June 2020 was a month to reset. After our aborted trip in March (thanks Covid!) we arranged 4 weekends away through June. #1 – We went back to Waipu in Northland. Level 2 restrictions saw a reasonably long wait for a table at McLeods for pizza and beer, but well...
There is something about Northland – the combination of farmland and glittering coastal scenery, the flowing roads, the overwhelming peace, the generous and relaxed people… it’s alluring. If it wasn’t for the Auckland blockage between there and here, we’d spent a lot...
The Christmas craziness was looming – on the roads, but more so at work and I had a hankering to go to the East Cape – although this hankering is nothing new! We’d heard that there was some fair accommodation at the Tokomaru Bay pub where I hadn’t stayed for 16 years...
November Quickie – Awakino 2019 Our annual “it’s been too long since we had a decent holiday and let us go ride our bikes” weekend rocked around none too early this year. The Awakino hotel had been calling out to me as I passed every couple of months over the last...
We must have pleased the weather gods for this one. Saturday was a much better day than predicted as we headed south out of Rotorua, looped east heading for Murapara then north to Whakatane, then back through a tiny-but-sealed back road to the lakes and back over the...
This trip had it all – Southern Hospitality, Northern temperatures, riders that did the whole trip, riders that did one island or the other, old friends and new friends that joined us for lunch or dinner or a night along the way, road closures, torrential rain, and...
