Our monthly runs have been continuing… even if our writeups are a little sporadic!
MAY 2023 – Hunua Falls Cafe (Recently re-opened)
We met at Hunua Falls, South of Auckland for our first cafe run after our big nationwide trip in March. Speed limits are dropping like stones all over NZ’s roads now and the road to Hunua has not been spared, but it is still a lot of fun, and very pretty too. What I love about these cafe runs is that we never know who will turn up and this morning was no different with a few faces we hadn’t seen for months (or perhaps just over a year…?!) and indeed one lady who wanted to come to meet the group before coming along on a ride with us. Everyone is welcome as we sit drink coffee and ponder bikes, accessories, roads and world affairs!
JUNE 2023 – Long weekender in Piopio
Once again we took off for the King’s Birthday long weekend. Looking for a small town with 10 – 12 beds, a pub / restaurant and a cafe led us to PioPio in the central / western North Island. A bit of a gamble as we hadn’t stayed here or been out to check it out in advance, but we are well versed in researching now. We were rewarded with a great motel and attached restaurant owned and operated by the same family who run the always popular Fat Pigeon cafe on the main road. As it was the only accommodation in town we encouraged everyone to book early. As always, there were a couple of last minute bookings who had to stay out of town, but only 15 mins away in Te Kuiti, and they got lucky with the courtesy bus available to transport them to / from our accommodation so they could still enjoy dinner and a beer with us. The weekend was a touch chilly at 6-13C but it was the start of winter so we added an extra layer and set out on a couple of 350km day rides. We’re blessed with always having cheerful people come on our runs so it’s a nice relaxed natter when we get to the cafe for a break and the group ride format works well with a group of 6-7 bikes ridden by people with nothing to prove and everything to gain by having a chilled outing and everyone riding at their own pace.
JULY 2023 – Whanga Eats
In another unashamed attempt to flush out some of those Aucklanders who lurk on our mailing list and/or our facebook group but haven’t *quite* made it out to say gidday yet, we set out to Whanga Eats, a little cafe east of Wellsford, heading towards Matakana. Success! We met up with a new guy Mike, and also seem to be making regulars out of a few others.
We had such a cool day! We left home at 7.40am (1.5°C!) and arrived just in time for brunch at 10.45. The sun came out and we sat outside chatting for ages with great coffee, food and nice people 
. We kinda sorta came directly home – admittedly via “a little bit of gravel” (think mountain goat territory) the oncoming car seemed a bit bemused to see two sports bikes up there. Home at 4.30pm. Very close to a sunrise to sunset riding day. Thanks to everyone that came out to say hello, these are our favourite kind of Sundays 
