Did you think I was never going to finish? Hell, I didn't know if I would ever finish. When we last saw our intrepid group of two wheeled maniacs, they had just barely beaten the rain to Hanmer Springs for lunch .......
We're in Hanmer Springs for lunch ... and it's raining, and it's raining, and it's raining. We eventually figured out that it wasn't going to stop raining, so we better get moving if we wanted to get to Murchison before it was dark. We'd only come about 130 klicks so far, and we had about 200 to go, and we were going to have to do it in the rain.
View Larger MapIt's really too bad about the rain. It's not that any of us minded riding in the rain. Obviously we would've preferred for it not to be raining, bit it was what it was. The scenery was pretty even in the pouring rain, I would've like to have seen it in the sun.
If there's one thing the rain does, however, is separate the men from the boys, so to speak. When I say that none of us minded riding in the rain, I mean that some us didn't mind less than others. We had a tendency to get a little more spread out on this leg of our journey, meaning the two of us on the sportbikes were waiting for everyone else a bit more than usual. This included one main stop about halfway so that everyone could catch up and get a bite and wring themselves out as much as possible. Here we are in all our drowned cat glory.
Yes, we made endless fun of that pink and purple rain suit.
There's not a lot more to say about the rest of day two other than any motorcycle gear that claims to be water 'proof' eventually becomes water 'resistant', water 'logged' and finally water 'fucking useless' when subjected to a South Island summer downpour. We all managed to not die in the rain and finally pulled into the place we were spending the night, just past Murchison.
This lovely home was actually owned by an American ex-pat from Hawaii. And when I say 'American' I mean 'Hippie' and when I say Hawaii, I mean 'Outer Space'. I don't know where the grow house was but I'm sure it couldn't have been too far. Here's some shots of the view from the front porch, left to right.
I was plesantly surprised.
I'm not going to get through all of Day Two tonight, so stay tuned for part five.
Another Fourth of July, another Will Smith movie. Can someone tell me exactly how the Fresh Price got to be the biggest, baddest, most bakable movie star in the universe? Let's see ... Independance Day, Men in Black, Wild Wild West, I Robot, Hitch, Pursuit of Happyness and I am Legend. That's what, a couple billion dollars box office? Some of those are actually really good movies and Smith is actually really, really good in a couple of those movies. Can he continue his summer movie domination with Hancock? Does the pope wear a funny hat? The critics hate this movie, which probably goes a long way towards explaining why I like it. I think the only thing it proves is that critics are idiots. Mrs. STFU did like it as well, which means that you'll probably like it. Smith is great as the anti-hero Hancock. That's about all I can say without getting into spoiler territory. It's a good movie, it not the usual Will Smith summer blockbuster, but I liked it enough to give it
