Sad, true, but so much worse for the team that had
spent 15 months organising it. They pulled the pin
to avoid an avoidable crash – or crashes, so their
hands were tied – I was gutted for them, but also
extremely proud of their decisive and, in my opinion,
totally correct call. I’ll line up on the grid next year.
Time on your hands?
Invercargill has the World class Richardson’s
Transport Museum, E Hayes and Sons Hardware
(with a great motorcycle collection and Burt’s
bikes in store, complete with the wall of offerings
to the Gods of Speed) the soon to be massively
expanded Classic Motorcycle Mecca (so a return
visit is a must) and then there is the forgotten
Jewel in Southland’s crown – Stewart Island.
With a spare day planned, fellow racer and core
member-come-pilot at Stewart Island Flights, Bill
Moffat, organised flights and use of the company
van on the island. Seriously, this ought to be done
by every Kiwi. With 85% of the massive land mass
now National Park, it is totally unique and weirdly
moving. The bush is ancient, the bays deserted
and, if you want to beat the regular ferry-borne
travellers and have the place to yourself, you can
fly there on a ten-seater plane (motorcyclists
seem to love small planes). To make it even easier,
if you tell them that your group is travelling by
motorcycle, they’ll store your bike and gear – dry
and secure – for you at no extra cost. Flights
are $215pp return and have the bonus of the
aerial view and the most rural landing strip!
It really is testament to the Invercargill
60KIWI RIDER
So, was it the best Burt Munro Challenge yet?
Well, I’ve only been to eight or nine, so I wasn’t at
the first one, but it was the best I’ve been to and
the crowd strongly stated that it was definitely the
biggest so, yep, if this is the new standard, I’m a fan.
If you weren’t there this year, try harder for 2019.
community and in particular, that core bunch
who make such a diverse and massive event,
spanning four days of competition and a couple
of days to recover even possible. The local council
help, they even had mayor Tim Shadbolt swing
starting flags on the beach. With the world class
motorcycle attractions in Invercargill now, it
makes you wonder... is there anywhere else that
this would even be possible, let alone actual?
Breaking it down to the basic nuts and bolts – can
you really call yourself a Kiwi motorcyclist if you’ve
never been to the Burt Munro Challenge, seen
Motorcycle Mecca and visited the most pristine
piece of New Zealand/Aotearoa? Yeah-Nah!