This was to be my first visit to the Cold Kiwi Rally. My first rally, period. I’ d heard the stories and had always wanted to go, but it just … didn’ t happen. This time it was different. It all started with my mate Mat saying how his best Father’ s Day ever was spent in a cold field near Ohakune. Middle of winter and he was camping with his dad at the Cold Kiwi Rally. So, after years of talking about it, I was finally free for the first weekend in September. Phone calls were made but only a hardy duo answered the call. Ironically, Mat wasn’ t one of them, he had to spend Father’ s Day being the dad this time around … So, Doug, Greg and I were the trio to sign up for the 2024 Cold Kiwi. Rotorua, Auckland and Reefton, converging on a field just outside of Waiouru.
ALMOST DIDN’ T MAKE IT A couple of hours out of home on the South Island’ s West Coast and I wasn’ t sure I’ d make it at all. 10km or so out of Murchison my 32-year-old BMW R80GS suddenly lost power and limped onto one cylinder. It was raining pretty hard and I didn’ t want to stop until there was some shelter from
the rain to check it out. I thought it might be fuel, so flicked both taps onto reserve … no change. I’ d put new plugs and plug caps on before the trip, so it could be spark, but out of desperation, I pulled at the throttle cables going to each carb … bingo, there was a lot of slack in one of them and it came back on song again. So, I spent the next 15km using the throttle twist grip to open the right carb and pulling the other cable to open the left carb. A quick pitstop under the info board shelter at the St Arnaud turn found the culprit- one throttle cable nipple had slipped out of its retainer at the twist grip end. A greasy 10 minutes later and I was back on the road to get the ferry in Picton.
Getting off the ferry in Wellington I was greeted by an absolute soaking of a downpour. Managing to avoid the worst of it, I took a detour up to say hello to a friend at Boyle Brothers Motorcycles and a quick look around. It’ s an absolute timecapsule that’ s the epitome of retro-cool, but it’ s not a manufactured‘ vibe’, it’ s all original. It’ s like the bike shops of my youth, are there any others around, or is this the last?
KIWI RIDER 25