You know how the weather has been a complete bastard of late? Well, the celebration weekend ride planned for Vespa’ s 80th birthday was looking like being another washout, but I’ d agreed to do it. I was looking forward to it actually. But all the forecasts looked like hell, and having just breezed through Cyclone Vaianu, only to be doused stupid the following weekend, I had a bit of a jaundiced view … So, I rang around a few friends, who thought a Saturday arvo run, to join the Hamilton Vespa crew who were coming from NTB Racing for a Sunday lunch jaunt to the Nikau Caves Café, sounded like a wicked idea. At this stage we had confirmation of 15 from Hamilton and it was looking like another eight from Auckland, however as the days closed in and the forecast became worse, we lost a few JAFAs – to alleged band practice, editing, and surgical recovery. A phone call on the Friday night with organising supremo Angela Fisher saw the Saturday part become too hard and it was agreed we JAFAs would do a Waikato backroad run to Nikau and meet up for lunch, get a prizegiving sorted out, chat for a bit, then scoot home before this forecast heavy rain front swirled all over us. Chris, Jeff, and I, plus Scott and Johnny on an assortment of Vespas, three 300s, a 250, and a 150, duly gathered on Sunday morning in cloudless sunny weather and headed south. The roads south of Drury and over the Tuakau bridge are particularly pretty in autumn finery, even more so in gleaming sun and the crew were happy just cruising along at a gentle pace; the 150 didn’ t like long periods wrung out, so we enjoyed the slower world we found ourselves in. Time to wave at farmers, and to spot little duck-filled lakes, between poplars and kahikatea; the dread of the first May weekend still a long way off for the ducks. We arrived at the turnoff towards Nikau moments before the Lotus Club came scuttling through. When we got to the Café the car park was filling with them, and there was no sign of the Hamilton Vespa crew. It was a hell of a throng suddenly at the order