Brussells sprouts. Four large plates of these sumptuous delicacies later … we had a brilliant dinner and can’ t speak highly enough of this venue if you get a chance to visit. After dinner‘ the new boy’ then enlighted us in the requirements of being a‘ MahiDog300’, one to four are OK, but to be a Nefarious Philistine, I would swap number five with“ being able to ride a motorcycle as well as you drink beer.” The following morning, one of the guys ran away scared and the first brother said he was out because he needed to get his foot X-rayed, losing 25 % of our crew after the first day. Eight of us headed south through the twisties of southern Taranaki, turning left behind Patea in search of‘ the slide’ only to travel 25km up a great gravel road to the gates of Mordor blocking access to the road. Instead, we kept moving towards Whanganui and turned left again up Bushy Park Road. An hour of great gravel later we came into the back of Whanganui. No rest, just gas and a peanut slab for fuel, we were into the Turakina Valley road. Stopping at a junction to wait for
the stragglers, my bike let out a puff of steam that a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat would have been proud of. So, I topped up the water until we got to Waiouru and put in some radiator stop leak; then we kept charging over Desert Road and on into Taupo. It was big smiles all round at the hotel, the beers flowing the moment we put stands down. We then got word that the brothers were in the same room at Taranaki hospital, both with broken right legs … so we had a few drinks in their honour. When the glasses were empty, we headed into town in search of food and a laugh. At this stage things become murky, I remember being at Finns and thinking I was like granddad in bouncy castle, so we bailed there and made a plan for Sin City. As soon as‘ new-boy’ spoke to the bouncer things got dicey and the end result was we were not allowed into Sin City, bugger. We left each other the following morning, post eggs and coffee with‘ new-boy’ following that up with a beer chaser. Ride like a Nefarious Philistine – We chew gravel like a red neck chews tobacco.
64 KIWI RIDER