MORONEY
Riding in the rain can be fun , but in a torrent ... not so much .
BLACK MONDAY
Words : Roger Moroney Photo : Geoff Osborne
W e had a spot of rain recently . Although on this occasion it was the plural rather than the singular ... for we had several billion spots of rain . Like a month ’ s worth in six hours . And when that happens the drains all throw their pipe-like hands up and surrender . The “ perfect storm ” which swept through the seaside city of Napier created very imperfect results for so many people . There ’ re about 130 houses which are deemed “ uninhabitable ” and even a week after what was called a one in 150 year storm there are several dozen cars still awkwardly parked across footpaths and kerbs . They will never run again , which in the case of one nearby , a late-model Honda , is rather tragic . We got off light , with the surging waters only breaching the garage , resulting in several cartons of stored books and magazines being swamped and wrecked . And a few other bits and bobs , but the house was fine , and I could only imagine what some poor buggers would be going through after their homes were ravaged . What ’ s a few dozen books ? It was slightly eerie when the main great falls eased away into the evening because all you
could hear was running water . The streets were awash in several suburbs , and the central city . No engine noises . They were parked up or swamped up . Earlier , some folk went rubbernecking around the place , creating waves which surged up driveways . Dolts . There were however some fine folk who used their great 4WD machines to render assistance to the stranded . Saints . As I was heading home from a shopping expedition in the mid-arvo some nearby streets had water right across them , so I motored cautiously . As did the bloke on the motorcycle coming the other way . It was dual-purpose job so had probably tasted water before , but the pilot was clearly very wary . And so it came to pass that I was chatting to a bloke I vaguely know down at the supermarket a couple of days later and he said he had seen a young guy on a scooter attempting to negotiate a flooded street . Which , by all accounts , he appeared to successfully achieve . “ Brave but reckless ,” was how the bloke put it . “ Because I doubt he could see the road surface properly through the rainy waters .”
88 KIWI RIDER