Grub's Wellington Funeral (Thu 13 Nov)

[chanceyy]

Thought the Sandbar at mana may be a good place to get outta welly & have a drink .. not that far from hutt & those heading north again

good parking for a number of bikes etc

[RantyDave]

Euch. Bad title. Sounds very officious. Sorry, but I'd like to get a consistent story across just so when (not if) the group gets broken up by traffic lights or similar, we all know where we're going.

Basically the idea is to go along Wellington waterfront until we get to the airport. The current idea has also changed to "hearse follows a few bikes, rest follow behind", which sounds just fine to me.

So we should leave the church, head away from the lake (left IIRC), turn left onto James Cook Drive then left again when we get to the inlet. We'll head along this actually very cool piece of tarmac till we get to the twin roundabouts mentioned earlier - take the left lane, follow it round and go down the sliproad onto SH1.

A short way down SH1 is this huge set of lights - they stay red forever. If we get cut in half it would be good if the lead riders could slow a bit to let the others catch up. We have all the way to Wellington to sort it out so there's no hurry. Also note Ngauranga gorge (big wide downhill) will be marked 80 and they mean it. It's a genuinely nasty piece of road, too.

We'll ride to Wellington and take the first turn in marked "Aotea Quay" (IIRC) and follow the waterfront round from there all the way to the airport. If in doubt, turn left. Finally you'll go past the end of the runway to a big-arse roundabout. Turn right and stay in the right lane up the hill because the left filters off soon after the crest (more Wellington road design at it's finest). I don't know what we're doing at the airport - presumably it'd make sense to go in and park - I dunno, I'll ask around.

Afterwards I'd recommend getting out of Wellington before the worst of the rush hour. However, I live just round the corner - 162 Breaker Bay Road (claw foot bath on deck out front) - and while I wasn't planning on holding any kind of "do", anyone who wants/needs to pop in for the loo, maybe have a cuppa before a long ride or something similar is welcome to. Perhaps make yourself known to me beforehand? (I'll be on a white Street Triple). Warning: both cats and kids.

Maps for all the above are attached. Does this seem OK with everyone?

Dave

[chanceyy]

who will be the lead riders ? will they wear vests to distinguish them .. as they will be controlling everything from upfront & need to keep eye on whats going on behind

[RantyDave]

Right. So, what he said then. Except we pick up the story going down the side of the airport...

Go straight on at the next small roundabout (the Caltex station should be on your left) then get into the left lane and follow the road (the golf club should be on your left) until you see the DHL Couriers building. Turn right at the end of the building into Freight Drive. Look for the Air New Zealand Cargo signs. The road curves round behind DHL building where it joins a chainlink fence to a carpark area on the right hand side. Follow this fence line around the right hand corner then turn first left. The Air NZ building is at the end of this short street. (You'll see a huge lighting tower as you make this last turn)

This last bit is a bit tricky so I did a short video earlier today but it's taking bloody ages to upload so I'll post the link later tonight - assuming it uploads.

Fucking awesome. Good work, dude.

Dave

[RantyDave]

who will be the lead riders ?

Well I vote for putting flyingscotsman in a fluoro vest since he clearly knows where he's going when he gets to the sharp end. Other than that I'm not sure it matters, other than to pick people who are going to slow down when the group gets broken up

[madmal64]

Thought the Sandbar at mana may be a good place to get outta welly & have a drink .. not that far from hutt & those heading north again

good parking for a number of bikes etc

Now I could arrange for a move private venue in Tawa at the Tawa Squash Club if people are keen.
Bar, Lounge & I could arrange some snack food if required.
Any thoughts??
Infact Grab & Nasty did a fund raiser there for Shaun after his off at IOMTT

Could cater for 80 - 90 comfortably

[XP@]

See you at 2.

[flyingscotsman]

who will be the lead riders ? will they wear vests to distinguish them .. as they will be controlling everything from upfront & need to keep eye on whats going on behind

No prob being lead rider if that's whats needed but you ain't gonna see me riding in a vest..no sirreeee........unless it's that one with the.....na.never mind.....

[Pedrostt500]

Im happy to ride with any out of town KB'ers that dont know their way around Wellington.

[Duke girl]

To all those attending Grubs funeral, I would like to put forward a proposal.
I have arranged for the Vic Club race flags to be present.
My idea is that we form a Guard of Honour with the flags and motorcyles on his arrival at the church.
At the end of the service, as he is being carried from the church to the hearse, the placing of the chequered flag on top of his coffin will indicate the starting of engines, running until he is placed inside the hearse, then engines stopped.
We may like to talk about this as a group when we meet at the church.

[rat biker 08]

Hope to see the bikes come bown the coast and ride with them if not see you at 2 pm in whitby

[Nasty]

Well I vote for putting flyingscotsman in a fluoro vest since he clearly knows where he's going when he gets to the sharp end. Other than that I'm not sure it matters, other than to pick people who are going to slow down when the group gets broken up

I have multiple vests here if one is needed.

[chanceyy]

Hope to see the bikes come bown the coast and ride with them if not see you at 2 pm in whitby

once we have firm plans will post in here what time we are meeting at mobil on main road by lights .. more than welcome to join us

[Charlie41]

Managed to get time off work. Will see you on Thursday

[madmal64]

OK.
I have chatted with Kari & RantyDave and it is confirmed that the Tawa Squash Club will be the venue for all people wishing to meet up for a chat and and a drink if they wish after we have sent Brett on his way to Auckland.
The club manager has been informed that we will be showing up and we have the venue to ourselves from 4.00pm.
The club is really easy to find.

Leaving Wellington head up the motorway Highway 1
Take the Tawa Turnoff
Stay on this road past the 1st roundabout
Its the 1st building on the left past the roundabout. It large & blue, fairly hard to miss.
There will be plenty of parking right outside for bikes, but I will chat to the school next door tomorrow to see if we can use their place for more parking if required.

Full bar facilities & Tea & coffee will be available & light finger food will be available.

If anyone has got some dvds with Grub in them they would like to show or maybe a few bike related photos that they could put on a cd we have a large screen projector there that could be used.