The Yaris continued to provide a comfortable platform for site seeing however the reason we came to New Zealand was to ride the country on our Triumphs. Why else would we have shipped them at some cost?

No matter what contact we made the message was the same "Bikes not released!"

I decided to make best of the situation and so we soon arrived in Timaru on what was to eventually become 3 visits to this charming historic town. I had wanted to take my friends there for a particular reason. Nothing to do with motorcycles but infact horsepower in it's true form. Timaru is the home to perhaps one if not the most influencial horses we have known. This also neatly fills in some of the blanks from last year's visit to the home of Hickstead in the UK. Pharlap( 4th October 1926-5th April 1932) was born and raised in Timaru before sale to Australian interests (David Davis & Harry Telford) and later his death in the US, at San Francisco in the arms of his strapper Tommy Woodcock. A full size bronze statue at the local racetrack along with his history ensures New Zealand is well and truely his home.

However the North Island of New Zealand hosts annually the Pukekohe Park Classic meeting and 2019 is the 40h anniversary with special guests and motorcycles so not to be missed. We returned to Christchurch and as no bikes were available and it is now the Wednesday night before the meeting begins on Friday 1st February drastic action was required.

It's times like this that a love hate relationship involving the internet and the credit card develops. The internet has almost endless possibilities including Thursday flights into Auckland, accommodation about 90 minutes away but only 15 minutes from the track. I can even get a hire car from the airport with a few strokes of the keyboard. The downside all the advance purchase special deals are gone only the expensive seats left.

Tickets to the race meeting are available at normal prices so without a real consultation the credit card is wacked for 3 return flights Christchurch to Auckland an 5 day car hire, 4 nights in a cabin and 3 x 3 day meeting tickets are all purchased for some $2500.

Jeffrey & Laura awake to a frienzed packing and a trip to the Christchurch Airport and before they knew waht and where we had arrived at Auckland airport and soon a new hire car was obtained and we well I was mixing it with the afternoon rush hour traffic as we headed South West towards our new home for the rest of the week.

Located on the West Coast of the North Island our Port Waikato Holiday Park location was a three bedroom self contained house surrounded by green open spaces, a communial activities hall and the beach dunes.

With a small time frame I managed to fit in a full day's site seeing that saw us visit both the West and East coast of the the Northern tip of the North Island.Along the way many towns provided an ideal stop for Chai latte and a browse of the op shops where one never knows what bargains await. Well at a garage sale I aquired a genuine Port Waikato Holiday park cap for 50c as opposed to the $15 cost at the actual park.

Friday 1st February was practce day at Pukekohe park so as we had a season pass we decided to hit the track.

Permit No 17630 had been issued to The New Zeland Classic Motorcycle Racing Register (NZCMRR) club for this the 40th Anniversary meeting.

A quick look at the list of club officials soon revealed that this is not just any club but one which boasts former World Champions such as Hugh Anderson, Ginger Molloy,Rod Coleman along with other notable constructors such as Ken McIntosh. Added to them was guest and now NZ resident Freddie Merkel First WSB Champion,(won twice) three times AMA Superbike Champion and AMA Hall of Fame inductee, was joined by NZ & Australian Champions including our own Graeme Crosby.

There were two special reasons I wanted to visit this meeting apart from seeing former Champions out on historic machinery on the track.

Regular readers will recall in 2016 while writing "Taking The Indian Home", I visited the Solvang Motorcycle Museum in California. That visit was in preparation for events that were to take place both at Pukekohe and Invercargill.

New Zealand was home to constructor John Kenton Britten about whom the movie Öne Man's Life"was made. In a brief production run that included the original Carnidal Brittens one "escaped as a crated unit, until 2004"and became known as "the missing Britten", I like to complete series and knew that the missing Britten was housed in the Solvang Viintage Museum and is the only Britten never to have been raced as well as being the last one made in 1995. Hence when the opportunity was available I viewed it. Interesting all the Britten's have never been reunited despite two attempts one in the USA at Barber Motorsports Museum and the other in New Zealand,so by seeing the Solvang bike I was prepared for Pukekohe.

This meeting featured two of the Brittens, one in the traditional blue/purple livery and the CRS in it's usual yellow/black livery. It is of course the ex IOM Farmer ridden bike that was being ridden by John Farmer when he crashed and was killed at IOM. The bike having been not at fault was rebuilt and continues to thrill crowds in exhibition runs to this day.

The normal coloured Britten, owned from memory by Kiwi Kevin Grant, is usually displayed with rider Andrew Stroud who has no hestitation in wheelstanding this priceless bike in a similiar fashion to those 150mph wheelstands of the Britten's racing days. This particular bike is the one that won the BEARS World Championship in 1996,also winning at Daytona USA,Thruxton UK,Zelteg AUS,Brands Hatch UK & Assen NL and a 2nd at Monza IT.

Not only did Andrew Stroud actively demonstrate the Britten but I was privledged on Day 2 to sit down with Andrew for some 40 minutes and chat one on one (well Jeffrey was listening) about the Britten, his riding and his passion, their family of 10 children, and especially two of his sons Jacob & Jesse who race. the Britten story continues at Invercargill and The Burt Monroe Challenge.

The other reason for attending this meeting was the opportunity to meet,talk with and watch a new racer. While I enjoy watching the current MotoGP riders around the world do battle you dont get to talk with them so i tend to gravitate to those events such as IOM and Classic bike meeting where not only do you mix freely with Champions both past and present but also often the opportunity arises to see up and coming riders in action.

The NZCMRR meeting had one such person Jamie Astudillo #49. Most will be saying Jamie who? just as I was accustomed to people saying Danny Who? when I wrote and talked first about Danny Kent. Jamie hasnt ridden in Australia as far as I know as she is based in the USA where she is the current FIM Womans Latin American Champion. At 18yrs of age Jamie Astudillo should be a name to look out for in the years to come.

Like Classic meeting worldwide the action was fast and furious with a Brough Superior SS100 lapping at a great rate of knots mixing it with AJS 7R's, Manx Norton's, Matchless G50's and of course the later TZ Yamaha's, Ducati TT1's, Suzuki GSX1100's,Aeriels,Triumph's,BSA,Velocette,Bimoto,Rudge,NSU,Seeley's,Bultaco's,Benelli's,Aermacchi's,HD's,Indian's and Jawa. Way too quickly the last race was run, we saw and hear the Jet Powered Triumph do a lap around the track, the merchandise sold out on day 1 and we had a plane to catch back to Christchurch where surely our motorcycles must be released by now.

RIP Neville Wooderson NZCMRR Register & Committee member for that meeting