April 2021
Page 5
Club Captain’s Report March, with no lockdowns, we have been able to enjoy a month of motoring and events. John Stokes’ Veteran section continues to have good attendances. If you have a veteran vehicle, do go along and join this group. On 11 March about 26 members from the Motorcycle section decided to go to Masterton and have a rally of their own, as the National Motorcycle event, which the Wairarapa Branch had organised had been cancelled due to Covid. Accommodation had been booked and paid for so off they went. Tracey and Stephen Winterbottom plotted this year’s Vintage Muster. A good selection of vehicles assembled at the start and enjoyed an excellent rally, finishing up with dinner at the Papakura RSA, where I joined them. Thanks to the marshals who helped out. Congratulations to the section winners and overall winner. The Motorcycle section had a much smaller meeting due to 26 of them being away. Their guest speaker was Chris Taylor, who had ridden a motorcycle from Vladivostok (Pacific coast of Russia) across Russia and through Europe. Everyone enjoyed this interesting speaker and he and his partner stayed talking to members and enjoying our facilities until 6.00pm. The Mid week Tourers enjoyed another run. On Club night we had two very interesting speakers, one who owned a spray paint shop in Waiuku and the other was Resene Paints, Product & Technical Manager. They gave a great talk and many, many questions were asked from the floor. They were very open about methods and what can go wrong from their perspective, as well as those issues which “home sprayers” can bump up against and how these can be fixed. After their talk, they spent the rest of the evening with Branch members, freely giving advise. We had about 45 members in attendance which was a good turnout for a Club Night. Thanks to Robin Elliott for organising these chaps. The Vintage section had another good meeting. If you own a Vintage vehicle why not go along to their monthly meetings. The Club Run held on Sunday 28 March was a re-run of the cancelled event in February. A minute group (just 5 vehicles) attended as unfortunately this event clashed with Beach Hop, Maunga Moana and a National Model A Rally. We chatted at the start and decided we would go as we had all made the effort. We had to change the finishing spot from Tapapakanga Reserve to the Waitawa Regional Park, which is just before Kawakawa Bay (due to the SPLORE music festival being rescheduled). However, before travelling back a few miles up the road to Waitawa Reserve, most of us bought ice creams at Kawakawa Bay and enjoyed these. Waitawa Reserve was a perfect spot for our group, nice quiet beachside reserve with huge picnic tables where we could all sit together. This is the old ICI site where they used to off load explosives. This is a pretty new reserve, only being open for 6 years. If you have not been to Tapapakanga or Waitawa Reserves (on the road between Clevedon and Kaiaua), they are well worth a visit.
