Having left my bike in the care of Russell and Andrew (our hosts at Beaches Motel) and flown home from Nelson to deal with urgent business matters, I’d fortuitously managed to avoid a couple of days of fairly bad weather.
Having dealt with matters at work I caught Wednesday’s early flight back to Nelson, and arrived soon enough after final rains to have a few puddles to contend with - timing is everything! The guys at the motel were great, even providing a big fluffy towel to wipe my mirrors and seat, and then I was off, with 650km to cover, with Timaru and my buddies today’s goal. Those areas fortunate enough to get a good soaking over recent days were showing immediate relief, and those that didn’t were a reminder of just how desperate the situation is - small hills looked desert like, almost sand dunes, with their woolly residents looking fairly miserable. Another resident, being a feral goat grazing on the side of the road, caused me a moments concern = to unexpectedly hit a freshly dead possum is like running over a bag of cement, to clobber a live goat could only be worse. At a reasonable clip the kilometres and hours quickly passed, with stops along the way for a drink and a sandwich, to put on more layers as it got cold (very cold), then take them off again when the sun came out and I soon started to cook. Whilst making good ground I remained ever vigilant, knowing that a local cop would make a meal of an old Jafa going too fast on a flash Harley. There were cops about and I saw all except one - fortunately I was in “slow mode” and only rated a wave of his finger. Foregoing lunch until Oxford paid dividends, stopping at one of the fantastic pie shops (photo above) seemingly unique to the South Island - my steak, mushroom and garlic pie well worth the wait. In an effort to avoid the monotony of SH1, I opted for the longer (but faster) Inland Scenic Route - very long straights through the guts of Canterbury, untroubled by much traffic. I arrived in Timaru during their rush hour, which meant taking an extra circuit around the block before finally arriving at the misnamed Harbour View Motel - SH1 is a couple of metres from where bikes are parked, with any view requiring a crane. Dinner and a catch up with the guys - stories to be told, with plenty of heavily embellished details and expletives added for good measure. Today, Akaroa via Fairlie (and it’s world famous pie shop) Don Malcolm +64 21 924 114 Comments are closed.
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Don MalcolmA perfect day involves being on my Harley with a long ride ahead.
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