This year was again the turn for the Annual IORNZ Rally to be held in the South Island and a couple of guys from Christchurch decided that as there is some excellent riding around Banks Peninsula, the rally would be based in the YMCA camp at Wainui.

Friday was the arrival day and saw most of the nearly 30 bikes and riders arriving at the camp site from early afternoon where accommodation was organised and the start of the weekend’s fun began.  This year we had people from all over the country with members from Dunedin and Haast right up to the far north and all places in-between.  As usual the first day is fairly casual with people catching up with old friends that haven’t been seen since the previous years rally and entertaining each other with tales of the adventures encountered in getting to the destination.  A BBQ tea was provided and more than a couple of beers consumed as the stories started to get longer and the night later.

Saturdays plan was to ride from Wainui in the morning around the bays to the small town of Akaroa where we lined up all the bikes for a few photos and give the locals a chance to see a good variety of Indian’s finest, including a couple of late model chiefs, plenty of 741b’s, a couple of powerplus’s and a single cylinder prince through to a mid ‘30s four.

After the photos we all mounted up and headed out of town and up onto the summit road – part of this road is very steep and saw a number of us down to first gear and a couple even having to help the bikes along with a bit of running from the seat!  Once on the top of the summit road it was a great ride with the weather being superb and the views out to sea and back up Akaroa harbour quite spectacular.  This part of the summit road travels along the top edge of an old volcano that created the harbour and is therefore quite windy and plenty of ups and downs to test the usefulness of Indians brakes – some people decided that their brakes we probably more for looks than having any real purpose!!

When we came down off the summit road it was time for a morning tea stop at the town of Little River where the group split into two, some opting for a gravel road that headed over another hill and down into Diamond Harbour and some deciding to stay on the main sealed road around to the Wheatsheaf Hotel at Teddington situated at the base of the Harbour where the publican put on an excellent BBQ lunch and supplied us with some refreshing ales as well.  The first casualty of the weekend was here when the support vehicle came around a corner and hit another car coming up the hill – no major damage which was just as well as one of the 741’s had decided the hills were enough and was put on the trailer for the rest of the day.

            Once lunch had been finished it was back on the road around the bottom of Lyttelton Harbour to the port town of Lyttelton where we all gassed up and headed off again, this time up onto the Port hills which are located at the back of Christchurch.  The Port Hills are also volcanic from the time that the harbour was formed and offer some great riding, especially for the Indians as there are lots of corners and ups and downs where it is impossible to use all a modern bikes power but you can get the old ones humming sweetly!  Once we had finished with these hills it was back onto the flat main road for awhile and then over the last hill back into the rally site.  An excellent days riding of over 100mi with only a couple of casualties and plenty of challenging variety for all.

Saturday evening started off with a few drinks before dinner which was then followed with the prize giving and AGM before the band started and we moved outside for a few more drinks and plenty of laughs looking back on a great days activity.

            Sunday saw a few people finding it difficult to get out of bed but a good filling cooked breakfast got us all ready to step out as there were more things on the agenda for today.  Once packed up we headed off back over the hill and into Christchurch where most of us carried on to the Bears Sound of Thunder racing that was being held at Ruapuna raceway.  Bears is a class of motorcycle racing involving British, European and American bikes only and there were a couple of Indians out for the glory as well.  Paul Hanes had brought his 741 racer down from the North Island, Paddy Snowdon had his sport scout entered and Bob Leask was racing on his immaculate Power Plus.  The racing was entertaining and during the lunch time break to celebrate 100 years of Indian all the Indians that were there got out on the track for a few demo laps – excellent fun and a group of Indians roaring around the track for a laugh not something that had been seen for a few years.

Overall a very enjoyable weekend with the YMCA camp supplying a great site, good food and nice facilities.  Thanks must go to Ben, Paddy and their helpers for organising the weekend, God for supplying fine sunny weather all weekend and all the Indian riders who made the effort to get along.

The 2003 Rally is set down to be held in Napier over their ‘Art Deco’ weekend and 2004 we will all be together again in Blenheim.
by Rob McIntyre