After experiencing the Horipito horror show first-hand, gumboots were high on my packing list and they definitely weren’ t a bad idea. Taking place over Father’ s Day weekend, the weather can, and will, be a fickle mistress, and combined with the large number of bikes moving about chewing up the grass, it gets churned into a muddy mess in no time. For Cold Kiwi 48, team KR was hosted by the incredibly generous lads from Whanganui’ s Brown Brothers Bikes, whom Ben and Doug met by chance last year. With their trailer, used to haul their boys’“ custom” toys, as a wind break and a marquee to shelter under from the rain, I’ d wager we had one of the best setups of the rally. Karl, Glenn and‘ Scuba’ Steve made sure we were fed well too, probably the best food on site [ the venison backstraps were to die for- Ed ]. That wind though … we had our share of challenges like many others when it came to the Sou-Wester ripping through the campsite. One of our( admittedly ageing) tents immediately failed in the wind gusts resulting in some classic jerry-rig engineering with my ziptie stash to keep it vaguely upright. You know what they say, if you can’ t fix it with either duct tape or zip-ties, it’ s buggered. Dawn on Saturday morning revealed some tent carnage and some soggy rally-goers huddled under the heaters in the main marquee to dry out.
100 KIWI RIDER