This was the day of Wanganui Battle of The Street, the Boxing day motorcycle race in Cemetery Circuit. While having breakfast, I got this bright idea: If you choose some less advertised lodge outside the crowded areas, for only a few bucks, you can sometimes get almost a whole house for you. With this philosophy it's easy and fun to travel. I was almost too positive this morning after the previous day's wet and cold experiences.

We had planned to be in Wanganui before 11 o'clock, but we wanted to dry some more of our clothes before going. We put the leather gloves, neck protectors to the dryer, and toggled all the time between hot and cold air, since leather doesn't like to be dried with too hot air. When we were about to leave, we saw the owners of the place, and after we told them, we had to break in through the window, they were very sorry. Also they were sorry, because they weren't there when we arrived, so we got couple of dollars discount, although we didn't ask any.

We hit he road at 10:40, and the distance to Wanganui was about 90 km. Like last year, there were many biker groups riding sh3 towards Wanganui. Lots of Harleys and British bikes, that are ridden almost only this great day every year. Many this kind of groups passed us, sometimes quite rudely between us and the oncoming traffic. This time we had no-one, who could guide us to the track, and in the center of Wanganui, the stoplights separated us from one group we tried to follow. For a moment we were lost, but then I remembered from last year, that when we left the races, we only crossed one bridge, and were on the sh3 to Bulls. So we started to follow the bypass signs to Bulls, and then the place looked familiar, and we found exactly the same parking area than last year. Actually we parked our bike only couple of meters away from the spot we parked last year. It was 11:30 that time.

The Wedding

We packed our riding gear to the bike, and tried to tie them somehow, so the wind and occasional passers-by wouldn't get them off so easily. With the bike we got a wire lock, and it worked well also for locking the helmets to the bike. We had agreed with Andrew Broome to meet in Robert Holden Corner, outside the curve under the first tree at 11:30 and every thirty minutes after that. When we went to the Holden Corner, there were no nzbikers there. We waited till 12 o'clock, and didn't yet see anyone. We watched when one rider was wed in the Robert Holden corner. A short ceremony was held, and the married couple left with a sidecar accompanied by most of the other riders and a huge noise.

Tero, Andrew, Mark, Gavin, Stuart, and Robin. Jenny in the front.

Just after the ceremony, Elina found, that since this is a crossing, and there is a kind of outrun in the corner, there are actually two possible outsides of the curve: One on each side of the outrun. Both places there were also trees. We had chosen the wrong one. So when we started to head to the other first tree, we found Andrew, Gavin, and Jenny from our side. They had realised the same thing, and come to a place where they could see both the trees. We met also Gavin's Wellingtonian friend Mark there.

Gaazz!

Soon the handyphones started to ring, and Stuart Scott, and Robin Pickering joined us. So we had a small nzbiker gathering there. With this group we then watched most of the race, and wondered around the circuit and the pits. Kinda pity, this time there were no Brittens, and the ‘Dickhead' was repairing his Harley all the time, and couldn't start even once. The Ducatis were again beauties to look, and enjoyable to listen. No wonder, that Swedish Ducati club has done a CD record, with dozens of different Ducati sounds. The best show this time was the Thunderbike Co:s Triumph 900 Tiger Off-Road bike. With rude inside passes in the corners, and wobbling accelerations it offered lots of fun to the spectators. Also the Sidecars again were fun to watch. They actually touch and take contact all the time in the corners. A true fight with no mercy.

Stuart and Robin left before us. We also left before the race ended, since Andrew had organised a barbecue-evening to his friend, Magaret's home. We had some bbq sausage and steak, salad and new potatoes. The Kiwis as well as Finns really like the new potatoes, and there is only one way to eat them: Boiled, with butter. We had some wine with the bbq, remembering we still have to ride. We left around eight so that we could take my planned road still before dark. Mark went on his own, so there were only Andrew, Gavin with Jenny and us left.

Sidecar show

We filled up in Wanganui, and headed towards Bulls. After few kilometers we took a road left to Fordell. Neither Andrew nor Gavin had ridden this road, so we had to guess a few times which is the main direction, since there were lots of Y-shaped junctions. When we reached the main road again, Andrew and Gavin turned south, before I suspected anything, and so we missed another half of the route, since its junction would have been a couple of kilometers norther. We ended up to ride through Bulls anyway.

At Andrew's we found some wine and beer from the fridge. He had prepared well for this evening. We knew that he collects vodka bottles, so we gave him a bottle of Japanese vodka. The only brand we had found from Japan, that sure was Japanese. However, we ended up to play again with the DynaBee, and after listened some Irish music, Andrew decided to officially join us to nzbikers. We were told, that to be real nzbiker, you should know Arlo Guthrie's The Motorcycle Song by heart. "I don't want a pickle, I just wanna ride on my motorsickle..." After listening that twice, Elina fell asleep. After listening a 20 minute "Alice's Restaurant" by Guthrie, and some other his songs, we started to be pretty tired. Since we had a lot to ride tomorrow, we decided to go to sleep.