Day 2 - Hill Climb and da Boys

'That was some of the worst conditions we've had down here for a long time' said Gary, a native son of Gore (one of the towns of Southland) as we pulled into the Hill Climb.
Very strong winds and horizontal rain prevailed all the way down to the 'Roaring 40's' from Dunedin. We're pretty close to 45 degrees South at our hotel - and it felt like it!

We left Dunedin and headed down to the famous sign at Bluff for the photo opportunity via State Highway 1. The original plan was to go via the Catlins and the Scenic route, but the weather was even filthier closer to the coast so we stuck inland. Next time.
After a brief stop and chat to several fellow two-wheeled travellers at the End of the Island - isn't that a great part of motorcycle touring - the way everybody bonds - maybe it was going through the unpleasantness of the day's ride together.
From the lookout we headed to the hill climb.

The event was on the lee side of the hill and conditions were the best we saw all day. Occasional passing showers and fine breaks were the order with bikes tearing up the 1.4km climb at pace.
Burt Munro actually won the event in 1940 and set a record for the climb. 2009 is the first time the event has been run as part of the BMChallenge and Southland local Jason Feaver emulated Burt by taking his 2007 Honda CR600 to a new record time of 49.01 seconds and the overall win in the Under 600cc class as well.

Aaron Green from Gore rode his Kawasaki ZX10R to the top of the hill - and the Podium for the open class win with a time of 50.11 seconds. Shane Livingston was Second and Andrew Stroud, making his first appearance at the BMC took third on his Gixxer 1000 in what was also his first Hill Climb.

Kevin Ryan's Bonneville was quickest up the Hill in the classics class and Tim George took the Quads in another first for the event. The four wheelers were quite spectacular going up the gradient, with several seriously crossed up moments in the action.

We'll have heaps more pics of the event to upload once we get back to home base.

Excellent Evening with 2 AS's

The next event was an 'Evening with Aaron Slight and Andrew Stroud' put on by the Southland Motorcycle club. It was great to hear these two Kiwi legends talking about their careers in a relaxed environment and they fielded questions from the floor into the evening, which we followed with a few beers.

Also of great interest at the event was the launch of a fabulous new book about Burt. Roger Donaldson has put together a simply marvelous pictorial ' The World's Fastest Indian - Burt Munro - A scrapbook of his life'. The 288 page, large format publication is simply beautiful, full of fascinating pics and anecdotes. We happily paid the $49.99 after hearing Burt's son John talk about the process.

The Bike.

Co-pilot has been keeping an eye on the dash mounted thermometer for most of the Journey. She informed me it was 28c at Rakaia yesterday, 6c pulling into Dunedin and 10c when we were crossing the Bluff causeway. Cool.

The bike continues to generate much interest and we've been doing lots of talking about the machine. 'It looks so much better in the flesh, rather than in pictures!' has been the almost universal response - or they just don't 'get it'.

I do - it's been excellent so far and now has 820km on the clock, it's loosening up nicely and has had an excellent run in. Varied speeds and no lugging or over-revving.. The shotgun pipes on the 106 coooobic inch engins are sounding superb and it's getting better with every kilometer.

The bodywork was very good in the howling gales and big unit 'yawed' less than I actually expected. The small Arlen Ness logo-ed screen works well for me too. Just the right height at 'up' for touring speeds and dropped down for cruise mode it is small enough not to be too noisy.

Right now we're waiting for the local Service agent to give us a call that the oil and filter has arrived and we'll do the first oil change before we set off on the next leg.

Beach racing from Oreti is the next event. Conditions have improved - overcast and slight drizzle patches currently.

More soon.

BD.

Additional info: Southland Times