You have to be tough and a little bit crazy but it turned out that 15 people were both of the above and followed me to Whakatane and back to Auckland today. We got away OTD at about 8.37 with TOC and Gremlin only just arriving in time to join the end of the line as we departed. Jason was just in time for the briefing and would have been earlier but he had to stop to talk to someone on the motorway. Two of Gremlin's friends were waiting to join us in Te Aroha and hopefully will join us again.We ducked off the motorway at Drury and took the old Gt Sth Rd and then the usual back-roads to Mangatawhiri where we stopped by the ex-castle to defrost. It was cold. Actually very cold. Those riding bikes equipped with air-temp measurement devices reported a range of 2 to 4C. Now those in the southern regions might say that we're soft, but actually we are. By the time we got to Mangatawhiri even those with heated grips and botty warmers were complaining. As for the rest of us, we were too bloody cold to complain. That's where the toughness ends and the craziness takes over. We decided to carry on. The next leg to Te Aroha via the back-roads to Tahuna was just as cold. We arrived just a little early at Te Aroha and had to circle once before coming in however we were soon inside a warm cafe with hot coffee cups and tasty treats. From there things were more comfortable as the sun started to warm things up. It was a stunning winter day without a cloud to be seen. We ran down the base of the hills and over the Kaimais for a fuel stop at Tauriko where Arne was waiting patiently. He took the lead for the next stage down through Welcome Bay, along the coast and then inland a little to pick up the Old Coach Rd which took us back to the coast again and down to Whakatane. I had planned to have lunch at The Wharf Shed restaurant but on arriving we discovered that it has closed down. That wasn't too much of a problem as we all became instant members of the Game Fishing Club and enjoyed a pleasant lunch and refreshments there. Alex was so dissapointed that he couldn't get his usual salad from the Wharf Shed that he consoled himself with a big plate of "salad". Wendy didn't want to give back the vibrating flashing whats-it thing but otherwise everyone seemed happy to be enjoying the view and lunch.After lunch Arne, TOC, Jason and Campbell headed off directly to their various homes and the rest of the group headed through to the Rotorua lakes and over the Mamakus to Matamata for a fuel stop. From there we headed straight up HW27 but soon ran out of daylight and with the darkness came the cold again but not as bad as early morning. Most of us stopped in at Bombay for hot chocolates before heading home.All up I calculate we did around 570 km and around 8 hours riding from BP Papakura back to Bombay. Thanks Bwucie for being a great TEC, thanks Arne for sharing some of your great local roads again and thanks everyone for riding safely, sensibly and being such good company. Hopefully Kerry Kamera girl will have some official pictures to post soon.