Futile. That was how the drying of the wet gear could be described. Sure, some of the guys had managed to get their gloves, boots and jackets almost dry. But when you consider that outside this morning it was more rain than yesterday, then you realise what I mean.
After some grumbling re the weather (waste of time really, only the Chinese have the technology to stop the rain) we filled up fuel and took aim at Gore. Until now there had been very little “wow” factor present in the riding. Much of the roads had been straight and flat. The only part that had been fun was a stretch on the road to Christchurch where the road was running by the beach and twisted and turned making me at times shift down to 3’rd gear. But apart from that, no bit of the road made me want to go back to do it again. That was about to change. The roads started to be more twisty and there was a change in altitude. Nice! And there was a promise that the weather would clear up after midday too!
We stopped at Balclutha Subway for early lunch, and the local reporter sniffed us out and wanted some stories and photos. I met a Swedish lady who, with her two children, and her Kiwi husband, would swap between Scandinavia and Balclutha trying to figure out where to live…
Balclutha Subway
Once we got to Gore the rain had stopped and it was warm. We parked next to the giant Trout (I think it is??) and did what we do. A few speeches by the locals and Shane from the Patriots said his bit. A cuppa of tea sounded good, but they had forgotten the sugar. Quickly sorted and all were happy. Once again, out from the shadows, stepped some victims of abuse who told us their stories. We asked if they had asked for help locally, but were told that: No, they were not ready to do that. In a small community it seems to be harder to come out and ask for help. Somehow there seems to be a stigma with being the victim. And so, to talk to a complete stranger on a bike and dressed in black leather seems like a good idea. This is where I think this White Ribbon Ride can easily fall apart. I think that very few who do this ride (be that in the North Island or here with us in South) actually is capable of addressing any of the issues that the victims tell us about. Sure, I know that it is not what we are on this ride to do; our task is to bring the spotlight on the issue by riding our bikes. But when a woman with her 12 year old daughter comes and starts telling you their sad story, you would have to be cold hearted to turn them away. Thou, just because you are on this ride does not mean you have any of the answers. And perhaps that is why many of the ones on the ride do not engage. No idea.
Gore with their fish
Cute!
Mayor of Gore told us that if we stayed we could catch a trout size of the one behind him...
5 local riders joined the ride here and came with us to Invercargill. The sun had now started to come out and the noises re being wet were gone as we rode on and the sun and wind quickly dried us out.
In Invercargill we had three events to attend: a primary school, a high school and Number 10 Southland One Stop Shop. Some of the guys did the primary school (including me) and some did the High School. I love being around the primary school kids. Heaps of noise, enthusiasm and curiosity. “How fast does your bike go? How much did it cost? Why do you ride? What is the longest you have ridden? What is the next bike you will get? Do you have any animals?” And so on. But there were also some moments of sobriety. One small girl told me that they had moved down here from Auckland “so her mum can’t hit her”.
Dean has the kids spellbound
Smiling faces in the BMW
From here it was only a skip and a jump to Number 10. I was expecting to see YMCA Invercargill there, but they must have been busy somewhere else. This is a youth centre where all aspects of youth issues can be dealt with from mental ones to study and physical help. We mingled with the youth and the workers, we did some tug of war and ate nice cake. The place is an ex bowling club so they have a nice area of grass where all this happened.
Pull that rope!
Write down what you think
When talking to the staff it became clear that same issues as in all other centres were here re violence. (I am always hoping that we will come across one place where there is no family violence. Sadly I think we will fail).From here we travelled some nice roads to Lumsden. Lumsden used to be a stop for the Kingston flyer railway. But now there are no rails there, only the old station that looks out of place.
We decided to go to the local hotel for dinner. There were 11 of us. They had 5 steaks and rest had to eat chicken (I managed to get a steak…) One of the Patriots is a chef and he and his wife ended up helping in the kitchen as they were not prepared for such a rush… But the meals were good.
Bedtime as we would have an early start.
Travelled 330Km’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment