AUCKLAND HARLEY
OWNERS GROUP #9067
OWNERS GROUP #9067
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AUCKLAND HARLEY
OWNERS GROUP #9067 |
Road Trip Tales – Email your stories to webmaster@aucklandhog.org.nz sharing your on the road tales (anything from a lunch ride to a multi week journey in some foreign land) |
Donkey's Diary ‘Having a great time in Vancouver’
Wednesday 16th September Wednesday morning started at 8:30am with 3 dynamic speakers including my friend Magali Depras. Magali is the French lady who sent me the message at my 60th which Jacque’s niece Lisa read out.
Received a message from Ady, wanting me to bring back to female Canadian Volley Ball Players, but my suitcase was full.
The afternoon was a trip to Grouse Mountain for lunch. There we witnessed a Lumberjack display and a Grizzly Bear enclosure.
That evening Magali and her team took us, Erlantz (Spain) Kurt (Belgium) out for dinner at a great Belgium restaurant.
After dinner we wandered back to the Pan Pacific Bar and I left Rabbit at around 1am and he waddled home around 3am a little worse for wear. I was still up working and he feared if he went to bed straight away that he would awake with a large headache in the morning, so armed with 4 bottles of water he said he was going to walk it off. I then retired and later the following afternoon Rabbit confessed that while walking through crowds he realised his credit cards were missing so he rushed home and rang his P.A. Jan and got her to cancel them. When he awoke the next day he discovered his credit cards in his bed and remembered he had tucked them into the waistband of his undies for safety?
“I’m a lumberjack and I’m Okay”
The profiles actually match
Thursday 17th Sept Today was a relatively quiet day today for me with only
two informal meetings. That night we prepared ourselves for the Grand Gala
Banquet at the famous G.M. Place Ice Hockey Stadium.
The venue was fantastic
and the tables were situated in the arena actually on the ice although they had it covered.
The highlight for me was I got to address 440 delegates at the famous GM Place Stadium, home of The Canuks. It wasn’t on my bucket list but I quickly added it so I could tick it off.
The evening finished off with dancing until 1am to The Famous Player’s Band. Graeme wandered home at 1am, I followed at 3am and Rabbit around 4am. It was a great night.
Vancouver is a great city, very easy to find your way around. There is a very high Asian population in the city. There are also a lot of beggars the result of addictions, but they are harmless enough as they stand on the street with their caps out asking for spare change. At first I thought, why does this guy want to give me his cap full of loose change. I was going to say “Thank you, I don’t really want your cap, but I’ll take your money, but surely you can do with it more than me?
Friday 18th Sept After a lazy day I started my journey home. The flight to Vancouver was just under 13 hours and we arrived 6 hours before we started (maybe I should have bought a Lotto Ticket or something). The trip home was just over 13 hours and I missed Saturday altogether. In fact my Saturday old man blood pressure medication is still sitting in the Saturday compartment of my pill organiser. (I really feel like I’ve cheated death).
I managed another upgrade to business and slept and watched the new Star Trek Movie and another new movie called ‘Hangover’ so it was a rather painless journey.
On arriving home I noticed my garage was finished. However, Skyline have locked it and haven’t left the keys and that’s a shame because I could have moved some stuff in.
Since starting this project Skyline Garages Mangere have been a giant pain in the arse.
They’re service is atrocious! ‘SPREAD THE WORD’
Donkey
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Friday 13th Sept 2009 Hi Guys,
Irena dropped Rabbit and I out at the airport and we met our other Kiwi mate Graeme in the lounge. We boarded the 747 and Rabbit was upstairs in Premium Economy but I managed to get an upgrade to the front of the plane so we never caught up until we landed. Rabbit wasn’t allowed to come downstairs and pass through that special curtain which separates the classes and I was of course too proud to go and see him.
Rabbit had arranged an apartment for Graeme and him on Alberni Street right in the CBD which was perfectly located one over from Robson St with shops and restaurants just around the corner, so instead of staying at the Pan Pacific where the venue was I arranged to flat with them as it had 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms. If we had stayed at the venue it would have cost the 3 of us $1200 per night. This apartment only 15 minutes walk away cost the 3 of us $230 per night. So good call Rabbit.
Saturday 14th Sept We decided to visit Trev Deely’s Harley Shop and seeing it was a nice sunny day Rabbit thought it would be great to walk there. We checked it on the map which obviously wasn’t to scale and said it’s only 30 minutes away. Two and a half hours and 15 kilometers later we arrived covered in perspiration from the 26 degree heat. It has a great museum attached which Doc and Barb can attest to. Got a cab back.
We went to work on Graeme who doesn’t ride yet about getting a Harley and talked him into to at least buying a Harley T-Shirt and when he wore it we would give him stick about what right
has he to wear a Harley T-Shirt and not even owning a Harley.
Sunday 15th Sept I had back to back meetings today and Rabbit and Graeme did the hop on hop off tour of the city. That night my Aussie mate Frank and his wife Dianna took us out for a nice meal down by the water. Where I lost my apartment key and had to retrieve it 2 days later.
Monday 16th Sept Conference started this morning and I chaired my last meeting of the International Marketing Council before handing the reins over to my colleague Tim Lambert CEO of CEBA as my maximum 3 year term was up. This evening we visited the Museum of Anthropology and enjoyed a grand function in a large marquee on the grounds.
Canadian Paula Panetta and me getting ready to kiss the fish
There is a tradition in Canada of Screeches Rum in which you have to kiss a fish and scull a shot of rum.
I didn’t particularly enjoy this experience but Rabbit appeared to make a real connection. I think he has been away too long?
Tuesday 17th September
Today was a busy day for me today as I chaired the afternoon session of 440 delegates. That night was recovery as the four of us grabbed a Pizza at Vancouver Archies… Thaaank Youuuu
Donkey
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Donkey's Diary ‘Good Old Geraldine’ Wednesday March 4th 2009
Everyone was asked if they had a place they particularly wanted to visit and Coral’s request to all our surprise was ‘Geraldine’. She really wanted to visit the Barker’s Fruit Processors Shop.
So that morning we set off from Fairlie and rode the 40 odd kms to ‘Good Old Geraldine’ as Big Blok had affectionately named it. On the way we did encounter a large herd of cattle being moved along the road. Some of the beasts towered above me on my bike and when I was in the middle of the herd I found myself staring head on to the largest white bull I had ever seen. I managed to maneuver past him as we all did and our greatest fear was not of him turning on us, but being knocked off our bikes by his large swinging testicles as he walked down beside us.
We had breakfast in a nice little café called Plums, then we thundered around to The Barker’s shop. Rabbit who had previously been the GM had already contacted them to tell them we were coming. By the time I got there Coral had already started ordering stuff to be couriered home. Having had an association with Barker’s for some time. I strolled into the shop and asked if there were any Geraldines here and was greeted with my usual hugs from two of the 4 staff I know Daphne and Denise.
After Coral’s therapy we headed out through Rangiora, Oxford to Amberley and met up with Baz Howie from Harley Tours for lunch and he accompanied us through to Kaikoura. The ride up the Kaikoura Coast was as exceptional as always and we booked into a motel complex just past the town on the esplanade where Big Blok and Tim cleaned their bikes. As usual Hogster had negotiated a favourable rate
That night we walked up town amidst the groaning of Big Blok telling us that if he new it was this far he would have bought his bike. We skipped what might have been the best restaurant and dined at the Claypot with staff that couldn’t get it right with Mains arriving prior to entrées and garlic bread arriving as desert.
Thursday March 5th 2009
This morning we had to say our goodbyes to our UK guest Tim who was leaving us to go Whale Watching with Baz then heading back down to Christchurch to fly out the next day.
After breakfast in Kaikoura we headed up through Ward, Blenheim and onto Picton to purchase tickets for the ferry.
We took a little long for breakfast so we had to ride reasonably hard to make the ferry we wanted as we hadn’t booked. We arrived 30 minutes prior to sailing and managed to buy our tickets and ride on.
After tying our bikes down we headed upstairs and sat down as reality kicked in that our ride was almost over.
Arriving in Wellington we said our goodbyes to Michael & Bev as headed up SH1 to Taihape then onto Te Awamutu. The remaining group headed up SH2 through Upper Hutt and over the Rimutaka’s to Greytown where Hogster negotiated a favourable rate at the Boutique White Swan Hotel on the main Street. We dined that night in there great restaurant on a 2 for 1 meal deal.
We biked on the next day through the Wairarapa gassing up in Dannevirke and turning down SH50 to Napier so Big Blok and Hogster could colour
in another route on their maps.
We checked into The Albatross Motel although Dudley and I had to go next door to the Bamboo Court Motel which still had it’s original 60’s décor. We suspected the TV may only show Black and White episodes of ‘The Donna Reid Show and Z Cars’.
That afternoon we went down to the Gin Trap for a drink and a late lunch. The Bride and Coral bought my attention to a lady who kept starring at me and when I looked around it was my first ex wife. So on the trip the group encountered number one and number three wives. By popular vote number three appears still to be way out in front by the team.
It was fish n’ chip night tonight and a few drinks on the deck before retiring for the night as tomorrow would be our final leg.
After breakfast in Napier we headed home and struck some light rain coming into Taupo. The Ironman competition was on and Rabbit and his family were there raising money for this years charity CF Research. As we rode through the crowds lining the road in and out of Taupo, we rode past Rabbit and his family waving their pennants at us and cheering. As Big Blok rode past he yelled out “Did I win”?
We rode non stop through to Waharoa just north of Matamata where we had lunch at the Kaimai Cheese Factory. The lunch and venue were great but the flies took over our table. We blamed Big Blok.
Our last stop was on the Bombays stopping for one last group photo and to say our last goodbyes, plus use the toilet as we weren’t in the South Island now. And from there we made our own way home.
We covered just under 5,300 kms. My bike now has 19’000 kms on it and has been to AMPS to have a new back tyre and a groom.
Dudley and I are going to put together a 3 – 4 week itinerary for next year which will see us doing a week prior to the Rally in Christchurch where will cover the top part of the South Island to Christchurch then after the rally covering the remainder of the South Island including Milford and the deep south and back up through The Catlins and Chaslands. Anyone is welcome to join us to do all of or part of, or leave us and rejoin us again anytime if you wish to spend a longer or a shorter period somewhere. I believe the Bloks and Hogsters have put in for their leave already. Donkey
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Donkey's Diary Monday 2nd April 09 (Dudley’s Birthday)
After the great breakfast Michael and Bev laid on we headed for McIvor & Veitch (The Harley Shop) to look around and pick up Steve & Casey
who were getting a new back tyre. Following this we headed for coffee at St Clair Beach, detouring up Every Street (The scene of the Bain
Murders) and via my family grave site (nothing to do with the Bain Murders) to check on the family plot.
After coffee we headed down North East Valley and up Baldwin Street – The World’s Steepest Street before heading out of Dunedin to see the
seal colony at Shag Point and then a short hop to the Moeraki Boulders. 
At Moeraki we sampled their cheese rolls and Dudley even obtained the recipe.
From Moeraki we backed tracked down to Palmerston, gassed up and headed up the Pig Root to Ranfurly and onto The Wedderburn Hotel via a
scenic detour through the Curling Capital of Naseby.
The Wedderburn Hotel is a compulsory stop for Dudley and I every year and we always have our photo taken with Eric The Publican. Moving on
from Wedderburn we proceeded down 15kms of Gravel to the Old Haunted Vulcan Hotel of St Bathans.
We checked into The Vulcan Hotel, parked the bikes up in the paddock next door and after unpacking we wandered over the road to veiw the
Blue Lake which was created by the slucing of the hills for gold. Big Blok noticed a rabbit hopping alnong the steep sluced bank. I said
that I coild see at least 4 rabbits and he said where? I then shouted ‘BANG’ and the whole hillside literally moved as the rabbits
scurried away.
That night we celebrated Dudley’s Birthday with a great Pub Meal and Birthday Cake.
Later The Bride and Hogster played pool while Coral appeared to be flirting with the locals who had bought in a bucket of tree ripened
cherries?
Big Blok was very uneasy as he does’nt cope with the thought of ghosts to well and didn’t sleep at all that night, which mean’t he didn’t
snore so The Bride got a great nights sleep.
The ghost evidentally was a lady of the night who misteriously died in the lake and supposabaly frequents the hotel. I pinned $20 to my door that night in the hope of a bargain but I had no visits.
Tuesday 3rd March 09 The next morning we backtracked slightly and visited Oturehua where I used to ice skate as a kid. As a young sales rep I used to call on
Gilchrist & Sons the local grocery store which is still there and unchanged, I swear they still had Goddards Wax and Jeypine Disinfectant
that I had sold in to them in the 70’s. The layout of the store was original with ladders to reach the top shelves. I remember they used
to have a huge ball of twine hanging from the ceiling to wrap the deliveries up in. They also used to wrap toilet paper and santary pads on
the shelf back then.
We then travelled the icolated road through Omakau and back to Clyde for coffee and cheese rolls at The Bank Café.
From there we rode back up to Cromwell and through past Tarras to Twizel. There Dudley took Tim, Michael & Bev, Steve & Casey though to
Mt Cook while The Bloks, Hogsters and I road onto Fairlie only stopping at Lake Tekapo on the way. The colour of the waters in the lakes
and rivers were a very vivid teal/blue colour. They were beuatiful. 
As we rode down into Fairlie we encountered some low cloud coming off the hills and the temperature dropped quite significantly. We booked into a local motel and set up base for the other’s return. I was a little uneasy as my motel was next to Big Bloks and I try to avoid this as his snorring is legendary, hence the name Big Blok. However there was a 12cm concrete block wall between our motels. What I
didn’t realise was that the layout of the units placed my head 12cm on the otherside of the wall to Big Blok and because he didn’t sleep
the night before at the Haunted Vulcan Hotel, he made up for it this night and that’s all I could hear! Next edition. ‘Good old Geraldine’
Donkey 2 April 09
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Part 4. Well, I’m home in NZ now and trying to cope with reality, and no bike, while I wait for mine to come home. I must apologise as I started out writing this “blog” full of good intentions but computers became difficult to find and I was focused on other thing for the remainder of the trip. Never the less, I’ll attempt to pick up from Sturgis and give an over view of the rest of the trip…..
We headed out of Sturgis on a Monday morning after cleaning up the house and having the owner inspect it so we could get our “bond” back. This all went smoothly and Kim, the owner of the house said we would be welcome back any time which is was nice.
Out of Sturgis, south on the freeway through Black Hawk ( J ) and Rapid City and onto the infamous Wall Drug Store for a look around. Then onto the “Badlands National Park” which was petty cool – it must have looked quite intimidating to the early pioneers of the west. Our plan was to head onto Souix Falls that afternoon but a spectacular storm appeared on our horizon and after stopping and putting on the wets we rode through it for around 30minutes and then decided to call it quits and stay in a small town called Kimball.
The next day dawned clear and we continued our journey southwest towards Knoxville through Kansas City and St Louis with stops at Paducha, Land between the lakes and the Jim Beam Factory in Kentucky. The main reason for heading to Knoxville was to “ride the Dragon”, 
a famous stretch of road on Highway 129 (11 miles long with over 300 bends). We ended up staying 2 nights, which worked out well as we spent Friday night in a great little bar with some fantastic local people and a live band and all day Saturday exploring the area and “taming the Dragon”. Bikes everywhere and lot of guys Trailer them in just to ride the dragon.
We left the Knoxville area on a Sunday and rode over the Smokey Mountains and started to head north up the “Blue Ridge Parkway”, a beautiful piece or road the winds it’s way up the Appalachian Mountain Range. Unfortunately the speed limit is very slow and there was a lot of traffic on the road so we only rode around 160ks before having to opt for the freeways to get us to our destination for the night.
The next morning we split up a bit with one group wanting to head up towards New York City and myself with 2 others heading due East across North Carolina towards “Kitty Hawk”, a place I really wanted to visit as I’ve always been fascinated with the Wright Brothers story. We hit the east coast that night and were all feeling pretty proud of ourselves having completed the coast to coast.
The Wright Brothers National Memorial was awesome to me with replicas of the plane, the original engine casing damaged in the 4th flight of that famous day, big rocks marking the flight path and distances and anexcellent monument and brass sculpture of the “moment” it all happened in December 1903 (good year that one).
We then headed North along the coast towards Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which is a 17 mile long bridge with 2 mile long tunnels under the water that allows the US Naval fleet along with other shipping, in and out of the bay.
We made it into Washington DC late that night and after finding a hotel (that’s another story) I decided I needed to get the bike serviced the next day as I’d done 9000ks. So the next morning we took the bikes to Washington HD to see if they could squeeze mine in. “Yep, no problem, swing it round the back” - so I climbed back on, turned the switch and I had no power? So I pushed it round the back only to have to explain my electrics had all blown. Any way, we took off into the city to see the sights for the day – an amazing city Washington and one I’d like to spend more time in. That afternoon, I collected the bike after they explained it could have been this or could have been that but a definitive cause wasn’t found but they’d tested it and it seemed fine. OK, so we pulled out and headed North, York, Pennsylvania was our destination for the afternoon, only about 200ks away.
After battling our way around the ring road freeway, we found the highway we needed and headed north, it turned into a lovely rural road with nice homes and little villages all the way. After about an hour, I pulled over for a break only to find the electrics blew again as I tried to restart! A quick call to the Dealer in York to see if they could help and I got a number for HOG roadside assist. They jacked up a tow truck to come and collect me. We waited over 2 hours for the truck, which was fine, but what did disappoint me was the number of bikes that went past and no one stopped to see if we were OK?
We finally arrived in York around midnight and lucky for me, the HD dealer was right next door so Bob’s Towing arrived at 8am as arranged I and pushed my bike in the 2nd HD service department in two days! I left it there and went off to visit the York HD factory which was great and while I was gone the team at Laugermans found a cable between my battery and starter relay had chaffed through and was causing the master fuse to blow – problem solved but I bought a spare fuse anway!
From York we carried on North through Pennsylvania and New York State to the southern shores of Lake Ontario, which we then traveled west along towards Niagara.
It’s hard to appreciate the scale of the Great lakes, they’re certainly the first lakes I’ve ever seen where you can’t see the opposite shore.
We spent the weekend in Niagara enjoying the falls, on the Maid of the Mist and the tunnels behind them, before heading west through Ontario towards the Sarnia/Port Huron border crossing. Along the way we chanced upon a Canadian Air Force Museum and after walking in, we were greeted but the sounds of an Avril Lancaster Bomber starting up. It then Taxied out and took off which was an absolute treat as there are only 2 of these still flying. As we exited the museum after a good look around, we were treated to a low level fly over by the Lancaster!More to come……..Woody 17 September 08
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