This was pretty much the longest ride I have done so far on the Himalayan.
I headed along the main road past Okato and turned in at Mid Parihaka Road. From there I crossed over Wiremu Road to Upper Parihaka Road which is all dirt road.
The wind was pretty full on so I took the dirt road pretty gentle as I didn't want to risk anything.
Once again the bike was rock solid, although there were a few times where it felt like it wanted to slide out at the front. That I feel is more my skill level than anything else.
Parihaka is the site of a tribe that was well done over by the British who stormed in and stole the land from under them, killed some of their warriors, and basically raped and pillaged their way through the area.
I’m in two minds about Parihaka. On one hand what happened to them was atrocious and has only recently been formally acknowledged under the Adern government, but on the other hand I feel they are massive hypocrites. You see, every two years the Parihaka Tribe hold the Parihaka Peace Festival but I’ve picked up two hitchhikers from the tribe and both talked about rising up against the government and kick whitey out. Given that I’m whiter than sour cream and I’m the one picking them up I felt that to be pretty rich. I felt like telling those people to tuck in and roll as I push them out the door while we’re driving. I get why they feel the way they do but peace can NEVER be found at the barrel of a gun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parihaka
From Upper Parihaka Road I joined up with Upper Kahui Road. After a brief pause to decide if I wanted to head back to Wiremu Road or turn left and head to the end of the road, I decided to head to the end. This took me to the start of the Kahui Track up Mt Egmont/Taranaki which is right at the base of the Egmont National Park.
I recorded a brief introduction video for a YouTube channel I want to startup so I’ll add that at some stage as well.
