Magnificent riding country together on our last trip, before he was killed on his bike by a drunk driver. I say a few words and leave all my loose cash in the collection box as a thank you and a tribute. We arrive in Opotiki and phone ahead to a friend of Lance who is nearby at his beachfront house, where we are invited to stop in for a drink and a rest before rocking on all the way up to Waihi and further on to Opoutere. Opoutere provides us with an opportunity for a swim and in one of Lance’ s mate’ s 4WD side-by-side, we hurtle down to the car park for the beach. We are greeted by young folk gaily leaping off the bridge into the tidal estuarine water as we walk the 6 or 700 metres to the beach. It’ s brisk and there’ s a dumping sea running, Lance heads in and I follow shortly afterwards and am immediately smashed into the seabed in a dumping wave; it’ s fresh and pleasing but a bit fierce, and I retreat quite quickly. That night we barrel into town in a borrowed, battered, Hilux for dinner. It’ s clear we are both quite fatigued and have travelled long days without stopping and are not certain whether to ride straight home to Auckland in the morning, or do the full Coromandel Loop on the way. We
sleep the sleep of the righteous.
JANUARY 14 The final day of the Hikoi. I wake at dawn to a perfect blue-sky day. We have toast and jam with homemade coffee. Bliss. Of course we are going to do the Coro loop. Lance, who blithely informed me he’ d never done a big ride before, joined us and rode like a champion. Great companion, good rider and full of enthusiasm. We left the happy confines of Opoutere and hurtled northward to Kuaotunu for a coffee top up. The world may be in trouble, LA was on fire, and Trump was blaming the democrats. The Middle East is a powder keg and on a genocidal rampage, the Ukraine war looks like becoming a major, and at home National hastens mining legislation through under fast track urgency so flat out that there isn’ t time to ascertain the damage to waterways and ecological areas, BUT we still live in an incredible country. I marvel at our coasts and rivers, mountains passes and the friendly and generous people who live here. Traffic was hell from Coromandel to Auckland but when you can look at that heart-achingly beautiful coast, who cares?
KIWI RIDER 105