Sunday 3rd January 2011

The first ride of the year and it happened to be absolutely funtastic. I am staying at Marahau Beach camp and Phatboy managed to get up here to join me for a ride. We took Phatboy Jr and nico the silent with us. We drove up to the top of Takaka ill and parked at the entrance to Canaan Rd. This is 11km of shingle road that pops up and down at an altitude of around 900m. Good steady ride and Jr made it harder by riding his kona single speed with the seat in jump position. Spoke to a couple of riders along the way to get an idea of any knew rides in the area. We ended up doing the Gold Creek loop at Canaan downs. Quite simple but it finished with an excellent little downhill run through some trees. Stopped for a snack and headed up the short climb to the beginning of The Rameka. Last time we did this it was a group trip and it was wet wet wet. This time conditions were perfect. Hardly any puddles, dry roots and rocks and easy to blast hard. Nico had to keep tigtnening his crank but apart from the occasional stop for a regroup we went hard at it. No Bush Lawyer problems, and we took dozers track which when dry is so fast. Took the short road section to great Expectations on the Kennet Property. This was so sweet and had been bedded in better than when we did it last. The weather was hot and we loved the shade. They have now built 2 more tracks further down the road. 2 Klicks just past the ford is utterly far out. Starts with a branched ramp over a rock garden into some nice fast twisting tree runs. Flying along here with a few rock drops and jumps. Did well but scared myself when I found that I was on the front wheel going down a big rock. Into the next track called 1 klick. This offered 3 choices to start, The Rock Garden, the high road or the low road. We did all 3. A bit of river riding then over a ramp into a log jump. We all got good air here. Jr did nut himself though on the ramp which was not so good. After this rode into town and took the shuttle service back to the top of Takaka Hill. A good days ride and a nice way to start the year. May there be many more.

Mellonfarmer here now: You lucky bastards! meanwhile, a couple days later, I rode across the tops of the Peninsula in bloody diabolical conditions...

and apparently Tinks and Buggs and one or two others did a Captain Godley Conda tyhpe ride on the sunday.