Auckland Veteran & Vintage Car Club (Inc.)
DRIVING OUR HISTORY
DRIVING OUR HISTORY
2025 National Motorcycle Rally
and After Rally Tour
24-30 January 2025
Our trip to Manawatu and the Long Way home...
Many members of our Motorcycle Section enjoy the opportunity to attend the National Motorcycle Rally, which is held every two years, and this year was no exception.
Fortunately for us, Peter Alderdice again chose to be our Camp Leader and herd the cats to and from the rally.
With the Rally event starting on the Friday evening we took the opportunity to break the ride into a two day trip, arriving just in the nick of time for the Friday evening Meet'n'Greet, or rather a lot of hugs and handshakes while catching up with friends from right across the motu. But about that ride down first...
Thursday morning we all set off from Auckland early. Our destination for today was Ohakune. We like to get off the main highways as quick as we can and amble down the island at reasonable vintage speeds. Our ride saw us leave Hwy 1 at Rangariri, follow the Waikato on the western side through Huntly and Ngaruawahia the head south-west to Pirongia, then onto Te Kuiti where we stopped to take in the local Museum, have a moment at the "Pinetree" (Colin Meads) statue and have lunch. After lunch the ride kept south on great back road trek to Taumarunui, through National Park and onto our destination of Ohakune. Thursday night was a casual meal in the ski lodge that we were staying in. A great evening for everyone (22 of us) to really catch up, tell some tall tales and then head off for a good nights sleep.
Friday morning, we hit the road, firstly heading west out of Ohakune, cutting down to Raetihi and then crossing Hwy 4 heading for Pipiriki. WOW, what a fabulous road. Windy and quite steep in places, but the landscape and views were fabulous. Once hitting the small hamlet of Pipiriki we hung a left and traced the Whanganui River south. Like an out of body experience we passed through Jerusalem, London and Athens! Along the way, at Matahiwi we stopped at the most darling cafe for elevenses. In fact, we were served by a charming eleven year old, Patience, and her Mum. They served us the most delicious Morning Tea with smiles aplenty.
From Morning Tea it was south again to continue to traverse this road until the inevitable join up with Hwy 4 just above Whanganui. Then as we came into Whanganui it was another left onto the road to Fordell. At Fordell we visited Bruce and his wife to view his collection of parts (amazing - we left incredulous at the organisation ability of one man!)
Now, we were on the last leg of the ride into Palm'y via Hunterville, Vinegar Hill and finally to our accommodation for the next 10 nights, the Sports & Rugby Institute at Massey University. Fan-bloody-tastic it was! Just the perfect set-up for a group like ours.