MY TTAR
Ray Heron
My road to the TTAR started around 5am Friday , meeting up with my mate Todd Heslin on his 2015 Triumph Tiger 800 XCx just North of Wellington . After some coffee and connecting our intercoms , we headed north . After breakfast in Bulls , we carried on and finally arrived in Raglan around 2pm . A warm welcome awaited us upon sign-on at the Raglan Club , HQ for the TTAR . A few bevvies and dinner , then off to catch an early night , before the big day . Saturday morning and we were up early , though the sleepy seaside town seemed unprepared for a horde of famished motorcyclists . Breakfast finally eaten , we went back to the Raglan club for briefing , and then hit the road . The morning was a bit iffy weather-wise , with isolated showers , and having rained most of the night , the roads were decidedly damp and slimy . Not a bad thing as it kept the dust down . We spent the morning working our way south , taking in plenty of gravel , and the occasional shady , muddy and rather slippery corner . We came across other riders and were always greeted with a cheery wave and plenty of smiles . At lunch in Te Kuit we were informed by tail-end-charlie that were were lagging behind and should take a shortcut from Te Kuiti towards Waitomo , then hang a right at the roundabout and head to Te Anga , where we would rejoin the official trail . This in fact turned out to be an absolutely brilliant piece of road , and cut out about 90km . This put us ahead of riders who were leaving the lunch stop as we arrived . From here the skies cleared up and the sun shone brightly as we made our way up the coast towards Kawhia and back to
70 KIWI RIDER