The day didnt start off too crash hot, laying in bed we heard the rain persisting down and Leenie made the comment about taking the car to Palmy and Craig could get wet. However by the time we were ready to leave it had cleared somewhat and after dropping the dogs at the Kennels we went round to a mates place where three other bikers were waiting for us. We knew the Wellington chapter were leaving from Wellington Motorcycles at 9:00am so we decided to scoot over the Rimutakas to beat the rush so to speak. They were anticipating 80 bikes. When we got to Featherston (see pic below) there were already 30ish bikes parked up - they'd had the same idea as us!
We stopped for brunch in Greytown at the White Swan - Wellington Motorcycles put on a roast meal - it was awesome - pork with all the trimmings! There were about 110 bikes parked on both sides of the road through Greytown - certainly gave all the locals something to talk about! We were in "HOG" heaven.
After about an hour and a half at Greytown the group carried on to Pahiatua, where we stopped to get everyone regrouped and petrol before carrying on through to Woodville and on to Palmy through the Manawatu Gorge.
We stopped again just outside of Palmy to regroup and then carried on to the Rally site at the Awapuni Racecourse - the Wellington Chapter made a dramatic entrance with all bikes in formation thundering up the entry road. The weather was decidedly dodgey by now - thunderstorms and showers with the rain at times going sideways - thank god for wet weather gear! Once we completed registration it was TIME FOR A COLDY!
Within moments we met new people, saw lots of new faces and had a few laughs at all the different "types" that attend the rallies! We felt quite young! The general crowd was aged in their 50's. All shapes, sizes, ages and races were in attendance! A couple of hours into the festivities the racecourse was hit by a huge thunderstorm and lightening struck the main building knocking out the transformer - no power!!!!!!!!!! Luckily the food marquees were running on gas or generators so we got fed! Unfortunately OSH had to close the main bars around 8:30 once it got dark. Most people headed into town, we went back to our wonderful hosts house (Beryl and Brent!) and had a few laughs playing Wii - Craig is awesome at tennis - Leenie needs more practice! Thanks Beryl and Brent for your wonderful hospitality.
The next morning it was up bright and early for breakfast at the rally site then time to depart on the "Thunder Ride". 1160 Harley's lined up in one street -you can imagine the noise and smell the fumes cant you????!!??? Palmy probably wondered what the hell struck it!
The thunder ride headed back out toward Massey, through the Manawatu Gorge, through Woodville and then turned up and over the saddle past the windfarms and into the back of Fielding before returning to Palmy and parking up in the Square for a couple of hours. The boys went to the pub, Leenie went shopping! Who said just because we only had two saddle bags there wasnt any room for taking any extras home! Never say never to Leenie!
The square looked spectacular!That evening we went back to the rally site - the power had been restored and the festivities really got underway! We met a lovely couple from Wagga Wagga Australia (about 4 hrs drive inland from Sydney). They ended up staying at our house on Sunday night as they were catching the ferry on Monday to tour the south island for a couple of weeks. We might have to make a trip to visit them at some stage - great people.
Come Monday night we were absolutely shattered! Despite the weather, we had a fantastic time. Met some amazing people and experienced fantastic hospitality from our family for putting us up for a couple of days and the rally organisers who had a disappointing first night with the power issues - but still battled on regardless. Oh and the great news is Leenie's backside survived the 400kms round trip as pillion! Next years rally is in Wellington - we cant wait!
