A group of us from the department Of Cycling thought we would head out to Waiheke Island to have a go at the Waiheke Mountain Bike Club’s 4 Hour Rangihoua Challenge.
I thought that it would be fun to take the boat, and as luck would have it, Megan D was planning to take her van out, so the plan was to get her to take the bikes and other equipment out and five of us travel by boat. Elliot and I thought that it would be easier to put our bikes in the cabin, rather than rush down to the ferry terminal to meet Megan and then on to launch the boat.
A great weather forecast and favourable tides made this easy.
So yesterday morning came and the crew arrived at the boat, all with smiles, and Billy with his bike. It turned out that the boat (6 metres) can comfortably take five adults and three bikes. We loaded up and headed out to the harbour.
Cruising out in the Hauraki Gulf is one of the great pleasures of Auckland. As we headed out past Brown’s Island, we spotted the car ferry chugging along – a quick text to Megan “On Ya Right” resulted in an interesting reply. Full throttle and gone.
Arrival at Waiheke was easy, we pulled up on to the beach and carried our stuff across knee deep water to land where Megan met us with the van and we set out for the four kilometre ride to the park.
Our intention was never to go too hard, but what can you do? Elliot started first, and came in a
very close second to a solo rider, so I had to do my best to give chase. Peak fuel kept us in energy for the day, helping us all have consistent lap times.
The Scale 29er was up to the job, handling an unforgiving track well, this being my first full noise speed event on it. Rapid cornering is it’s forte, handling the off camber sweepers just fine. The big wheels roll well, particularly on the many short sharp climbs in this course.The Divas (Sadie and Piki) came in third and the JAFAS@Doc team (Paul and Billy) were in the middle of the field somewhat held back with a puncture in the late stages. The positions were held for a few laps, but we managed to take over the lead after about an hour.
This event was big fun, and I recommend it.
The boat trip back was fun, although it had its moments. Jamie had a ski, and although it was cutting it fine for the ferry, he skiied back to the wharf. He leapt on his bike and gapped it out. A phone call came “where is Jamie? The ferry is about to leave!” but we hear that he arrived with thirty seconds to spare.
The telling sign of the day was the huge smiles when we got off the boat. What a fantastic day out.
