Summer Series Round 3. Pareora Gorge Road. Timaru.
Drove up from Dunedin with my wife Maureen on Saturday afternoon (took my boys stuff to his new flat….last year at Uni… Ye-Ha).
Arrived at Pareora Gorge road around 7:30 pm, found the gravel road but no pioneer sign so the doubt set in!! Stuck the truck in 4 wheel, caravan in tow, and off up the hill we went……Fork in the road….. Intense moment of uncertainty …..Did what any “Hobbit” worth his salt would do………got the hell out of there!! Headed a bit further up the Gorge road just to make sure there were no more gravel roads, turned round and headed back towards St Andrews camp ground thinking ”She’ll be right in the morning”!! Passing “the” gravel road we spotted an “Alan Honeybone-looking-Pajero coming down it………confirmed we’d got the right spot…….Invited us to camp up for the night by the batch they were staying in down by the river…….sorted. Thanks guys…….no the blinds weren’t rattling in the night…….that was me snoring!!
Sunday
Cloud cover provided a welcome respite from the heat of the previous day, perfect trials weather in glorious surroundings!! Another new venue with so much potential and the first trial down Timaru way in twenty years! Thanks for the efforts of Mike Rowley in putting it all together. The eight sections were set out on the hillside so they were all pretty much visible from the car park area. Mike, being a “wheelchair pilot”, was able to enjoy all the action of the day from one spot……wicked or what!!
Santa must have come late for some ‘cause it was like the 2010 New Bike Show at warm-up…….new Gassers, Sherco’s & Beta’s everywhere!!!! There was a side bet going as to whether Andy’s new 300 Gasser would rip his arms off……It didn’t………. he did start dancing a funny little Jig though which I still find myself laughing at every time I picture it!!
Riding Clubman A with Mike Elliot (Capt “T”), Mel Banks, Paul Aubrey (came up from Wanaka… solid effort!!) and Don (forgot yer last name sorry Don) we had a heap of fun as usual on some great sections. Nice mix of rocks, grassy hills, off cambers and enough twists & turns to keep you concentrating. The Intermediates and beyond had sections 7 & 8 set way up on the top of the limestone bluff…..impressive from below in the car park......more impressive when you are up there……..exposure……
Paul Aubrey had a close encounter with a prickly thing on section one! Just as he was lining himself up for the climb a hedgehog walked right across the track keeping him balancing until it got clear………strange thing to witness!! I’m told Kendall had an enjoyable day, riding well and managing to keep all his toys in the cupboard!! A few of Andy’s toys fell out though on section seven with a “Captain Turrets” style outburst ………(if that bloody ‘Hobbit’ hadn’t ridden through it before him he might have cleaned it)..…!! Captain “T” was notably quiet dropping only one “fkingbstardbgger” point for the day. ‘Young’ Mel must have decided snorkeling was boring and took it to the next level giving a fine performance of the handle bar front dive with double twist and forward roll perfectly executed….well done!! Bradley gave a fine after trial display of “Crusty Demon” jumps. What a great day out!! Don’t know what the poor people were doing eh??!!
Thanks to my missus for sitting in the car for six hours contemplating her “Inner Princess”, any longer and her “Inner ogre” would have appeared!!
Great to see Timaru riders on the twin shockers enjoying the day too, hopefully we’ll have more trials down this way again, John Philp drives up from Timaru for all our pioneer trials so there’s no reason we can’t do this more often. After seeing the great turn out I reckon it’s no problem. Thanks to the guys who came down from Kaikoura and thanks to all involved in organizing a great trial.
Graham(Eddie)Slee
AKA the laughing Hobbit (not gnome…… they just sit around in gardens fishing for what??!) …….
”To the Shire and beyond” !!!
"The Hobbit" in full flight.