We woke up quite early, but we enjoyed our Christmas breakfast on the balcony of the villa. Sun was shining, and we didn't hurry anywhere. So we started quite late. Since the roads do not cross the volcanoes, we had to go north for a while before turning west again. We had only few drops of gas, and both the Ohakune, and Raetihi service stations were closed. Luckily we didn't start too late, because we got to the National Park just before they closed the service station at noon.

In Taumarunui we met three bikers on their way to Wanganui street race. One of them wore a Finnish-made Rukka riding suit. He had bought it from England. He said that Rukka has a good reputation in NZ. Good news for us Finns... Then we rode to Ohura, and took a very narrow and twisty road towards the New Plymouth, that is north of Taranaki, or Mt Egmont, as the Cook explorers named that mountain.

Our next host, Greg Lynne, had warned us about the asphalt here, that gets soft and slippery in direct sunlight on a hot day. After few front tyre slides I remembered his warning, and slowed down. After Ohura the road turned to dirt and got narrower and narrower. The surface was loose gravel with ball bearing type pebbles. We had planned to take another route via Stratford, but we didn't want to ride today as much as the day before, so we chose the shorter road. It then turned to be quite challenging for such a big bike. I read from a local bike magazine, that there had jus been an enduro rally gathering on these roads. There were a lots of nice small dirt roads. I just wish I had had one or two days time to explore them all.

When we hit te asphalt again, we met a biker on a Honda Dominator. He added some gas to his bike from a reservoir. He was going to those roads, where we just came from. Then he headed to Wanganui, and after the street race to Napier via the Kuripapango road. I congratulated him for good route selection.

From New Plymouth we called Greg. I had found Greg also from the nzbikers mailing list. He kindly invited us to stay overnight on the Christmas Eve, and then we had planned to ride together to Wanganui next morning. When we reached Greg's place, there were some family, who had had a Christmas dinner there. Actually there were so many people, that before they left, it was somewhat difficult to say, who lived in this house, and who not. Finally there were only three people left: Greg, his wife Dianne, and their two year old son Griffin. Griffin was very cute, and very keen on motorbikes. He could say two words: “no” and “bike”. His favourite hobby was to sit on a motorbike, and he also “test rode” our Beemie a couple of times. I asked Greg, if he had ever ridden with Griffin. He answered, that no more than a couple of circles in their yard.

In the evening Alan Marston, and “Hutch” Hutchinson arrived from Auckland. They were joining us next morning for our trip to Wanganui. They stayed overnight with Dianne's sister nearby. We also called Andrew Broome, who we were supposed to meet in Wanganui. I told him, that I'd be wearing a white cap with text "Finland" in it.