We chatted yesterday about where Louise would like to try next on a ride out. We’re both well aware of the differences to biking on the roads here compared to the UK. However, there is certainly a lot less traffic!

Louise decided that she’d like to have a try at Wellington – to experience city traffic. Surely Sunday would be a quiet day…as it turns out, no, Sunday is not a “quiet” day in the city! But good fun anyway.

We had looked up motorway riding in the Road Code, for some reason we’d both come to the conclusion that learners couldn’t ride on motorways a la the UK motorways. I looked up a couple of websites too and couldn’t find anything. Although a lot of bikers had mused that the L plate is a target on the roads, and either left them off or ignored the rules. Not too different to many Kiwi motorists there then! The L plate here is slightly different to the UK, in that its yellow! After that, there’s not really that much you can do with an “L”!

We had looked at the non-motorway roads to get to Wellington, but decided that they had their own issues too – steep hills etc. So we decided to go for it. By now, we had also decided that travelling at 80 km/h, instead of the legal 70 km/h, was a lot safer in traffic. A lot of the towns and minor roads are 50 or 80 km/h limits and you get a lot less hassle from drivers, trying to get past, at 80 than you do at 70! It also seems to be a matter the police are willing to ignore as they don’t agree with the 70 limit either – as we said, its actually dangerous to “slow” the traffic. Having said that, so far we’ve been quite lucky in that a lot of drivers give loads of space to Louise as a learner – long may that continue!

We went straight into Wellington, though we did get off the motorway at Ngauranga (the g is silent evidently, so pronounced as Nauranga) and took the Hutt Rd into the city. After many traffic lights and junctions, we stopped by the side of Wellington Motorcycles for a coffee, louise having done really well on the busy roads and junctions!

We then headed off towards the airport, turning off just before to go to Miramar. Although we’d been to the Weta Cave (the company responsible for Lord of the Rings scenery, models etc) before, I thought it would be lovely to visit again.

I was going to take us over to Lyall Bay, but the grey clouds were gathering that way. So, instead we went across to Seatoun for a quick drink and a loo stop for me. Then followed the headland around back to Wellington City.

I couldn’t remember the way up to Mt Victoria – the easy way that is. We still found a way up, but I think Louise would have preferred not to take it, in hindsight. Whoops! It was fairly steep an narrow I have to say…..but the view at the top is definitely worth the trip.

Found the easy way up after all, but only on the way down

A coffee was definitely on the cards, and Louise suggested the cafe in Petone that we went to after her bike training day. Good choice, although the waitress we’d met last time was hobbling after a fall……didn’t stop her asking for a ride on the VSTROM though…….

Back home via Pauatahanui, and very surprisingly Louise wanted to try out Battle Hill! And very well she did too, taking it real slow on the way back down!

Turned out to be quite a long day after all, and certainly a lot further than originally intended!

Total mileage 150km (approx 94 miles)

Sunny day out on the deck today, reading books and drinking wine – maybe a bike ride wouldn’t be too good an idea!

Lie-in this morning, recovering from the bike ride. It was quite exhausting surprisingly!

Checked e-mails at lunchtime, found a facebook mail from Keith – something about St Athan now being back in Inc 3a DII. For those that don’t know what that’s about, it’s not good! It also means that if I have to go back to UK to work for a few years, I’ll be working for the Atlas consortium (presuming I get a job back at St Athan) and in particular for Fujitsu – that could be useful I suppose, if they let me transfer over to NZ ! I’ll wait and see the letter they’ve sent out to current workers at St Athan – assuming that they remember me of course. I wouldn’t be too surprised if I was left off the list!

Massive notes update for blog. I really should get up to being only a few days behind!

Popped up to Waikanae Beach and back along the coast road by Paraparam Beach on the bikes. Nice windy slow stuff for Louise to get used to!

Spent the day looking for and applying for jobs.

The Kapiti Coast Thursday Night Cruise (advertised on the Kiwi Bikers website) sounded like something out of the movie Wild Hogs – all middle-aged men seeking a bit of “sedate adventure” on the open road……To quote the NZ Tui (a local brew) advert….Yeah Right!!

More like Mad Max on a chase through all the local New Zealand roads you’d prefer to do with your eyes closed, given the choice!!

On the positive side, my VSTROM performed like I never knew it could, out pulling the majority of the race bikes going up the mountain climbs and easily keeping up on the odd 100 yd straight and flat bits!! And all the other bikes were single riders, whereas we were two up!!…

Who needs a bungy jump for an adrenaline rush!!

We went over Battle Hill and down into Pauatahanui to pick up another biker. Over to the Hutt Valley to pick up another and then up over the Rimatuka and down into Featherston for a drink at the Royal Hotel – and for me and Louise a bit of a recovery!

Back over the Rimatuka to the Hutt Valley, but this time taking a “shortcut” over Moonshine Road towards Pauatahanui – single lane bendy road! Then another rapid climb over Battle Hill before dispersing at the top to go home.

I need to get my bike looked at – the speedo appears to be reading incorrectly! Everyone else’s seemed to be reading 100 km/h, whereas mine was obviously incorrectly reading between 10 and 40 km/h above that!! I’ve also noticed that the front tyre appears to be a little “flighty” when pulling away at speed uphill – not sure I can do much about that other than improve my balance. There doesn’t appear to be anything mechanically wrong with the bike – strange……

Louise went off to PaknSave to do some shopping, or so I thought!

She came back and asked if I could be ready to leave the house n the next 45 mins……mmmm……

She had arranged “something”. She drove me into Paraparam, and then turned off onto a dirt track next to the airfield where she spilt the beans. As an early birthday surprise, I was going on a glider experience trip!

Bob the Builder turned into Bob the Pilot for the day, an American who prefers the sunny Kapiti Coast to a very wet, windy and cold Pennsylvania at this time of the year. Cheryl, the visitor who had been attracted to Bob’s online presence in America, Jason the tow pilot and Alex the “Gofer” – friendly bunch!

Lovely trip! I was in the air for 30-40 mins, and Bob let me do the flying for about 15-20 mins. We got up to approx 5000ft @ 160-180 knots. We flew over the Paraparam/Raumati area, over Transmission Gully and Battle Hill Rd to the South, back over Valley Rd, up to the Akatarawa road in Waikanae and then halfway out to Kapiti Island before coming back in for a few circuits around Paraparam.

We got back to the house to get ready for a bike ride, but before we left Fujitsu called to get a bit more info on me and my situation – Cool, crossed fingers there then!

We thought we’d pop up to Otaki for a coffee to give Louise a bit longer out on the bike. We did that and more as we then doubled back and rode down to Plimmerton on the SH1, then around the lake at Paremata to Pauatahanui.

While we’d pulled over at Pauatahnui for a break, another biker pulled over to check we were ok. He turned out to be from Paraparam – another Bob. He told us about the Kapiti Coast rideouts on thursday evenings and invited us along.

Back home for a takeout!

Mileage 122km (approx 76 miles)

Lovely day today!

Louise spent a lot of the day cleaning and polishing her new bike, and admittedly washing the car too! Bless! During the odd break I did look longingly at the bug spattered front of my bike, but to no avail, they wouldn’t come off without some physical input!

The reason I didn’t follow suit was of course because I was doing job applications all day with an updated CV….

Both Road Coded out this morning!

Off to Super Cheap Autos first thing this morning, it’s a lot like Halfords really. We haven’t been to Repco yet, but I’m guessing it must be quite similar. We needed to get chain lube for the bikes, but ended up with some polish and cleaning stuff too and even found some discounted bike covers for when its raining and we don’t use the bikes.

Louise popped into Briscoes, but I stopped in the car, she was looking for a replacement quilt cover set that had just gone on offer today – save washing, drying and ironing the spare bed in a day

We pulled up at the AA office in Paraparam and booked Louise in for a bike theory test, 45 minutes later. She had her photo taken, signature electronically, eye test and application form ($79 test fee and licence application) while I popped around the corner to get a coffee to steady her nerves. While she took her test, I picked up some AA freebies to look at places to go….

35 questions on the NZ road code – Louise PASSED with 35 out of 35!! Not sure I’d have been that confident for me, but, she’s legal now! She handed in her 1 week old new licence and got a temp paper one again, and then registered ownership of her bike ($10).

We drove down to Paraparam Beach for a celebratory coffee.

Got home, me with a headache – too much caffeine I think LOL. Louise was grateful as that meant she didn’t HAVE TO go out on her bike – still suffering from nerves after last Saturdays marathon session!

Louise sorted out her insurance – a grand total of about £90 in the end!!

I grabbed some Panadol, and lo and behold no headache 10 mins later, so I told Louise we were going out on the bikes to get her confidence back. She was a bit nervous but got togged up anyway.

We started off just going to the end of the drive and to the beach access (this alone resulted in a cold sweat as the memories of Saturday came back to Louise) and then going for a couple of turns around the block. We hadn’t filled up the bike with fuel when we brought it back from Waiouru (or rather, I hadn’t) so we popped into Paraparam Beach to fill up, along with a lesson for Louise as she did it herself. We then popped down the road from the garage for a rest and recuperate. Sweaty back syndrome still in evidence.

Louise was feeling a little bit more confident by now, and we decided to pop up the coast to Waikanae and back – about 10 mins there and 10 mins back again. We ended up having a quick break on the beach.

I’d taken some frozen chicken out of the freezer this morning, and left it out to defrost – no issues, it was still mostly frozen when we got back. However, the NZ life-form Cat came in through the door with us, sussed the chicken smell and nearly ran off with the chicken!! Reminds me of the Christmas Turkey and Blob (Louise’s cat now ensconced happily in Torquay) and Missy-Moo (Louise’s other cat now also ensconced happily in Torquay) and the gravy episodes over Christmas 2008. Blob took a chunk out of the turkey while we weren’t looking, and Missy-Moo left a tongue sized hole in the gravy saucepan while our backs were turned!

Hang on, CHICKEN for tea!! Without going to KFC – we must have spent the weeks housekeeping then!

Well, they say things come in threes…… the third thing in this case was Louise’s Road Code theory test which she hopes to take tomorrow.

Every other minute was a question on the Code, about the Code or a request for questions on the Code. Having said that, it was not a problem. Louise did very well on her reading, and it taught me quite a bit that I had no idea of – even though I transferred my bike licence straight over into a NZ one!

When not dealing with the Code, I was finishing off updating my CV. At the last look today, there were about another 8-9 jobs awaiting it’s completion….

Louise had arranged to do two courses today – “Learn To Ride” and the “Basic Motorcycle Handling Skills” course and test. So, we were up with the sparrows, and in to Wellington to drop Louise off at the Victoria Street car park for 845am. Good luck for the day Louise! (She didn’t want me hanging around to distract her).

It promises to be a sweltering day! Louise did have a cold drink and lunch with her though, so she should have been ok.

I popped in to see Graham and Jayne just after 9. We chatted for a while until Sian convinced Jayne to let her drive to the shops. While they were out, Graham and I played Scattergories with Bethan – very hard game on a short timer! Bethan was doing really well!! Better than me I think….

Decided to go back home for a few hours, rather than hang around in Wellington. I met Alec and Liz (landlord and lady) when I arrived back and we started to have a chat about the bikes – they were fine with us having the two. Mostly they were dead impressed with Louise for giving it a go!

Popped back in to Wellington to pick up Louise – left at 3:20 and got there at 3:59, so 40 mins to the centre of Wellington, but that was with hardly any traffic, on a Saturday afternoon and keeping to the speed limit.

Found Louise propped up against a wall sat next to another girl who had been on the 2 courses as well. She’d PASSED! Evidently it was a close-run thing with the cone slalom bit, but she got it in the end. To be fair, you don’t often meet a cone slalom out on the road, although arguably you can quite often end up in a slalom on some of the roads, avoiding possums, gravel, rocks, landslides, trees…… that sort of thing!

Out of the 7 hours on the courses and test, Louise had managed about 10 mins for a very quick sandwich. On such a sweltering day Wellington had dropped all the wind normally found, so when she removed her helmet at the end of the day her hair looked like she’d just gotten out of the shower!!

We went for a few well-deserved coffees on the front at Petone. Luckily I’d taken the car to pick her up – she was fed up to the teeth with bikes and was pretty close to never wanting to ride one (except as pillion, and even then not for a while) ever again….

We headed home for a well-earned rest for Louise!

Left the house just after 9am to have a nice leisurely trip up to Waiouru to pick up Louise’s bike. We stopped for a coffee opposite the Route66 on SH1 cafe at Foxton – sorry Fitz, we’ll go back on bikes for a picture, it’s just not the same parked there in a car!

We got up to Waiouru and as I was texting Amelia, she phoned me LOL.

Picked the bike up with no stress and parked up at the petrol station in Waiouru to fill up and take a few piccies.

We stopped a couple of times on the way down to the Kapiti coast, first stop was Mangaweka Hill. The bike was proving to be pretty cool, once it was up to 100 kph, although I quickly decided not to overtake anything unless they were stopped LOL.

The next few stops were quick ones, and it only took 4 1/2 hrs to get back. It was a lovely gentile trip in beautiful weather all the way. However, I’m nadged now!!