North Island Rally 2025

March 14-16
Napier

Linda and I hadn’t long been back from our trip to Australia and our brush with cyclone Alfred in Brisbane when it was time to start preparing for our ride to Napier.  The day before we were due to set off Linda was conscious of a rash appearing on her back and a trip to The White Cross confirmed shingles.  Perfect timing and of course no prizes for guessing who she caught it from!!  The doctor said it was in it’s early stages and would get worse before it got better so Linda decided a 420kms trip to Napier probably wasn’t the best idea and elected to stay in Auckland.

I set off at 0930 on Friday morning and enjoyed a good ride to Napier arriving late afternoon.  At reception I bumped into Chris Jones and I jokingly commented on the long distance he had to cover to get here from Hastings.  “I’ve been around the block this morning” he said “and been on the bike for a few hours”.  Chris had left Hastings fairly early that morning, ridden to the Top Ten Holiday resort and then completed the ride he had prepared for Saturday just to make sure everything was in order for the following day before finally coming back to The Top 10 reception to check in.  Now that’s what I call dedication!!!

I completely forgot about the barbecue and hadn’t picked up any food.  Chris declared he had some sausages, a loaf of bread and bottle of tomato sauce and I was welcome to join him for dinner!!  A can of Coke Zero from the machine in the cooking area complimented my food perfectly.  Great to see everyone and have a catch up and also nice to meet new members Roy and Juliet.

Saturday morning and a briefing from Kurt Boyle before we set of for a ride with captain Chris Jones at the helm.  We threaded our way through Napier and then an interesting climb up to The Mata Peak which is just short of 400m in height and is the single most significant landscape icon in Hawke’s Bay.  Stunning views in all directions and a perfect day to visit too.  From there we made our way to The Sawyer Arms in Tikokino for lunch via two toilet stops which are always welcome.  I didn’t go the Rush Munro Ice Cream Container in Hastings electing to ride back to The Top 10 with Cliff and Pam Dixon following.

A shower and change and a stroll to reception for 1730 to catch one of the minibuses laid on to take us to the RSL in Napier for dinner.  The food was excellent with a wide variety of choices.  I went for the carvery of ham and beef with lots of vegetables.  Very tasty.  Deserts were equally so with a great choice and there was also cheese, biscuits and coffee.  The house Pinot Noir was fantastic too!!!

The icing on the cake was the quiz organised by Paris Baynes.  The time and effort to organise this must be applauded and it was such good fun.  Everyone’s competitive side came to the fore and much thought went into answering the multiple choice questions.  We swapped question papers for marking and Kurt then reviewed all the answers with the help of an official judge (Kevin Cate) before the winners were announced and medals awarded to the victors.  A great evening all round.

Sunday morning and I woke at 0630, took some photos of the sunrise and got on the road just after 0730.  It was a bit chilly and the bike showed only 10 degrees for much of the journey to Taupo.  The mist and low cloud made for some interesting riding and I was frozen by the time I got to the Z filling station for fuel and a coffee.  I reviewed my choices for additional clothing and decided to put everything on!!  Long sleeve tee shirt, body armour, long sleeved shirt, leather jacket, a fleece and finally my high viz vest.  Turn up the heated grips and heated seat and off we go again.  Much better.  During the remainder of the ride back to Auckland it got warmer and several layers were discarded along the way.  I got back safely at 1430.

Many thanks to Kurt Boyle and Paris Baynes for organising the weekend and Chris Jones the ride captain.  Another fantastic club rally!

Richie Winn
​​​​​​​17 March 2025