Another impossibly beautiful morning to kick off the day and another dig about the weather.
It wasn’t in 15 minutes and it wasn’t those clouds, but boy did the weather change…
I had one thing to take care of this morning before I left; I had to locate and dine at the World Famous Seafood BBQ stand by the water.
Why not make it second breakfast, right?! Pippin style.
Despite not being much of a seafood eater these days, I dove in with an order of garlic scallops and half a cray.
It came on a bed of rice, with a side salad and looked a lot like this:
Mysteriously, this little BBQ stand on the side of the road gets a lot of negative reviews (Check out Yelp!) with many complaining about the lack of flavour and the portion sizes.
There was plenty of flavour in the dish that I had and it all came from super fresh, simply cooked seafood. No creamy or sticky sauces in sight. The only condiments on the table were salt and pepper and Italian dressing for the otherwise unflavoured salad.
It was bloody delicious.
In a time when every muesli bar in New Zealand appears to be chocolate coated, when Maggi noodles have portion reminders (‘1 cake is 1 serve!’) yet still appears to be fried, not baked, I can imagine why some people may think it’s bland.
If you want to try some locally caught, simply prepared seafood, give the Seafood BBQ truck a try.
Time to hit the road again. My destination was a big fat blank. In truth, I was aiming for somewhere like Oxford. Little did I know that within the next three to four hours, I would sincerely wish I had picked Oxford and stayed there…
An hour and 40 minutes later, I pulled over for a coffee and to stretch my legs.
The weather was fine, the birds were singing and I was having a grand old time.
I ordered some pancakes to go with the coffee.
I see I’m chubbier in these latest clips. Damn my inability to resist these cafe snacks! I was certain I was going to lose weight on this trip 😏
In any case, ya boy needed some eats 😂
Recharged, I rode onwards. Ruby purred away beneath me and all was right with the world.
On the horizon, darker clouds were beginning to show over the range. I was hardly surprised. I’d had an absolutely magnificent run with the weather already, so we were due for a change. The random weather generator had clearly chosen ‘downpour’.
An hour passed. By now, rain was smattering down. My optimism and bravado were diminishing rapidly as the road I was following continued turning towards the core of the storm.
Light grey and silver turned to slate grey. The rain began to hammer down. The cacophony inside my helmet began to irritate me as did the cold and the gusts of wind. I was getting distracted.
Half an hour later again and I began to see lightning on the horizon. I chose to take the next possible opportunity to stop and get out of the worsening storm… but there was nowhere at all to go.
By choice, I was on some unknown back roads.
My phone, now wet as well, wouldn’t respond to the inputs from my freezing fingers. I couldn’t wipe it dry enough to load maps. I chose to ride on in search of a sign to any nearby settlement.
Yet another half an hour went by without a single bus stop, house, township or makeshift shelter in sight.
The slate grey clouds had by now taken on an ominous, greenish tinge. I’d not seen such colours in a very long time, but I knew they were the portents of a hailstorm.
By some stroke of luck, a chosen series of turns led me back to Inland Scenic Route 72. Moments later, I rolled up to the Route 72 Cafe and Emporium, just as the rain stopped and tiny white flakes that reminded me of snow, began to fall.
I locked Ruby’s steering and ran over to find a lady frantically packing up the curios on her front display tables.
‘Looking to shelter from the storm, love?’ she smiled.
I nodded. ‘Yes ma’am. Are you still open?’ I pleaded.
She indicated that they were. I offered to assist with packing items away, but she declined and told me to make myself comfortable inside.
Within five minutes, the hail began to fall in earnest.
I ordered a chai latte and figured this would all pass in a moment. This is New Zealand, after all…
Except it didn’t. It got worse.
You can hear one of the ladies telling me to head upstairs because there’s a great view up there. I did as indicated.
As I bounded up the stairs, I could hear the hail had gotten heavier again.
This carried on for long enough to punch holes through the cafe’s roof. Some goods at the back were flooded and damaged by the hail and rain, which was beginning to skitter across the floor and into the main seating area.
Throughout this ordeal, I got to speaking to the three other people in that first video, visiting from Christchurch. We discussed veganism and the future of farming, politics and Jacinda Ardern, the world that young people are facing today compared to how we had things ‘back then’… it was a wholesome and pleasant conversation.
As quickly as if had come, the hail stopped, but it left me with a new dilemma:
The sheer amount of hail had turned the street into a scene from early spring in Sapporo. It looked like sleet.
Cold tyres and icy roads? No thank you.
Everybody suggested that I sit down and continue the conversation as it would ‘all be clear soon enough’. I had my doubts, but they turned out to be misguided.
I stopped just outside of town to check my directions. I didn’t realise that I had gathered an audience:
The trip to Geraldine wasn’t without further difficulty. It rained heavily again and I once again began to get agitated from the now freezing cold rain and wind.
In the end, I just took it steadily and eventually arrived safely at Grumpy’s Kiwi Holiday Park just outside of Geraldine.
I sent this to some mates before signing off for the night:
You should’ve eaten the hail.