26/04/2026
7 of us mounted our mighty steel steeds and headed out for a quick jaunt over the Akatarawas heading for Waikanae.
It was early in the morning (ish) and some sections of the road had yet to see the sun this year, while other corners, all you could see was sun :)
While not overly technical, it did require some finessing on some of the downhill-right-hand-off-camber-slippery-hair-pins with an unusual amount of traffic coming the other way (most of whom for one reason or another were reluctant to move over a bit to the left).
There was also water going across the road, random piles of gravel on your line in corners, fine layers of pine needles, bright sunlight competing against dark shadows playing tricks on your view of the road ahead. All in all though, it was a good ride and allowed us to practice a lot of different skills.
Once we hit Waikanae, we set up some cut tennis balls and did a slow race. Best time over 15 metres was Edward in a final show down with Colin doing it in 41.5 seconds to claim the prize. We were about to do some figure 8's as well, and I was running around the carpark flapping my arms showing the route, and found we had a young audience :). Toddler came over with mum and chatted to the guys, looked at the bikes, a little bit of oohing and aahing, but reluctant to actually sit on one of the BMW giants. At that point we decided it was better to go do a figure 8 around a cup of coffee so we revved up and headed to Southwards.
Met up with Sue here, caught up with everyone for a half hour or so then headed home via the Paekakariki hill road. A couple of the likely lads went up ahead to scope it out and make sure the road was in good condition for the rest of us. 'Nuff said.
As planned, it was a short ride, light on fuel, but lots of different conditions to work with. Good weather, good company. Thanks to all that came out to enjoy a morning ride.
Cheers
Stu
