Yesterday was our monthly Blacktop ride and while Saturday was a beautiful day the news was full of wind warnings for Sunday.  Things were supposed to be pretty bad down South with it hitting us later in the day.  It did get pretty exciting down South too...

I left home completely oblivious to the hazards of mobile water tanks but concerned about the darkish sky and ominous clouds.  I also left home on the Vee rather than my usual blacktop weapon, letting the Connie rest up a little for next weekend...

In Feilding most of the guys were already there when I arrived so we hit the road just after 9 and headed out to Halcombe.  After grinding some metal off the Vee's main-stand on the Halcombe Road we rode on to Marton.

Makuhou Road is always a fun little squirt and it was a little bit more exciting this time around with plenty of gravel and dirt spread across the road courtesy of the recent bad weather and slips.  Three adv bikes got through pretty easily and the rest managed to dodge the marbles well enough too.
North of Wanganui we turned off to the left on a new to me road (Rapanui Road) which took us on a nice little tiki-tour to Kai Iwi where we stopped off to check out the beach.

Some of the BRRBT regulars
Mark's new Beemer
Lovely weather to the South...
...and the NorthAfter about ten minutes we'd had our fill of standing around in the wind and decided to carry on riding in it.  We made our way back out to the main road and onto Waito...