Cold Kiwi 3 - 5 September 2010

[doc]

who is that handsome devil on the right in that pic????????.

Some random dude on a Honda.

[davebullet]

It was excellent. I couldn't make Friday night (work) so arrived saturday morning.

Promptly lost control and laid the SV down on arrival Thank god it wasn't Mandy.

Bike was absolutely covered in shit. Thank god for brother in laws water blaster.

Set up tent and had a swig of whisky. Watched the hill climb and several burnouts. Hats off to the guy who popped the tyre and just kept going until there literally was no tyre left. Steel belts and shit flying off everywhere!

Wiener snatch was good to watch. Some hungry ladies doing the business. Although one must have been full as she promptly spat out every sossie she bit off.

A couple of good bastards kept the Saturday night entertainment flowing. Bikes were constantly being woken from their slumber and their rev limiters tested to make sure they were working.

Someone is also quite handy with the petrol bombs. Heard a few go off.

Tried my first "cigarette" too. Cleared my head nicely.

Bloody good and will be there next year.

[nallac]

Some random dude on a Honda.

H'mmm?, are you known for taking Random pics of Dudes on Hooooondas???????..

[slydesigns]

Oh Jesus - that's a shocker - it's when I first arrived and was struggling to get my bike around the place without dropping it as I had lost my group - didn't know where to start looking for their camp site - was feeling rather overwhelmed at that stage.

You seem to be paddling it along just fine, unlike a few others! Now we just have to get you lofting that front wheel and we'll have some epic new vics from the kapiti rides this summer.

[Laava]

Promptly lost control and laid the SV down on arrival Thank god it wasn't Mandy..

Our first taste of this years event was picking an XV1100 off a couple at the gate. She was in complete agony and looked initially like a broken ankle but she got up on it after a bit. Hope they are OK now

[jellywrestler]

Looking for a James Russell that was at the kiwi, he's from the hawkes bay but I think he's now in happy valley wellington. I have his wallet which he lost at the rally, can anyone help me please?


found him thanks

[shafty]

Yeah, I saw a heap of "offs", including a 900 Hornet exactly where that pic of you and your Boulevard was taken.

I was poohing myself when departing in the snow and Sat morning mash! Was pleased to keep the P/Euro up for the audience....

[slydesigns]

Sundays mud and grass was perfect for hammering around! Surprisingly good traction and some fun rolling burnouts on the way out!
An RF900 dropped as it was passing our tent on the way out too...

[jellywrestler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j0jtTvRbNM


This is the sign I made up last week,I'm new to this you tube stuff but hope this gets you there...

[_Shrek_]

have just arrived home (central Otago) totally shattered, catch up tomorrow

[crazyhorse]

WOW!!!

Looks like a great time you all had. The snow would have made it awesome. Next year.... I will be there next year

[Hinny]

The snow was the icing on the cake and made this Cold Kiwi into the epic it became.
I regard the Friday band to be the better of the two and despite the inclement weather chose to ride down on Friday.
The Pan European's screen and fairings and my Drizabone riding coat make wet weather travel tolerable. Life became a little more 'exciting' when the lights went out just south of Taumaranui.
LED daytime running lights provided enough light to see and be seen so I pressed on.
A helping hand from Nallac + ? and my tent was up. Gave a hand to another couple and then it was time to party. Felt trolleyed within what seemed like half an hour! Very nice. Self portraits taken in my tent as the rain belted down seemed to belie the fact that I was feeling good and so should have been looking good.
As the snow turned on the visual delights many emerged from shelter to experience the 'fun'. Big fluffy flakes of cold, dry snow. Therein lay an conundrum. Do I spend Tomorrow at the CK or do I bail for the hill? - Plenty of time to decide - time to rock on.
Joining the Zumba devotees and dancing up a storm was a pleasant way to keep warm, happy and fit. Later I helped make Katiepie's hot-water bottles go cold and then joined the die-hards around the fire by my tent. Spent hours reveling in the acquisition of new wrinkles (smile lines) and depriving locals of sleep before I trundled off to bed; marginally before it became light.
Fresh snow, for those who do not or have not experienced it much before, is fascinating and thrilling. There were plenty of 'big kids' around my camp and plenty of photo buffs out to capture the wonderfully scenic beauty of the awakening morning.
I cannot remember getting into a fight but arose with the feeling of having been given a good kicking. There seemed to be an extraordinary number of people extolling me to partake of their cocktails the previous night. One of these may have been a mix of paint stripper and horse tranquiliser. I suspected that one, or some of the others, (or some of the other), may have been responsible for my physical 'not so well' being. Still, I'm tough and soon I was off and about catching up with old friends and making new ones.
Towards late afternoon I was feeling a little jaded. An important member of the 'Tug-O-War' Championship winning team, after being there fifteen minutes,injured himself being a knob and dropping his bike. Several other key members hadn't even made it to defend their title and so the decision was made to retire as 'Undefeated Champions' and go partake of a Nana nap before the night's festivities. Much fun and revelry around my camp fire with fine tunes blasting forth from an Ipod/powered speakers combo meant there was little chance of a Nana nap so I did the decent thing and joined in. Wow! -- it doesn't take much to get me trolleyed these days! Well actually.... I was obviously dehydrated and tried to alleviate this problem by dispatching the last half of my flask of Haig's followed by a nice Cab. Sav.
Dinner, dancing and generally behaving like a delinquent remedied any inebriation and when the band finished, so was I.

Sunday was another picturesque morning.
Fresh snow and a nice day meant I had to go skiing. Well - it would have been rude not to.
A short blast into Ohakune, picked up my new skis, my guide and ride. The road up the hill is so beautiful it puts one in a very good state of mind to begin the days fun. In the early days this was a fantastic summer motorbike track however extreme weather and heavy traffic have contributed to a serious degradation of the road surface.The snow, on the other hand, was sublime. Wind blown pockets of powder on all the lee slopes.

Monday's forecast was for crap weather from here to there and back again so I bit the bullet, packed the bike and headed for the dark side.
Auckland, however, is not an attractive destination after a weekend of fun in the mountains.
I think I had better head for the 'Winter-less North' tomorrow.
Here's a few pics. As some have noted cameras get pissed really easily in the hills and so many evening art shots became crap shots.

[Hinny]

A few more.

[theblacksmith]

The amount of snoring noise on saturday night/2am? sunday morning was phenomenal

Wasnt me. Didnt hear snoring from those loud bomb noises

[_Shrek_]

My 1st CK
day 1, left home thursday night just ahead of the southerly fueled up in Alex & it was starting to spit by the time I got to the Lindis there wasn't a cloud in the sky
arrived at miSTa's around midnight sorry I woke you up mate (not)

day 2, up to a cloudless day with a frost what a day for a ride, gone by 7:30ish, meet GB at Amberly 8:00 fuel up then Kaikoura for a munch, rang mrs S to let her know where we are to find out it's snowing at home & it's on it's way up the Island, from there onto Blenheim for fuel needless to say the up the coast was pure magic, while waiting for ferry meet a few bikers from Ashvagus, Invergiggle, Nelson & CHCH
miSTa gets a call from home to tell us it's pisistting in CHCH, & looking at the clouds building up looked like it was coming fast, a few spits of rain then finally we get the call to go aboard (not be for time)
bikes tied down gear sorted, off to the lounge for a
with the southerly coming up fast it was thought that it would be getting a bit rough as the sign said moderate & a tex from doc 7m swells off through the sounds & out into the channel to 7" swells
on arrival in Welly the wind picked up & the clouds closed in, we went down in & when we came out there was about 4" of hail on the floor & it was just pissing down & it was dark
for GB to show rides right passed us :slap: miSTa heads off after him & we all catch up about 1/2 nth from the ferry
we made sels1 about 1900 to a warm shed for the bikes & gear then into a warm house for a shot or 2 with a chaser then pizza's Gareth
2030 off to the beachcommer for a few with some of the northern folk
nice to catch up with you all
back to sels for another shot or 2 & then