Grey start to the day, five minutes before I headed for the start point the heavens opened. Never mind, I was completely confident there would be others as stoopid as me.  And there were. We seem to have hit a vein with this oldies/littlies caper. Rob, aka BMCruiser showed up, with his knees tucked up round his ears on his wee 250 cruiser, The Librarian on the Burgman (no knee dramas today), the Red Barons on the RS, and the Foleys on the GT (her on the blunt end was to later do a dash for home and her own 250).  It is precisely these born again riders that oldies/littlies format is for, and it is a pleasure to see people choosing to grab the opportunity to upskill on their little machines before graduating to their monsters.The Ulybods that were also gathering for a run decided to pull the plug because of the weather, so we waved ta-ta to them as we rocked off for a little tiki tour of South Auckland.  Headed for Kaiaua for an "ice cream in the drizzle" stop, because we could.  The overcast was so low we were in the clouds over the Ararimu ridge.  Just south of Kaiaua the rain stopped, and over Back Miranda Road it had started to dry. SH2 to Okaeria Rd to Te Kauwhata, Rangiriri to SH22.  I tried for some pix while the rest drove past up Glen Murray Road, but I only had the pointy-snappy camera today, not the big weapon, and the only decent drive-by I got was The Librarian on the Burgman (currently our desktop background, she'll be reet chuffed).  Then along 22 to the River Bridge, a wee detour for history's sake to the Alexandra Redoubt (man, I'm glad I did my soldiering in a later era than when those poor fellas dug in up there: serious trenchwork), and up to Twisted Sisters for lunch.  We are starting to become repeat offenders there, and if they keep booking musos like the pair they had today, we will keep going back.  Just the right volume, just the right vintage of song, just good!  Tucker, coffee and service are good too.  (Maureen, do I get a free cuppa on my next visit for all the free advertising?)UncaMoose and AGD joined us from the Rotary walk at Waiuku (rumour has it that UncaMoose might be visiting Henry again soon, and changing his staus from Klingon to Register Member) but in their cage.  Rob left us early to get back to the Shore, and I made the executive decision that the after-match function would be on our deck in 'Rewa.  All the Pukekohe crew headed home to (variously) change the pillion of the GT for the 250 and the Toyota Ist for the GTS1000 (soon to be K1200?) and the GSX650F, and the rest of us wove through Pukekohe East to the Takanini cheesecake shop.  Back to Chez Crowther, and a furious burst of watermelon slicing (cold from the fridge after getting out of sweaty riding gear, yum), cheescake scoffing, and slaving over a poor wee domestic espresso machine, and we declared it to be the end of another good day out.

Only a few of us, but we manage to generate a bit of debris.  Seating right in front of the "orchestra pit".Almost Birthday Girl, Kerry, being shy behind her almost birthday present, Trevor (Mallard).  They're both completely quackers.And, yeah, we do believe you are shy, Kerry - NOT!