And as it transpired , several manhole covers on some badly affected streets popped off under the immense pressures below , and dipping a wheel into one of those unseen dangers would not be a pleasant thing . I ’ ve only once ever taken a path through swamped out streets and that was some decades back , down Central Hawke ’ s Bay way as I was returning from a rained-on race day at Manfeild . It made me very edgy ... very nervous ... but basically I had to get through them or I ’ d have been parked up there for the night . They weren ’ t severely flooded and vehicles still negotiated them , most with caution but there ’ s always the “ make some waves ” drongos . So I got through , got home , wrung everything out and that night had a nightmare about riding over a roadside bank and into a raging river . I don ’ t like persistent rain , because it has the potential to to kind of ruins things and there ’ s nothing you can do about it . Too much blazing sun ? Just find some shade . Mind you , light rain is excellent for crops and things and means I don ’ t have to go and water the bloody gardens every evening . But floods . No , no , no . In my time on this planet I have never seen anything like what we got on that Black Monday . It will take considerable time for many people to get things back on track again . But the sun is shining again and it was rather buoying to see the two chaps ( one on a Ducati and the other on what I think was a Yammie ) cruising happily along a main stretch of road just outside the CBD which a week ago was a torrent . Inspired , I got the Pee Wee 50 out , fired it up on the third kick , and took a wee burst up the road and back . A road as dry as a bone ... and long may it stay that way .

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