocks. It is, however, the same size as a bull (i.e. bigger than a bloke on a motorcycle) and I'm guessing a bit tetchy about having his nads removed. Anyway, the first two bikes passed without incident, but rendered the thing a bit panic stricken.It didn't know which way to run, and it was a trifle concerning when he looked straight at me in an aggressive sort of manner. Fortunately, after veering all over the road on a number of occasions, it leaped over a fence and we could all continue our joy.
We also met up with a group of Matchless riders who were on their way to a rally in Napier. One of the guides knew one of them, and we were all invited to the rally this afternoon. A couple of our group are going, but I found an internet cafe, so have to update my blog instead :-)
After a magic Thai meal, including a rather yummy deep fried ice cream, we had a major 'whoops' moment. Whilst locking the bikes together, one of the bikes slipped whilst being moved by the guides. This resulted in all five bikes on the tour going over domino style. All bikes are still rideable, but I have one less windscreen that I had earlier. The car next to my bike prevented further damage to my bike, but got one hell of a whack from another of the bikes. My (in hindsight) stupid efforts to save a 300kg lump from falling resulted in me losing balance and spectacularly rolling over to prevent myself falling badly. Annoyingly, this effort was not videoed.
The tour company owner was not happy, as this has cost him a lot of money - his insurance premiums will rocket with a claim. He was absent from the 66% schnapps drinking session afterwards. Bloody hell, that stuff hurts!
PS To avoid any confusion, there are 5 bikes on the tour. Four of the bikes ride together, the fifth one follows the support vehicle some way behind. Tour consists of two guides (one Swede, one Kiwi), two German couples, one Swiss bloke and me.
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