GENERATION GAME
The Cold Kiwi brings people together in a paddock on the Central Plateau, the people are passing on the vibe.
WORDS: Ian Ganderton PHOTOS: Ben Wilkins, Mathieu Day-Gillett
As the Cold Kiwi Rally rolled around again, there was plenty of excitement in the run up to the weekend amongst the group of us going. It was going to be my third time at the event and this year was going to have a different vibe again as we had some kids joining the crew for the first time; Doug was bringing his daughter and Nick was bringing his gang of three. With all the banter in our message group, it was shaping up to be another great weekend on the Central Plateau. I decided to head to the event the long way this time around. I put together a route from Rotorua to National Park that took in some new gravel for me via Tokoroa, Pureora and
Taumarunui, then up Fishers Track before heading to the Cold Kiwi campsite itself. It was a great ride to start the weekend.
CATCHING UP I wasn’ t the first in our group to arrive and I wasn’ t the last. There was all the normal malarky with setting up camp while catching up with friends I hadn’ t seen in a while. I think Nick won the prize for the most important item forgotten with a missing air pump for his vast inflatable tent- the contraptions we tried to inflate it with were hilarious. It didn’ t take long for a case of beer to be cracked open and shared around as our
KIWI RIDER 81