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Yesterday I had attended a MX Supercross. Today it was supposed be NZ’s most exciting race – The Battle of The Streets in Paeroa, 120 kms from Auckland. This would also be the first time I would take the Concours to the country roads and test it out. The race was supposed to start at 11AM. I got up at 7 AM and was ready to go in half an hour. Without a GPS and a map it would always be a problem, but I had a small lead – a Xeroxed map given to me by Mike, explaining way out of Auckland onto country roads to Paeroa. And after that asking the people on side streets always works! I got out from my Airport lodge at 8 AM and arrived in Paeroa at 10.45AM after asking directions from a few people, including an ice cream store.
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Official website for the Battle of the Streets.
Paeroa Street Circuit is a "Hacksaw" shape temporary street circuit.he circuit's maximum speed can reach 280km/h and 220km/h along the main straight. The motorcycle race meeting held on February since 1991 with the name ‘Battle of the Streets’. It attracts participants and crowds from all over New Zealand and overseas.
The one-mile street race is designed for a wide range of classic and modern motorcycles. It consists of 11 classes that run throughout the day include: Post Classics – Forgotten Era Pre 1982, Formula 2, Junior Classics, Senior Classics, Formula 3, Formula Paeroa, Sidecars, Post Classic Historic Pre 1972, BEARS, Super Motard and the Robert Holden Memorial Race. |
<- This is how you do breakfast. The stuff was neatly packed away in the pannier of the Concours 14. |
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One thing I immediately noticed in NZ was the abundance of street shops. In Australia they were less of them there. NZ seems to have a local grocery shop culture like India, although chain superstores like Woolworth are also present. The road sign language was also a little different from Australia. For example if road works were going in Australia there would be a pilot sign saying “Prepare to Stop”, while in NZ it was “Please stop on Request.”. It were like as if NZ was the more down to earth of the couple!
The ride itself to Paeroa wasn’t studded with any wondrous roads, I was just keen in getting to the destination today. I was invited by Paul, Ed of Bike Rider Magazine in New Zealand. The magazine will also be publishing a story on The Great New Zealand Roadtrip after it is completed.
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When I finally started getting near Paeroa the number of motorbikes started increasing on the road. I could spot them on side roads as well, in huge numbers. Finally when I did reach Paeroa I was led by the drone of motorcycles to the street circuit, and the sight there was to behold! Thousands of motorcycles were parked all around the street circuit, it was as if today, all roads led to Paeroa. Indeed my Concours 14 was just one of them, though I noticed even in the sea of motorcycles, exotic and ordinary, the Concours commanded respect, awe and a certain you-cannot-ignore-me aura. It is indeed huge and has immense street (and parking) presence. While parking my bike, a gentleman pulled up besides me on a lovely Triumph Tiger. I had never seen this white and blue color on a Tiger and it was indeed looking gorgeous. The man’s name was Sveen, he was in is early sixties and that would not be the last time I will be seeing him. |
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I went ahead and into the circuit. The circuit was made up of a normal street loop bounded by safety fences. All around the fences there were shops as well. It seemed like a shopping mall bounding a race circuit with lots of people looking at the road a if something was about to happen. And happen it did. For the next 4 hours I was dumbfounded and I reveled a fantastic Sunday afternoon with thousands of similarly inclined motorheads of all ages, sizes and ethnicities. The sound of the racing bikes was actually going down and tingling my spine. I could but only imagine how must it feel to hear a Moto GP bike up close. The machines were hardly metres away from the spectators and to be honest, a bike in a mishap flung at the crowd at 150+kmph couldn’t be stopped by the fences built. However, thankfully nothing of that sort happened.
Yesterday it was the first time I had seen a Supercross and now it was the first time I had seen a street race at this level. There were various categories of machines. From supermotards to superbikes, sidecars too.
The biggest ‘nut cases’ that raced that day were the sidecars. I cannot begin to explain how they were taking corners with the co-pilot in the sidecar hanging at all sorts of suicide positions to counter balance the sidecarbike. However, for most of us, including me, the main business was the Superbikes. There were R1s, 1000rrs etc. There was one more category called as ‘the Bears’. This had all the motorcycles which were exotic – Mv Augustas, Ducatis and Aprilias.
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Everyone was riding like crazy and meant business. It truly required grit and skill. See the pictures for yourself and judge. I considered myself lucky to be watching this spectacle of human and machine in one of the most beautiful countries of earth. And thousands other shared my feelings that day. One thing was reconfirmed – if anything at all attracts interest in one and all – it is motorsport – and motorcycles are at the helm of it! I then met Paul at the BikeRider magazine stall but totally forgot to take a picture with all the excitement going besides us on the track.
He told me that 300 Paeroians help in making the track in 2 hours and dismantling it in one hour, due to the time restrictions put by the NZ government on blocking the main highway which formed a part of the street circuit. Amazing unity and integrity from a small town again. I also found that a very famous soft drink called L&P (Lemon and Paeroa) was established here. It goes by the catch like ‘World Famous in New Zealand”. I had a try and it was good. Around 3PM I decided to head back to Auckland and check in to the YHA in city center in Auckland which I had booked. I again had a feeling that I made a mistake (like I did in Sydney YHA) by booking a lodge bang in the middle of a big city like Auckland. Nevertheless, I headed back to where my bike was parked. It took me as I stopped often to admire the fantastic bikes that were parked all around.
Finally I reached the Concours and started packing. The stuff was packed perfectly. I was carrying a tank bag, a backpack and two side panniers which did the job! I did not need to take off the tank bag as it was secured by a locking cable to the bike and I used to lock the two zips together and take the cameras with me. As I was going through the routine Sveen again came to his bike. He was leaving too. I asked if he knew the way to Auckland. He said he was from Auckland and he was going back there! My luck! I told him everything that I was doing and he offered to drop me off to the YHA. I was saved of finding my way. Till now I hadn’t bought any maps and decided to get some tommorow from the city. |
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We started off with bikes coming from all directions and probably heading back to Auckland. Sveen preferred to stay in a group rather than travel alone as it would be hard for the cops to detect which bike was going fast. Or so is the reason I understood. In NZ the roads are narrower than Australia and many are single lane. The road quality also is not out of the world, but its good enough for high speed runs. Of course all roads are not so bad as it might seem from my description. However that evening, with so many bikes, the cars were giving way to motorcyclists coming from behind, as in most cases if the cars don’t give way then motorcyclists will try and sandwich their way through and that could be dangerous to both the parties – legally, financially and biologically!
I personally felt insecure riding like this around such powerful bikes. But everything went well and Sveen led me to the YHA. When I saw the building I immediately knew parking wont be possible around it because of lack of a secured parking. Dedicated parking lots charge a lot and it wouldn’t be prudent to park my bike two blocks away in a paid parking lot. So I cancelled the YHA booking and Sveen suggested me to book a Holiday Park as they are usually cheap and quite too. I flipped through the AA Accommodation directory that I had bought from the Auckland terminal. I finally booked one in a suburb called Avondale. Sveen again led me to the holiday park, which was out of his way. I checked in the park and Sveen then invited me to dinner at his place after consulting with his missus. Yes, the missus rules in every part of the world, religion, caste and geography don’t matter!
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His house was big as was the case with the people that I had visited earlier in Australia. Even in a country like NZ people give huge priority to houses and its design. We parked the bikes and headed into the house where I was greeted by his wife (Sorry Sveen, I don’t lost her name!).
Sveen is a very enthusiastic guy. He is the principal of a primary school in Avondale, and he looks like one too. Except thankfully I am no longer in first grade! On a serious note, I was actually thrown into deep thought as to how much energy this man carried. He had biking as a serious hobby for sure because he showed me two more bikes (that makes it three!) – One Triumph Tiger, One Kawasaki KL650, and One Honda CR250 (oops, don’t remember the name!). But wait, he took me to the basement and showed me a large room full of airplane models – hundreds of them, mostly RCs. He had also made a RC superman replica out of wood that actually flew! Hats Off! He had three Kayaks too in his garage! Motorcycling, model aeroplaning, kayaking – what else do you need at 62! We had a nice dinner on the dining table with serious talks. Talks like why there was Queen of NZ and Australia and why such a small country like Japan rules technology.
This would be a good time to bring in some thoughts I had compiled.
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Elizabeth became Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952. The Queen Elizabeth II is now the monarch of The Commonwealth Realm, which is a group of 16 independent nations. She was also the Monarch of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, it seems, when she was first crowned in 1952. Since the Queen cannot be in different countries at the same time she has her representatives – Governor –Generals. As of now, a Fiji-India & Anglo-Indian descendant His Excellency The Honorable Anand Satyanand is the acting Governor-General for New Zealand.
I am confused, to be truthful, I did not really know that there was a Queen of Australia either. Yes, I am very bad in politics, but I did not expect monarchy to exist in any form to this day. Nevertheless, my views, of course, do not mean any disrespect to the Queen or Governor-General, it’s just that I come from a country where all the Maharajas are long gone (along with the immense wealth they had, wonder who took it? ;)), or are almost out of the limelight. Mr.Colin James, a political journalist and analyst based in NZ will be able to express the situation in a much coherent and agreeable manner. (See this link)
The first Europeans known to have reached New Zealand were Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman and his crew in 1642.
I have noticed, both in case of Australia and New Zealand, that the Europeans arrived on both the land’s shores and the indigenous people living (Australian Aboriginals, and the Polynesian Maori in NZ) were reduced to a minority. Although, both the nations are striving to give both their indigenous communities special rights and recognition, the truth is that they have been displaced of the right to stay and do whatever they want on their own land. The presence, majority and governance of Europeans can be seen the most important factor as to the very reason why Australia and NZ are placed in the Developed Countries list and India is in the developing countries one.
From the official NZ website.
“Incidents such as the defence of the Ohaewai Pa in Northland showed that Maori (indigenous) military engineering was sophisticated and often superior to Pakeha (Europeans). However, the force and greater number of the colonial forces eventually saw the New Zealand Wars end in defeat for the Maori tribes. Soon afterwards, the government seized vast tracts of Maori land including prime farmland in Waikato and Taranaki. The major loss of land, combined with continued deaths from disease (bought to New Zealand by the Europeans), saw the Maori population steeply decline, dropping to only about 40,000 by 1900.” |
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The question that I ask myself is, would we been able to live with the Europeans ruling us, no matter how developed India would have been? Of course not. History is the witness to it. Perhaps, there were far too many indigenous Indians to take over an.d be reduced to a minority, unlike Australia or NZ. I also wonder, if they hadn’t taken all that wealth out of India, what would be the current number of rupees I would be paying for one dollar? Wouldn’t be too impossible to think, but it’s value could have been warranting more than one dollar per rupee!
But to think of it, it looks the future…
And I will stop all my politico-socio ramblings here and do what I am best at, ride on two wheels and try and click some darn good photographs to capture the immense beauty I am about to witness on one the world’s best bikes for touring.
Enter Sunny on Concours 14 across the Middle Earth…
Oh sorry, I was at the dinner table. After the dinner, Sveen showed me a DVD of an motorcycling expedition he was in. It was fantastic, most of them were dirt roads and I knew the Concours would not be the bike for them! A Kawasaki KLR650 or a BMW 650 would more be like it! But nevertheless, I knew I had one of the worlds best tourer under me and my days ahead would be sweet and fast. After the dinner he dropped me back again to the holiday park. I started calling him my bio-GPS!
The holiday park was quite and allowed me to park my bike right in front of my cabin, which was a very good thing indeed!
I had a quite peaceful sleep. I decided to stay in Auckland tomorrow to do some last minute preparations.
^This is where I typed this blog.
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