NZ based ANZAC Ride, 2018 - Thank you.

Nico

Well-known Member. Moderator
#41
Congratulations on the first NZ ANZAC ride Chris! What a great ride in tough conditions in a beautiful part of the world.
Especially tough scenery...
And the song - very appropriate!
Gotta love those beautiful blue lakes.
Oh, and... you don't like selfies then? ;)
 

Chris Wiltshire

Staff Helper
Premier Member
IBA Member
IBR Finisher
#43
As Nico said, well done on the first NZ ANZAC ride Chris. great read with your report thanks for posting up the report and photographs ;)
Thanks TJ, also for your very accommodating help with the rules. :)

The report is only half done so far. :) I’ll put a note up here when it’s properly finished.
 

kwaka

Premier Member
#44
Well done Chris, great to know we had a Kiwi doing this one on the day too.

Of interest (or not :D)
On ANZAC Day at 04:30 local time I checked out your SPOT link and you were already into your ride Chris. This was expected as you're three hours ahead of me time zone wise. I wished you blue skies with the breeze at your back and mused the bonds that span a century.

At our Dawn Service, we hear the Aussie anthem, the didgeridoo and of late, the New Zealand national anthem. Yes, both in Maori and English. I was reminded again how stirring and emotive your national anthem is. Aotearoa/God Defend New Zealand indeed!

Congrats on your ANZAC Day Ride mate.
 

Tele

Premier Member
#47
A great report Chris. thoroughly enjoyed the read. My daughter worked in NZ for three years, so after 5 visits there in that time, I have travelled through some of the areas mentioned in your report. She is back in Canberra (Australia) now, so we spent the early dawn at the Australian War Memorial with more people than I could reasonably count (official estimates around 40,000). There was the letter "C" if only I had had my bike. A great effort for the first NZ "ANZAC" ride mate. Very well done :):)
 

Fatman

Well-Known Member
#48
Chris, I just read your in depth report and was happy to see you succeed in the first ANZAC day ride in NZ, a great effort mate. The local dawn service video with both anthems playing was touching with the pics adding to your report with some nice shots taken on the run.

So after the snow, where to?
 

Chris Wiltshire

Staff Helper
Premier Member
IBA Member
IBR Finisher
#49
Chris, I just read your in depth report and was happy to see you succeed in the first ANZAC day ride in NZ, a great effort mate. The local dawn service video with both anthems playing was touching with the pics adding to your report with some nice shots taken on the run.

So after the snow, where to?
This was my third Saddle Sore. Back in Feb we attempted a Bun Burner, but we tried to take on far too much and failed (the full report for that ride is here: https://www.wiltshire.net/2018/02/27/tt2000-chris-and-nigels-attempt-at-far-too-much/).

So fair to say, I'm enjoying my LD riding. I commute on my bike through winter, it's a 55km trip each way into work. I can put up with moderate cold and a bit of rain, but here in Auckland we're lucky that throughout most of winter, we'd be around 4-8 degrees in spots in the mornings on the way into work, but mostly around 8-10 degrees at the colder points during the winter. We don't suffer much freezing weather up here in Auckland. On the worst days I would opt for the car. ;)

I say all of this because I consider myself to be (almost) a fair weather rider. - So I've got no plans or desires to do any more proper LD rides over our winter, I think I'm done until at least October or November now.

The NZ LD Riders group have got some mid-winter rides, an 800km and a 1600km ride (held at the same time). I *may* invest in a new bike (currently have my eyes on a GTR 1400 Concours, or a newish FJR 1300). Only if I do that, have heated grips and a decent screen would I consider doing either of those rides, unless I get called out by some of the other NZ based riders to pull finger and get on with it (I may not take that much convincing, and I do love my R1)...

Oh, who am I kidding, I just need a week or two to mentally recover from the ANZAC Ride, and I'll be restlessly looking for, and planning my next ride... I guess right now I just don't know what that will be.

I would like to find some other Auckland based riders who I could do the next one with, it is, in my opinion far more fun attempting these things with a riding buddy...

Funnily enough, I was day dreaming this morning about starting up an NZ based, LD Riding / Touring business. One which has about three bikes to hire, with routes planned etc; opened up for overseas IBA members to come and hire and ride (with me as a 'guide') through our summer months. - I know that there's a heap of mad USA based riders who get really stir crazy during their winter months who might really enjoy coming over and experiencing a 'really challenging set of roads' rather than their straight point to point interstate highways. I reckon some of them would have a fit if they saw what counts as a 'state highway' here in NZ! :) I reckon some of them might experience their first 'struggle to fit it into 24 hours', here. :)
 

Chris Wiltshire

Staff Helper
Premier Member
IBA Member
IBR Finisher
#50
Well done Chris, great to know we had a Kiwi doing this one on the day too.

Of interest (or not :D)
On ANZAC Day at 04:30 local time I checked out your SPOT link and you were already into your ride Chris. This was expected as you're three hours ahead of me time zone wise. I wished you blue skies with the breeze at your back and mused the bonds that span a century.

At our Dawn Service, we hear the Aussie anthem, the didgeridoo and of late, the New Zealand national anthem. Yes, both in Maori and English. I was reminded again how stirring and emotive your national anthem is. Aotearoa/God Defend New Zealand indeed!

Congrats on your ANZAC Day Ride mate.
Congrats on yours too, I've just been searching for others who did this ride this year and found your forum post too. Looking forward to reading your ride report as and when you get time.

I agree with you about the emotion within the service / ceremony - I was feeling pretty choked up at one point and may have had the start of a tear or two... Our service had some really positive reflections on what the sacrifices have created and allowed for us, focussing on the positives of our freedoms and the choices which we're capable of making. They paid some positive reflections on some of the truely 'awe'-some aspects that had come out of war (which was a surprising perspective for me to hear); but were revering things like the 'roaring sounds of the merlin engines in the spit-fires'... Amazing to hear verbalised some of the things which people are very much passionate about (as a result of the war), which are importantly, positive things.

Our ceremony was a really lovely balance of reverence, reflection and positive thanks for what those who had fought had created and protected for us all today.
 

HACKLE

Well-Known Member
#58
Congratulations Chris, firstly on your completion of the ANZAC day SS1600 and secondly on a very special certificate to have as a lifetime memory of your experience. :)
 

Chris Wiltshire

Staff Helper
Premier Member
IBA Member
IBR Finisher
#60
I'm at it again, this time for my 6th LD ride and my 2nd of the Four Seasons. - 22nd Jun for a Winter Solstice ride, 2Up on the Concours 14. :)

https://www.wiltshire.net/ss1600-2019 - Also, fundraising for a local Animal Rescue charity who save around x200 dogs from the local council pounds' death-row each year... This will be my third LD ride, fundraising for them... SPOT links etc contained on that planning page along with route and timing details. - T-minus 14 days and counting...