Magpie Madness

Saturday 19 November; Magpie Madness motorcycle rally in Winchester (25k's north of Timaru, about 150k's south of Chch).

Up early after an evening of moderate abstinence.

Gone by just 9 am and follow SH1 to Yaldhurst. At the pub there's already a pack of 8 motorcycles, and within 5 minutes the last machine arrives. Briefest of introductions follow, we're all a bit keen to get on the road.

What I quite like about www.kiwibiker.co.nz is that the forum is open to all riders from scooters through dirt bikes, sports bikes, even cruisers. So the group that left were quite an eclectic mix, and not what you'd normally get in a group ride in the UK.

We left as we'd parked, so I was the penultimate bike. The guy in front of me was on some enduro type thing, and after a few minutes he got something out of his pocket and was moving his hand to the side, up above, all over the place. What the diddley is he doing, I thought? Realised he had a little camera and had perfected the art of blind aiming and not dropping his camera at 100k's! Well why didn't you say, so I was up his zorst in no time for the pose shot. Don't know if it came out though, no posted shots yet.

I have to say that a ride through the Canterbury plains is not that exciting. It's pretty flat and straight with the briefest of twisty sections. Certainly not up the Leader valley that I'd done before, nor up to the coast road to Kaikoura (Leader valley to KK), or the road to Akaroa that I've already done in the cage. However, look around and the scenery is spectacular, its just that you're not riding through the best bits and you want to be there!

Stopped at Geraldine for juice, drink and food. The main reason for the trip was the MMMR (see http://www.ttag.org.nz/html/rally.html). It was an overnighter, camping with entertainment laid on. I'd already promised Alex that I'd fix his broken brake cable on his pushbike, so I wasn't going to stay. So after Geraldine when we hit SH1 I peeled left back up to Chch while the others went off on their weekend.

Coming out of Ashburton there was a HOG rider pushing his bike round the junction, so I stopped to offer a sympathetic ear. His Harley had lost power on the turn and he thought it was electrical. Being a complete numpty in automotive electrics I was there for moral support and a ride into town if he couldn't fashion a earth connection out of some no. 8 fence wire. So we talked shite for 10 minutes while he stripped cables and undid things, and then someone walked out of their house to see if we were ok, did we need any tools or materials etc. Sensing my handhold on usefullness evaporate I bid the HOG rider a fond farewell and roared off north.

Back to Kaiapoi for 3pm. Plently of time to rectify my previous ineptitude and impress Alex with my ability to change a push bike cable. Except Alex isn't there. Neither is Vanessa. To make matters worse I hadn't taken a key with me. Do'h. They were half an hour away, so I went out for another short ride and discovered that some of the more rural roads actually go nowhere. Back in half an hour, still no doorman. Luckily it's still cardboard city outside our house as Crown hadn't picked up our old packing crates. So I settle in for a little snooze and eventually the family arrives.

All of us venture into town to pick up bbq food and for me and Alex to get a bike cable. Except this is New Zealand and all bar the supermarket shut at 4pm. The bike shop is shut. Damn.