Page 27 - NZ Ulyssian December

BRANCH NEWS

e ha e seen a ew new a es as the
weather improves, although rides were a outings.
bit patchy in spring because of a mix of One that stood out and was organised
health issues, wet weather conditions and with very little notice as the weather
venue Covid uncertainties. forecast was to be shit – we had a garage
Our Saturday riders have had more raid. Using facebook as our medium to
lu fittin in tri s to oro andel oti i let our members know of the change of
and Kawerau, Taupo, Mangakino, and plans, we met at the Bottle in Paeroa and
Murupara among other locations. Indian the members were invited to come in a
Scout fan JT Salisbury has even bor- Tin Top if they wanted to stay dry. Only
rowed a s are ad enture bi e. oth one had sense, turning up in his new
the Thursday and Saturday runs have had to offer a paid registration charity ride. If to show o . ur first sto was ust
up to a dozen bikes departing Tauranga in it ha ens we ll ha e to o uni ate it around the orner at ay s who are well
recent weeks. by a eboo and bul te t essa es. e known for importing Ford V8 parts. Their
our o us et or a ide ore er il er ha e our fin ers rossed or a re eat o showroom in Paeroa has a lot more than
course on a Friday. Theory and useful last year s sold out aihi ea h rally in that, even with a couple of motorcycles. I
practical work - urban techniques, slow May. really believe they do have something to
riding drills, roundabouts and emergency here s a new er handise o tion interest for everyone. If visiting from out of
stops - and personalised feedback ses- for branch embroidered shirts through town well worth a visit.
sions for each of us after we took turns ussell and aleta ni ht. ur than s to e ond sto was od a entle an
leading the ride. them for organising those. and I am not mentioning his full name on
e e had bu etloads o unday rain e re loo in orward to a su er purpose who owns a fantastic collection
so not as many Sunday rides. A couple of which features riding with mates new and of bikes of all types, many under restora-
brothers came along for one of the Sun- old around our wonderful surrounding tion and a ew ust lea in and waitin
day coffee / rides and turned out to be old ountryside. e ll see what the irus and to be ridden. All of us who went there
associates of Colin Kepple, having traded the government do. were in awe of his collection.
otor y les in the ast. t s ood to see Matthew Farrell #9919 Third and last stop was to see a collec-
Denis Linde back out riding after some Tauranga Coordinator tion that I had heard of but never seen.
bi e aintenan e. ee hite is ho in to Mark, again and I am not giving away
hold a workshop day at his place. WAIHI / THAMES VALLEY his ull na e as his olle tion is ust too
t s hard to lan anythin at the o- BRANCH valuable to tell the world about. He started
ent. ast year we had a hildren s Since the last report in the Ulyssian, our off taking us into different barns showing
ard toy olle tion at the a a oa la a Branch is one of the lucky ones as we some very rare scooters, three-wheelers
Santa Parade, and we raised money for spent very little time in lockdown, espe- and even some tin tops in different stages
St John and the TECT rescue helicopter cially considering at the early part of this of restoration. Some he wants to keep
with un bad e sales. his year Covid outbreak, Coromandel was one of in their original state. After an hour of
we an t ris the outlay on bad es in the the towns in the headlines daily. Yes, we dreaming, he took us to see his new
urrent o id un ertainty. e i ht try escaped it and have had a busy quarter barn, which had the bikes and cars under
with a very wide variety of runs for our restoration. I drooled over everything,
members to choose from. Our Thursday even offering to get out my chequebook.
rides seem to be our mainstay attracting (Showing my age now as they are a thing
the most members, with several still in o the ast . was drea in o ourse.
the wor or e ta in the day o to oin us e all thou ht that was it only no there
more senior retired ones. was more. Yes, the most important col-
an t write about e ery ride or e ery lection was attached to the house, which
la e we ha e been to as our uns o- held his ride and oy and ould see
ordinator an t re e ber the all. hat why. He specialises in rare scooters and
will say is instead o ust oin or a ride had some I had seen before and I thought
each week, we have tried some different I had been around some great collections

Ulyssian DECEMBER 2021 | 27