Day 7

Thursday 24 November

The rain keeps hammering down through the night. I am prepared for another day of wet riding.

6am up and a shower. Then pack up the gear, and before you know it, it is time to start to move out. Today the ride splits in to two:
- One group travels to Christchurch for visit to Christchurch mens prison and other events.
- One group (the one I decided to travel with) rides to Westport to join them in their parade.

Ready for the rain

We got some rain, but only on and off, and it is not too bad. We follow the West Coast to Westport and manage to catch up with the rain. As we are ahead of shedule we stop for some tourist attractions and walk the track to see the pancake rocks and the blow holes at Punakaiki. Clearly worth the effort!

There is a bunch of faces hiding in this one!

Blowhole

After a cuppa we take off again. This road is a perfect bike road with scenery and twisties. We pick up one more rider on the road before arriving at Westport and there is now 11 of us.

The green Katana that is now part of the ride

When we arrive at Westport they are waiting for us, and almost straight away we are doing the parade down the main street. (I have been in Westport before, but that is now over 10 years ago and was when I raced Motorcycle Solo Speedway, but did not really have a good look at the place). At the clock tower we stop and there is bread and sausages for us. As the main speakers have now all gone to Christchurch, it falls on me to do the speech. Seems like all are happy with what I blurb out and I am asked to do the speeches from now on... (The only thing I actually find tricky is to not talk too long, the ones who know me would realise how this could be a challenge...).

Westport

I find a group of youth who should be in school, and am told that they are getting alternative education as they have all been kicked out of school. I give them all a white ribbon and speak to their "teacher". There is hope for them she tells me. Many of them want to work on farms and she has managed to find most of them placings.

I then talk to a little old lady who tells me she is 78 and has been through a very abuse marriage. She also informs me that one of her sons is a "kiddy fiddler" and that she has nothing to do with him anymore. She is filled with stories and they keep on coming. I manage to stop her enough to give her and her daughter a white ribbon each. I also give a ribbon to a lady who starts to shake and tells me that it is all too close for her as she has just managed to get out of a 16 year violent relationship.

The weather is by now looking good and we ride through the Buller Gorge to Murchison. It has always been a wish of mine to ride this famous road loved by bikers. And now I know why they love it! I will have to come back and do it again!

We arrive at Murchison in disarray. The faster riders up front and the slower ones 5Km behind. Not a good look to dribble in to an event. But at the end it does not matter as this event is a fizzer. The owners of the cafe' have not organised anything, so we get "time off". There is free coffee and tea, and we talk white ribbon with some of the customers. Before we leave Colin tells everyone that the way we did ride was total crap, and there is a need to sharpen up our act; To keep an eye on the rider behind, and if he slows doen so should we so we do not loose sight of him. To regroup before we arrive at an event so we are all arriving together.

Murchinson cafe'

As we ride towards Motueka in the sun his words ring in our ears, and this time it all works out perfectly. We have also picked up one more rider.

The ride follows some more biker friendly roads and I am a happy chappy when we arrive (Even if my boots have worn toes from scraping the tarseal in the corners. That was fun!).

I do a speech and decide on a totally different one focusing on violent free homes. Sounds like it went down well. I then have a whitebait fritter on bred, and decide that with pepper, salt and some lemon juice it is not too bad. (But I am still not sold on the idea and can not really see the attraction?) Our ride provides 3 more speekers (Sarah being one) and it all works out well.

Motueka

WhiteBait sales are going well

What I got for my $7

We mingle and give out ribons. Motueka is a place where hippies hibernate and I end up talking to one who tells me that her dad used to ride a Sportster and was in a Wellington gang. She also tells me that her relationship with her daughters dad was a violent one. She takes the white ribbon I offer her and proudly puts it on her shirt.

We ride to Top Ten Holiday park. This one is a good one. We get a cabin that fits us all and there is a swimming pool and a spa pool too. Nice.

After dinner, some chatting and solving the worlds problems, we go to bed to find energy for two more days of events.

Today 370Km's of very nice bike riding roads!