Midnight Madness

[Anonymous]

#3477

The route was chosen in the knowledge that it is comprised, in large part, with some of the closest “Big Night Sky” viewing to Dorkland, because the bulk of the Hunua Ranges cuts the light pollution from Kaiaua to just before Clevedon.  Huey, the weather god, co-operated, and he provided just enough cloud to add interest, but not destroy the viewing.  It musta been a gorgeous ride for WendyF, the only pillion (it was after her Restricted License curfew) the rest of us had to occupy our time staying on the road.Pointing at the second rider to mark the way doesn't work too well in the dark, so I acted as outrider to do the corners, and to scout for scuffy bits, loose stock, car wrecks, road works, all the usual fun things on rural roads.  UncaMoose led the pack at a steady pace, somewhat slower than day time, and off we went, with no dramas.  Almost.  Having reminded everybody not to be sucked into the trap of using memory to cover the familiar roads, but to ride by eyecrometer, yours truly got into that old familiar groove thing going over the lovely twisty bit between Orere Point and Kawakawa Bay, and cranked in the countersteer to whip the bike over for the last corner before the summit and found myself pointed directly at the centreline.  One more corner still to go Bwucie - lose ten brownie points.  No Bee-Ems crossed the centreline in the making of this story, but I did pull a pucker in the seat cover with the suction applied by by my rectum-bloody-near-killed-'im to make it so.  Hopefully, a bit of heat from the hair dryer will fix that this morning (might fix the seat cover, too 😀 :-D).We had a brief stop at Umupuia to stargaze, the last opportunity before the lights killed the spectacle.  Even there, half the sky was washed out by light loom, but it did give the riders a chance to enjoy some of what Wendy had been seeing.  (Hands up all those old enough to remember when they used to turn off the streetlights at midnight?  Remember the headlines around the world when Perth arranged to leave the lights on after 2349 hrs so the Mercury astronauts could see where they were on the dark side?  When you could get up to take an early morning trip through the frost to the outside thunder box, and get back to bed shivering after standing gob-smacked in the backyard because you COULD see the night sky, even in town, then.  Good on them in the link, says I http://www.tewahanui.info/wordpress2/?p=3564.)We started to get oncoming traffic after Beachlands, and I decided to lessen our risks by varying the route, so I headed for Dennys at Manukau via Sandstone, Ormiston, Murphys and Redoubt Roads from Whitford, instead of carrying on to Highland Park as originally planned.  This put everybody right beside the motorway to head for home after supper.  There is no doubt about it, Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches taste many degrees of wicked better at one o'clock in the morning than they do at eight o'clock at night!Wendy texted Mrs Red Baron at 0115 to tell her to open the garage door for Alex, who suddenly looked very worried.  And to think that Team Red Baron are going to the US of A with Team Foley next year to ride Route 66.  They will be living the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

[Anonymous]

#14354

Sounds like you guys had a good ride and it was a lovely night. I'm sorry that I couldn't make it but I'm scared of the dark, and by the time I got home from chasing Hondas around Hampton Downs all day, I was actually too buggered to ride all the way back to Bombay. Sorry about that. Poor effort really  😳

[Xan]

#14355

If Bruce looked at how well you were riding on the Hampton Downs, he would understand why you got so tired  🙂

[Author]

Posts