This weekend I left my riding pretty late and almost didn't get one in.  On Sunday the weather was a little hit and miss but by lunchtime I was starting to get pretty desperate and decided that I was going anyway.  Besides, Al had posted up a new tag (after nabbing my one in less than 24 hours) and I was fairly sure where it was...

A tagoholic's horseAs Al had mentioned gravel (40m of the stuff apparently), I decided that this was a Tenere ride so loaded the blue beast up and left home feeling just the odd spit of rain...can you tell how this story is going to go"

After filling up I had to make my way across town and then up over the Pahiatua track to go in search of the tag.  Leaving the gas station the weather got ever so slightly worse - cats, dogs and perhaps even the odd elephant started raining down.  The rain was that hard that visibility was tricky even in town - I got a soaking!
Of course, the weather was the worst while travelling slowly across town and after a wet crossing of the track it finally fizzled out as I turned off towards Mangamire.  I went this way as the tag was down near the Mangahao River and there were a couple of possible locations.

The first one was off Nikau Road where a potholed dirt track takes you to a neat swimming hole (or at least it was when I went swimming there years and years ago).  This little track had seen the odd bit of rain and there were plenty of small lakes that needed to be negotiated. &n...