Just a spin

We had a week of heavy rain, which, thanks to my decent motorcycle jacket, I do not really mind. Still, I did not get out on the bike much because I had to get some car repairs and then the dreaded Warrant of Fitness for the car. There was also a late-night finish due to parent-teacher interviews, so I was very pleased to take a spin around on the motorbike today, Sunday.

I dropped off the little lad at his mother's and then filled up with petrol at a nearby station. The bike is economical of course. I filled up carefully, enjoying the control of the nozzle and the sight of the petrol pouring in, then bubbling and swirling till it was near the top. It is like the swirling of bath water but, of course, in reverse. Does petrol entering a motorcycle tank swirl in a different direction in the Northern Hemisphere from the Southern?

Then I took the road out to Morrinsville, and turned south along 1b towards Cambridge. The road is, as the name suggests, an alternative to State Highway One. It is single-lane and has no median, but it has good curves, a variety of scenery and all the typical New Zealand smells and features. As a motorcyclist I watch out for muck on the road, such as detritus from tractors. Their tyre treads drop off mud and, all too frequently, the lumpy mud, still with the deep grooves of the tractor tyres, is on a corner as I lean in to turn. When I look left and right I can see the small farms that are the life-blood of New Zealand. Dairy sheds with muddy tracks left by hundreds of cows plodding to be milked twice a day. Family homes, with lights on. Garages and sheds with tractors, utes and other farm vehicles. Fields with Friesian cows contentedly converting grass into food or drink for humans. The fields that are for cows have either barbed wire or just plain wire, sometimes electrified, but, as I approach Cambridge, there are fields with timber fences for the horses.

Cambridge, New Zealand, prides itself on its bloodstock and horseracing and the clearest indicator is that the quadrupeds are mollycoddled with wooden fences, so if they take fright and blunder into a fence, there will be no serious scratches on their hides.

I do like Cambridge. I also like Cambridge, UK, and a possible title of a Round the World Tour would be from Cambridge (NZ) to Cambridge (UK), perhaps via Cambridge (Mass). I have also thought of "From a Thames (NZ) to the Thames (UK)", but with Covid-19 I am not sure of my ability to get further than the South Island! Back to Cambridge (NZ); as well as a fine collection of excellent coffee-shops, and my favourite is a small French cafe, selling over-priced but lovely pastries, the main streets have mosaics on the ground depicting famous horses. I find that lovely. One of Mark Todd's Olympic mounts is commemorated, race winners are immortalized and even successful brood mares and stallions have their busts in a two-dimensional mosaic of carefully arranged jigsaw pieces. Cambridge also has a beautiful village-green-like cricket pitch situated almost in the centre of town. It is surrounded by oak trees and just looks like a village in the Home Counties of England. The kind that probably hardly exists in the Home Counties, but is exemplified here, half a world away.

I rode on through; I wouldn't have minded a coffee but Sunday afternoon is not very lively in this country. I eased myself over the narrow bridge, glancing at the beautiful views of the Waikato River, far, far below, and turned right to Te Awamutu. The road from Cambridge to Te Awamutu does not rank in Mike Hyde's guide to New Zealand's best motorbike rides, but I enjoy it. It has some curves, some changes of direction, the usual ammonia smells of silage, the changes in fresh air temperature and the beautiful sights of the small mountain range of Pirongia and the volcanic shape of Kakepuku. I skirt by Te Awamutu and head north to return to Hamilton using State Highway 3. Just because a road is called a State Highway does not mean that it is much better in width, lanes or straightness than, for example, the road I had just been on from Cambridge. The slight improvement did mean that I was able to move along a little faster, which was pleasing. Once in the Might Tron (Hamilton), I popped into a supermarket to ensure a good meal, and got home, still in daylight.

I have now done 12,000 km with the motorbike since I bought it in the middle of December 2019. It needs servicing, and I will see about getting a date for that tomorrow.