...with a little gravel fix...

With a bit of time off over the Christmas/New Year period I had a little plan up my sleeve.  The plan involved a day spent in the saddle eating up a few miles by riding up to Wairoa, then taking in the Lake Waikaremoana Road before returning home.  This is about an 800km day with Waikaremoana Road being about 160km long with probably around 100km of it being gravel.

After doing the Christmas thing I was a little unwell for a few days but seem to have recovered enough as yesterday I finally got the ride in.  And it was a near perfect day for it!

I got up early (beating the alarm clock) and had everything I needed to get done, done by before 6:30 so was out the door just before then.
With the 4km/h speed tolerance in place I puttered across to Ashhurst and then had a little blast over the Saddle before taking back roads to Dannevirke.  Along the way I kept my eye out for stock crossing the roads but not for ducks and unfortunately I collected one when it made the wrong left/right decision and discovered that Tenere's are not as soft and friendly as they may look...

In Dannevirke I stopped for fuel as my last fill had been in Taihape nearly two weeks previously.  That important job done I loaded in cruise mode for the trip up SH2 & SH50 to Napier.  I hit Napier at about 8:30 and carried on out past Bay View and onto the Napier-Wairoa Road.

Even with a few damp patches and the odd spit the Napier-Wairoa was ...