Waitangi Day Wellington Wairarapa? .. ah Kapiti Ride - pics here.

[merv]

OK shall I start posting my pics and a story here?

[KLOWN]

yes. .......

[merv]

Thanks to Lissa we all got ourselves out of bed, and on the Welly side of the 'takas we were greeted by a glorious day. About time too.

Lissa had arranged that we meet at Caltex Rimutaka (Rimutex) at 10am with the plan being that it would be a combined ride of Wairarapa, Wellington and Ashhurst riders. Rememeber this thread http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=42901 - great job Lissa.

Alice was down from Napier to join us too so it was good to meet her.

So you'll see my photos start with the bikes grouping at Rimutex.

We decided to give the VFR a run and Mrs merv came on the back with me.

Nasty was riding Grub's CBR and doesn't it look a picture with its candy colours.

Edit: We were asked can we put names on pics - that's always the tricky bit with a crowd so here goes all people listed left to right (if I get any wrong and put ? because I can't remember let me know):

Pic 1: Chrissie, jeff, merv
Pic 2: Mrs merv, MAXIMUSDEMERITUS, rfc85, elle33f, Lissa, jeff, phoenixgtr, bistard, Chrissie and 2 more in the background ?
Pic 3: rfc85, Lissa, elle33f, Chrissie, jeff, phoenixgtr
Pic 4: Lissa, elle33f, Ronin
Pic 5: Chrissie, jeff, Nasty

How am I going so far?

[merv]

Well even though I'm on broadband, my son sucks a lot of the bandwidth and this isn't a fast process.

We got a big turnout of bikes of all sorts - that's what biking is about eh!

OK give me a hand naming people here sorry I've forgotten your names in the first four pics.

Pic 1: ?????
Pic 2: ?
Pic 3: ???, bistard
Pic 4: ???, bistard
Pic 5: Drum, phoenixgtr

[Trudes]

Gee, check out that tough, surly looking group of bikers in the first pic!

[merv]

The bikes kept gathering for a while. Did any one count the bikes? I didn't, but it seemed like a big ride.

Pic 2: ?, bistard, sugilite
Pic 3: ?
Pic 4: Alice Kinje, Lissa
Pic 5: elle33f, Mrs merv, Mrs KoroJ

[merv]

Gee, check out those tough, surly looking group of bikers in the first pic!

Cute Mrs K but hey at least I'm smiling.

Still plenty more pics, you never know who else is going to be in these and how silly they will look. Hey see the last pic here, there's some good looking chicks including our Ride Leader. Mind you she appears in a few of the pics and rightly so!

Pic 1: Wasp, MAXIMUSDEMERITUS, rfc85
Pic 2: bistard, sugilite, Gineen, phoenixgtr, hsvboy06
Pic 3: Sels1, Lissa, Alice, Garry H
Pic 4: Bonez, cowboyz ??
Pic 5: help me with this one?
Pic 6: Ronin, Alice, Lissa, Mrs Kendog

[Trudes]

Hey see the last pic here, there's some good looking chicks including our Ride Leader. Mind you she appears in a few of the pics and rightly so!

Now you're talking!!
Great photos so far Merv, we can always count on you to have the pics covered,

[elle-f]

What a LAUGH!! I had the most excellent day today guys - thank you. Sels1 - you are such a lovely guy ya know - and your wife for smiling when she turned up to us lot!!

Was excellent putting more faces to names in here. The ride back was great - got a bit windy though just on this side of the Haywards and the Takas were dry so that was great.

Thanks everybody for a great last day of freedom!

[merv]

Rimutex as you can see has a pretty big bike parking area and still the bikes kept arriving, with riders of course.

MD turned up on his BMW, but then he'd already been over to the Wairarapa when he decided to join us for a little while. He's only had that bike what seems like a few minutes and he's already getting through tyres on it.


Pic 2: ?, Nasty, think its Grub and ? in the background, Darkman, ?, elle33f, the spunky Kendog (he is, so I've been told), bistard, ?, sugilite's back, Bonez, Gineen, ?, MAXIMUSDEMERITUS (have I got you right?)

Pic 5: Mrs merv, Mrs KoroJ, KoroJ, MD just making the pic plus a few in the background.
Pic 6: Kinje, Alice, Lissa, Ronin, Darkman, Mrs Kendog, sugilite, Garry H, Shadmeister, Drum, elle33f, cowboyz

[merv]

You can see how lovely and sunny it was in Upper Hutt at Rimutex and I do say that like I'm surprised. We went to HB for the wine and food festival and you know unlike when 'tart came down here with sunshine HB was kind of dull all weekend, and here we are back home and its looking good.

So everyone was standing around having a chat and enjoying it.

Then it was off to the top of the Rimutakas and as you can see it was ... well ... dull!

Pic 1: Mrs KoroJ on edge of pic, KoroJ, bistard, MD plus some in the background
Pic 2: give me some names here - Asshurst crew ???
Pic 3: KoroJ, Mrs KoroJ, Mrs merv
Pic 4: bex, ceebie13
Pic 5: MD on his bike and a whole lot in the background
Pic 6: ?, ?, ?, ?, 86GSXR, Gineen, ?, Chrissie

[merv]

After hearing from MD that it was cold over in the Wairarapa I pulled my rain jacket out of my very useful Ventura bag and put that on. Next thing I know Sels1 is telling us there is a change of plan and we will go back down the hill and then take Moonshine Road (I thought that will be great with a bunch of road bikers - it is a lot of fun on a trail bike for sure) and then we'll go over Paekak hill to Raumati with the plan of eating at the Waterfront pub.

Lissa as ride leader had this all covered - she did a fantastic job.

So a few more pics at the top of the 'takas and then the shady looking shots are in the middle of Moonshine Road. Not everybody went that way - probably just as well as it is a narrow tight road.

Sugilite lead us through here and you can tell he's had a bit of dirt experience too and doesn't mind the tight stuff - it is sealed these days though so some of the fun has gone from it.


Pic 1: Kendog, Wasp, Kinje, phoenixgtr, hsvboy06
Pic 2: cowboyz, sugilite, Bonez, Darkman, Mrs merv
Pic 3: Mrs merv, cowboyz

[merv]

Then we stopped to re-group again at the top of Paekak Hill and the weather was still fantastic. By then I took my rain jacket off again.

That VFR doesn't scrub up too bad for a 13 year old bike eh!

Jeff's Norton doesn't look too bad either does it. Mind you Mrs Kendog, in the 3rd pic where Jeff is with Mrs merv he still looks kinda surly while Mrs merv is smiling beautifully. What's up Jeff do all the Jap bikes make your Norton grumble at you or something?


Pic 1: phoenixgtr
Pic 2: MAXIMUSDEMERITUS, phoenixgtr, Garry H
Pic 3: jeff, Mrs merv

[merv]

OK I put the camera away after the Paekak Hill stop so my photos run out after that. Hopefully someone else can add their's too.

[merv]

The story continues that we went down to Raumati, and found as tends to happen at these beach places, much like on the first of the round the bays rides, the seaside cafes are just too popular.

So Sels1 says "all around to my place for a BBQ". Now the man is a legend as we only just had a BBQ there back a bit over a week ago.

From my perspective we all had a pretty good ride - kinda shorter than first planned and it was nice to put a few more names to faces but there are still many more I never seem to remember. It was great to meet the Wairarapa crew and as you said Elle we all had a bit of a laugh. The ride went without mishap except for Grub riding a borrowed Bandit suffered a deflating tyre. I never saw him after this happened so I'll leave him to tell that story.

We seem to be into BBQ season now summer has finally arrived and remember if you aren't going to the sprints on Sunday we can ride up the coast to meet Zukin and his Mrs as the ride on their fundraiser to be followed by a BBQ at Nasty and Grub's place. See you then.