THIRD TIME Lucky

THIRD TIME LUCKY, they say, right? Especially in God’s Own Country, otherwise known as Unzud. But I’m here to tell you that ‘they’ have got it wrong. The bastards.

This was my third attempt to ride the Molesworth Track from Hanmer Springs north to Seddon and on to Blenheim. Failing the Molesworth, Option B was going to involve tackling the Rainbow Road to St Arnaud instead. Yes, I had a backup, so I suppose I should not have been entirely surprised that the former was closed. It was, it seemed, too dry to trust motorcyclists in its waving grass. What I didn’t expect was that due to extensive overnight rainfall, the latter would also be closed – because it was too wet.

Now I am not a man given to profanity, as anyone who