#burtmunro

Woke up and commenced packing. When staying at a place for more than one night, most of the gear and clothes get unpacked so it takes the better part of 45' to reorganize and repack then reload and secure the gear in and on top of the bike. It was about 50° this AM so left a polartec layer to soften the chill and a perusal of the NZTA government site showed the southern route directly west to Invercargill was open. Yeah! We rode out about 8:15 and cruised on what was now a somewhat familiar scenic ride westward. We made it to Papatowai and once again, as we saw yesterday, there was a police car in the road. Immediately the pit of your stomach churns. Having checked out and a reservation awaiting in Invercargill for the next three nights along with the Burt Monro rally fun all contributed to some anxiety that we might not be able to make it happen. Every other thought was about the more than a meter of rain which fell in 48 hours earlier this week and where and how would ALL that water make its way south. But the NZTA site said the road was open! The officer was very nice and explained that we needed to return to Owaka and make a left turn at the Lumber Jack (last night's tasty dinner location). Then we'd proceed over a gravel road through the Owaka valley and up to Clinton and head west to Mataura en route to Invercargill. We rode back the 27km to Owaka and then proceeded through the scenic valley and westward to Mataura. We should've been more suspicious of the lack of bikes within 150 km of Invercargill. As we pulled into the central area of Mataura the main Hwy 93 was completely blocked by sand bags at least 4' high. Although the road was dry, it was apparent that floodwaters had swirled there in the recent past. We saw three other bikers who approached us and explained that they weren't able to bypass the flooding in town. It's heartening to wake up to What's App messages complaining/wondering what happened since I fairly abruptly ended my blog as I was just too tired to continue. (Richard!) At least I know someone is reading... I don't write this for others, mostly for myself to have a record of these adventures so I don't forget the little and interesting things that happen on a daily basis. One of the daily pics shows the sand bag barrier on route 93 and the fire/rescue folks who described for us the next route to take to attempt to get to Invercargill. We rode again eastward on the opposite direction of our destination to Clinton and found the only cafe open for a quick drink/bite and a bathroom break. At Clinton we noticed one thing right away. For the first time in days we were on a busy road (Hwy 1) and it was steadily streaming trucks and more interestingly to me, bikes! Now, with a brief stop, we joined the flow again towards the elusive Invercargill after a 170km double detour. At least we got some fantastic scenery and rainbows so no complaints.

The highway from Clinton to the next town of Gore has prompted a humorous gesture by the NZ transportation agency. They have a sign as you depart Clinton heading the 44kms to Gore that proclaims it the "Presidential Highway". 😆 Very funny! Gore was surprisingly large with loads of bikes getting gas and finding one of the dozens and dozens of restaurants there to eat. We continued on after passing over the Mataura River bridge where the railroad trestle immediately downstream was nearly submerged. The road continues along the river and was closed due to flooding so all traffic was diverted about 30km on a series of more western roadways and eventually we met up with 1 again for the half hour ride remaining into Invercargill. Mother Nature opened up on us for a while but only hard for 15-20 minutes and it abated just prior to entering town. We rode in by the much discussed transport museum and into center city. We got an apartment in a Quest building right next to the central traffic circle in the town's center. Fantastic location. Not a full service hotel, but a building of nicely appointed apartments with a front desk that is manned for check-in hours only. Only a couple blocks from both the Classic Motorcycle Mecca museum and then the other way to the famous and historic E. Hyde hardware store. The store that is not only huge but houses Burt Monro's workshop (behind glass), loads of vintage bikes on display interspersed with their merchandise, a full Indian dealership within and of course anything you could think of to purchase! The motorcycle museum was also visited and did not disappoint. Over 300 very significant bikes of marques that extended beyond my knowledge base. They also have in their basement a collection from a NZ motorcycle racer named George Begg who became a car designer (he didn't race the cars). He made stunning and well known cars which won races around the world. We decided to then ride out to the official rally site towards the beach. About 9 km to Oreti Beach. There was a tent and a steady line of people filling out registrations. I opted for the $60NZ rally pass which provides access to the rally site which includes camping and the vendor and food tents as well as evening entertainment tents. It also provides a 50% discount on all rally event tickets which are normally $20NZ (less than $13). I bought all the remaining event tickets. Drag races today, beach racing tomorrow, Saturday's sprint races and speedway races ending with Sunday's street races.

We toured the motorcycle safety tent and picked up some safety swag (earplugs, visor cleaning cloth, kickstand pad) and were then drawn into a discussion with a researcher from Australia who is trying to promote two things. One was a geometric design that allows urethane to be produced into a much more flexible design than the D30 armor. It is much more ventilated, flexible and lighter than the armor used by most manufacturers. He had printed it up on his 3D printer and it slowly crushes under pressure. Made great sense to me, hopefully more companies will adopt this. Also he was promoting "MotoCAP". This is a way of testing all motorcycle protective gear in three modes (abrasion, impact and a third one involving energy dispersion that I can't remember now that I'm typing this the next day!) in the same way that cars in the USA get a crash rating, clothing would all be ranked and consumers would be informed about which items perform well in which modes for their information. This guy is conducting the tests on various items. He did say that the Klim Badlands jacket (one version heavier than the Latitude I wear) was the best textile jacket they had tested to date since he saw me wearing my Klim. We strolled through the entertainment tent which was largely empty save for a stage and an official merchandise vendor. We got in line and bought a couple items to remember this event by in the future. There was also a food tent with 5 food trucks set up to deliver to campers and anyone wanting some unhealthy treats while on site. Who am I to talk! 😉 The drag races we're getting ready to start at 6 or so it said on the ticket so we rode the short distance over to Teretonga race track. They have a gravel road that connects the rally campgrounds directly to the track area so the rally campers don't need to put a helmet on for the short ride to watch the race. We strolled through the paddock area and saw a large diversity in the bikes. Some modified Hayabusas, some extended swing arm bikes with wheelie bars behind and some 150cc Vespa scooters rusting out! The drags were sponsored by Harley and we met the Harley agent in our apartment/hotel as she unloaded flags destined to the track event we were now attending. Speaking of unhealthy foods, we both decided to support the local netball team by purchasing a sausage from them for $2NZ. What a delicious bargain. Complete with Cole slaw, cooked onions and mustard and wrapped by a piece of bread. Best deal ever. The track was not really that organized. I don't think the first racers went off the line until 6:45 and it was not warm but the setting sun kept the hard chill away. Maybe it was 56° but very windy. In fact they discussed shortening the 1/4 mile distance due to the risk of blowing racers across the track but they kept it at the standard length. The races were fun to watch. Especially the unmodofied and less experienced riders with incredibly powerful machines that had difficulty keeping their front ends on the pavement. One guy went nearly vertical and somehow managed to save it! A grizzled biker with a nearly as grizzled brown duster unloaded his brown duffel from his shoulders and spent the time smoking hand rolled cigarettes by us. There was also a Maori with full face tattoo art by us. And some rubes as well. (Rich urban bikers) Varied bikes and diverse crowd. A little bit of everything here and lots of eye candy. Even saw a "new" Triumph Rocket 3 R down the street today. The guy should've cleaned it up! It was showing loads of dirt from riding in the rain. I just picked up my new Triumph Rocket 3 TFC two days before departure. I had placed a deposit on it when they announced over 6 months ago and I am very impressed with that machine... 🤩 Ah, I digress.

With the sun setting on the Twilight event, we did decide to leave before it was over after standing for more than 2 hours (no bleachers/seats) and the cold setting in. We found a mini market to get a few essentials for the apartment and headed back to town. After some vino and snacks we meandered down the street to find a cafe that was part of a hotel and we enjoyed a mushroom pizza and a beer before the day caught up with me and I was unable to put much down on the blog before nodding off.