The Burt – Day 6

We woke to a glorious day here in our Airbnb in Riverton.

We have a new member to our gang. Marcel flew in yesterday afternoon and has fitted in nicely.

His initiation was to run nude across the road and back.

All I’ll say it was very funny, but not a pretty sight.

On today’s agenda was the Beach Races.

It’s a 1 mile track marked out by cones, and these guys let it rip.

So we jumped on our rides, with Marcel on the back of SJ’s bike.

Enos, SJ, Marcel, Grumpy and I are waiting for Semi who seems to be unable to get his bike moving.

No problem starting it, it just wouldn’t move.

Grumpy jumped off his bike and soon realised that Semi had left a brake lock on the front disc.

Another fine.

We smashed down a cooked breakfast at the local cafe, and rode out to Oreti Beach.

There was bikes galore.

We estimated about 3000, but keen to hear official numbers.

The sun was fierce and as we sat on the dunes we could feel it burning the backs of our necks.

The races came thick and fast, which for a spectator was brilliant.

On the bigger bikes speeds of 160kms were reached and you could see the riders fighting with their beasts to keep them upright.

There were a few spills as the sand became softer from the continuous use of the track.

The 50 mile race was the big one for the Burt Munro trophy.

Nine riders started, only three finished with some poor bugger not realising he’d only done 49 laps.

They must have been exhausted after that.

The five of us weren’t feeling to flash after baking in our jeans and leathers for a few hours.

We jumped back on horses and rode to Bluff to get a photo with a sign post.

We stopped off and had a feed and a couple of beers to try and cool down.

Enos didn’t look to good, but Doc Semi was keeping a close eye on him.

I was also feeling the effects so left the lads early to come back and have a sleep.

I was just drifting off when they returned! No afternoon nap for me.

Marcel and I went for a swim in the Foveaux Strait to cool down.

It worked wonders.

We had a few beers at our base and headed out to dinner.

As we walked along a young lady pulled over in a pub courtesy van.

“You look like you boys want some food and beers.”

We jumped into Hannah’s van and she took her to her pub Aparima Restaurant and Bar.

The meal was outstanding and Hannah was a lot of fun. The beers were again well deserved.