CHILLY WELLY & THE WAIRARAPA
Next morning, Wellington was chilly as always,
so I appreciated the heated grips heading
up the motorway and over the Rimutakas. A
big breakfast in Greytown went down a treat
before we turned off at Masterton to take the
Alfredton road.
Excellent serpentine tarmac was the
forerunner to the gravel Pori Hill. Gravel
roads in this area are very different to the
Molesworth and, indeed, gravel roads around
Auckland. They are tight, very narrow and
made with round stones that roll and are
very slippery... but these are the roads I grew
up riding and I love them! I think it’s fair to
say that almost 100hp is not really required
here, there’s not much scope for high speed
drifting, but that doesn’t mean you can’t dig
the odd trench on the way out of turns. The
planted and accurate steering the Hondas have
makes this tricky riding a delight even with the
standard fitment road-biased tyres.
We pressed on through Coonoor, over the
Puketoi Ranges, which has a spectacular
escarpment style view out to the east coast
and then down to the Waihi falls for a short
stop. Further north the road from Weber to
Wimbledon is winding Tarmac, but the road
has slumped in many places creating large dips,
humps and hollows, not unlike a tar sealed
MX track. Honestly, we were jumping out of
some of them! This is car suspension wreaking
stuff at its best but aboard the Africa Twins
we were absolutely loving it – I can’t imagine a
better suspension result from any other real
adventure bike.
The afternoon was hot, so a quick beer at the
Patangata pub was a minimum requirement.
Later, because we were on such classy
machines, a little wine tasting at Craggy Range
allowed Geoff and I to blend in perfectly with
the Range Rover set. Last for the day was a
quick blast up Te Mata peak, an absolute must
do when in the Bay – beautiful vistas all around.
KIWI RIDER 43