Sunday 24th March
John And Jane Go South, Day 5
Saturday 23rd March
| MILES | KILOMETERS | Arrived | Left | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Hayes Estate | 89892 | 11:19:00 | |||
| Omakau | 89952 | 60 | 96.6 | 12:31:00 | 12:48:00 |
| Middlemarch (Kissing Gate Cafe) | 90027 | 75 | 120.7 | 14:20:00 | 15:21:00 |
| Mosgiel (Bella Vista Motel) | 90067 | 40 | 64.4 | 16:15:00 | |
| 175 | 281 (MT07=296) |
Jane And John Go South, Day 2
Wednesday 20th March.
| MILES | KILOMETERS | Arrived | Left | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waipara Sleepers | 89547 | 09:11:00 | |||
| Amberly (Nor’Wester Cafe) | 89554 | 7 | 11.3 | 09:20:00 | 10:26:00 |
| Rangiora | 89570 | 16 | 25.7 | 10:48:00 | 10:52:00 |
| Oxford | 87589 | 19 | 30.6 | 11:14:00 | 11:21:00 |
| Geraldine | 89674 | 85 | 136.8 | 12:58:00 | 14:15:00 |
| Lake Tekapo (The Greedy Cow) | 89727 | 53 | 85.3 | 15:21:00 | 17:15:00 |
| Lake Pukaki Lookout | 89751 | 24 | 38.6 | 17:39:00 | 17:45:00 |
| Lindis Pass Lookout | 89798 | 47 | 75.6 | 18:41:00 | 18:54:00 |
| Cromwell BP | 89845 | 47 | 75.6 | 19:50:00 | 19:58:00 |
| Lake Hayes Estate | 89874 | 29 | 46.7 | 20:40:00 | |
| 327 | 526 (MT07=556) |
Jane And John Go South, Day 1
Tuesday 19th March.
| MILES | KILOMETERS | Arrived | Left | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 89286 | 05:19:00 | |||
| Otaki BP | 89331 | 45 | 72.4 | 06:19:00 | 06:41:00 |
| Wgtn Ferry Terminal | 89373 | 42 | 67.6 | 07:58:00 | 12:41:00 |
| Kaikoura BP | 87282 | 94 | 151.3 | 15:04:00 | 15:25:00 |
| Kaikoura SRC | 89472 | 5 | 8 | 15:30:00 | 18:50:00 |
| Cheviot | 89514 | 42 | 68 | 19:51:00 | 20:08:00 |
| Waipara Sleepers | 89547 | 33 | 53.1 | 20:55:00 | |
| 261 | 420 (436) |
Jane rides a Whoosh. [PIC] It is low and lean and zippy. The motor is full of Go Berries and it has Stoppers! When Jane feeds it Go Berries it leaps away down the road. And when Jane caresses the Stoppers the Whoosh immediately digs its heels in and skids to a halt. [PIC?]
John drives a Rumble. [PIC] The Rumble is old and heavy and has a deep voice. Despite the shakes and rattles it is quite strong. But the Rumble needs lots of encouragement to speed up, and even more encouragement to change direction. And it has Slowers. If John thinks the Rumble is going too fast he pulls on the hand-slower and pushes on the foot-slower for all he is worth. The Rumble will casually slow from a charge to a canter. It then falls back to a trot. If there’s lots of room and John keeps pulling and pushing on the Slowers, the Rumble will eventually come to rest. The Rumble doesn’t like emergency slows. It likes lots of warnings and plenty of time.
Jane said that they had to start the adventure in the night-time, and travel on until morning, [PIC] where they were going to catch a fairy.
“Cool”, thought John. He couldn’t wait to see Tinkerbell. [PIC]
John was a bit disappointed to find that the fairy was a floater called Kaitare [PIC] but cheered up when Jane said that Kaitare was going to make a big breakfast for them. [PIC] John was so glad that Jane was there. Without her he’d be lost. [PIC]
Kaitare spat them out in Picton, which was at the top of the South. [PIC?] Jane wanted to Whoosh but the Rumble was worried about all the unfamiliar bends.
After they had picked their way over the hill to Blenheim John shovelled in some more coal and the Rumble worked up a head of steam. Jane then gave the Whoosh it’s head and away they galloped to Kaikoura.
By the time they got to Kaikoura there were no “if’s” or “and’s” but their “but’s” were definitely sore. John got squashed by Wayne. Jane wanted to go Cray-z, but went for a run instead. [PIC]
John started to wonder just how much “south” there was!
“Lots”, said Jane. “More than you can shake a stick at. But we need to shake a leg.” And so off they went, heading deeper into the day, and even deeper into the south.
MOMCC September Trial
This month’s trial was held at Chris Morrison’s property at Whanganui. Chris had been busy all week nutting out sections for us, and did a great job. The trial followed a stream gully with nice steep sides, crossed with stock tracks. It was a good mix of downhills and uphills with tight turns.
3 and 4 were on open farmland, the ground was hard and dry, it had been pugged up during winter by the stock, so was no bowling green, especially my line on section 3, for me it was a good element to deal with. The rest of the sections were sheltered under mature pines, with plenty of tree roots to add to the mix. A root on section 5 gave me a surprise 5, because my back wheel slipped sideways and down.
There was a good turn out, considering we clashed dates with Ixions’s classic trial. The Herbert’s came down from New Plymouth and new member Nick Longstaff travelled from Dannevirke to compete at his 1st trial, riding Kevin’s Vertigo he cleaned up clubman. Kevin and Nick were still riding after everyone else left.
In A grade Kevin was on form on his Ossa, he pulled a win against Warrick and Daniel and put on a good show for the many young spectators.
Daniel had a good number of cleans, but unfortunately too many fives too. It seemed an all or nothing day for him. Daniel and Hannah have been chosen for the Oceania Team, exciting but also putting on added pressure for them to ride well at the Nationals coming up on Labour Weekend.
There were a good amount of spectators, a family from Bulls, who are pretty keen to get into trials and Chris’s neighbour with his dirt bike riding kids and their friends who came over to watch in the afternoon.
I was riding with Barry, a local ride for him since he’s recently moved to Whanganui. He stepped up and rode clubman, I stayed in sportsman, which is just as well considering my high score. Thanks Merv for adding those purple arrows at the start of the day.
It was pleasant spring weather and a great days riding.
