So today Mrs TA and I thought it might be nice to do a quiet ride .. just the two of us.
Mrs TA has never done a kawhia harbour loop, and we only had a couple of hours free .. so it seemed like a good idea
Down to Te Awamutu for gas, then south to otorohonga.
Out on to waitomo valley road, then right past the caves towards Te Anga.
I rode past quite a few signs saying "bridge out, no access to Kawhia or Hamilton"
But I thought bugger it .. we can always turn around and go back.
So we get to Te Anga pub to discover a huge warning sign, but we also spotted a few blokes sitting at the pub.
Quick chat with locals, and they tell us of a farm track divert that we can take to get around the broken bridge.
So we head down the road, follow the locals advice, and find ourselves on a very slow going gravel road.
We follow the road for about 15ks, then see the hand painted sign that says "<-- Kawhia, please close gates behind you"
On to the farm track.
We encounter mud holes, free roaming bulls . . with testicles !!! flocks of sheep .. goats, turkeys . . everything
Finally after about 15kms of this we hit the next gravel road.
Following the gravel road along an estuary .. very pretty :)
Back on to the tarmac of the Kawhia harbour road.
then follow the normal route back to Whatawhata.
NOTES:
My front tyres has very limited traction .. roll on Tuesday.
My forearms are in pain .. I need to do some work on that
Its really cold .. I need to dig out the thermals again
My "custom" ear plugs are buggered .. the bit that goes in my ear canal has snap off .. not great use of my money I must say .. and won't recommend them to anyone
Coupe of pics attached