With Sunday’s forecast for fair weather, and the RAT club meeting for the final ride of 2007, the planets were aligned and destiny saw us get up remarkably early for a Sunday, don our gear, and head down to the Portside Brasserie for a 9am scheduled start.
Not having ever ridden in a group of more than 3 or 4, and having no idea what type of demographic the typical Triumph rider populates, I had absolute no idea what was in store for us as we turned into Halsey St. Turns out it’s a pretty ecletic bunch, with a lot of nice machinery to boot and plenty of smiles all round.
Rob, a most affable Irish lad and the ride leader, greeted us very warmly and introduced himself with a heartfelt hello. He explained to us the plan was to ride out to Kopu, then turn left and do the lap of the Coromandel clockwise. I wasn’t quite sure how long the ride would be, so the total distance of over 500kms would be an excellent test of endurance for our coming trip.
Everyone set out with a pretty easy pace just after 9, heading down the southern motorway in a pretty impressive convoy of what must have been maybe 15-20 beautiful bikes. The sun was beating down and a good day was imminent!
I’ve been to the Coromandel quite a few times for camping, but have never been the way we went. We took the turn off at Manurewa I think and went through Clevedon. I have to admit I was so adamant that I would not get lost that I was concentrating so hard on just following the person in front I didn’t really look which way we went. Pretty contradictory really but there you go!
The route we took was stunning, both visually and for the riding. Once we cleared civilisation, the pack, which had already fragmented into a few groups, seemed to just turn on the warp factor. We kept pace with a group of three riders for maybe half an hour, but lost them completely when we stopped at what I thought was a few of our group on the side of the road. Turns out they weren’t with us, but by the time I rejoined the tarmac, we were on our own! It was great fun for while we were in touch, but with a pillion and my lack of experience over the last 10 years, we were never going to stick with them.
Everyone regrouped at Kopu, where a couple of the Tiger riders went south to do some gravel roads, and the rest of us headed north to Coromandel township for lunch. This time, we glued ourselves to the back of a different rider, and kept a very nice pace with him for half the trip. However he left us for dust eventually as well, maybe he got sick of us who knows but he just turned on the turbos suddenly and pretty much disappeared! 
Lunch in the Coro was a nice affair at a small deli called Umo I think Unfortunately by that time rain had settled in, leaving the roads pretty slippery. It did not look like it would disappear either, so with the prospect of being tail end charlie for the rest of the trip, and the added bonus of doing it in the rain, we decided to turn back. A few others agreed, and I think maybe a third to a half of the group ended up going back. There were plenty of riders that scoffed at the weather and carried on though, we weren’t all soft!
It had been a long time in the saddle for us by then, so Myra requested an extra stop at a bay in the Firth of Thames. I then got some great photos of her having a quick nap in the field With her Powernap over, we cruised back to Auckland in a mixture of weather, both fine and wet, with not much else to write about. Standard SH1 drudgery.
All in all I had a great time. Disappointing as it is to say, I do have to admit we think we are the slowest RAT members in Auckland! Not that this bothered us too much, and we’re looking forward to getting to know some of those guys a bit better and attending some more journeys! So a big thumbs up to the RATs.
Only three weeks till we depart, we’re both pretty keen to get going and looking forward to the break.
0 Responses to “Coromandel overrun by rats!”