- AOK Rally
- This event has been held over 3 days in January for the past 4 years, but this report is on the very first one!
- The organiser, John Fridd, had been thinking about this idea for quite a while after reading about the very successful and popular RAGBRAI in the USA. I had replied to his posting on the NZMTB website, and one day he rang me and asked if I would be keen to come out with him and scope some parts of the ride with him.
- Basically the concept was very simple, start in Oamaru and ride your bike to Alexandra over 3 days and one pass, staying under canvas, or in huts, with all meals and gear taken care of for you. Oh, and having a heap of fun in the process.
- Team Buzzy Bee achieved this goal to the max I think!
- Team Buzzy Bee consisted of myself, Fran and Jess ... over the years there has been an influx of applications to join, although it is largely by invitation only. Criteria for joining are very strict and includes: must enjoy red wine, must ride a bike, must have a positive outlook on life and must be prepared to have a fun!
- Day 1
- Start: Oamaru
- Finish: Danseys Pass Motorcamp
- Distance: 59km
- About 200 of us gathered at the Criterion Hotel in the historic precinct of Oamaru. After a group photo, we were off, led by a Penny Farthing to the outskirts of Oamaru. Some of us did a detour and rode through the limestone quarry and then back out on the road and onwards up to Ngapara for lunch. Our team came prepared with bubbly and something to sit on.
- From the lunch stop there were a couple of slight hills on the way to the evenings campsite. A lot of folks raced way ahead of everyone else, but our team just took it easy, stopping to talk to other people, riding and chatting to others and stopping to help anyone in need. It was very warm and I think a lot of folks weren't taking on enough water and suffered badly.
- After setting up our tents, we went down to the river for a swim. The water was lovely, and we just floated for about an hour in the pool still dressed in our riding gear! One of life's magic moments, and very refreshing to boot!
- Managed to get the bike complete with trailer up to just over 80kmh down one of the hills!
- After a rather nice dinner cooked by the local young farmers club, washed down with some free beers from one of the sponsors Emmersons Brewery, we were jolted awake with the sound of bagpipes coming down the road. Somehow, a lot of people gathered around our tent and we passed the early hours of the evening chatting to many people and enjoyed a few beers and wines.
- Day 2
- Start: Danseys Pass Motorcamp
- Finish: Naseby
- Distance: 60km
- I was laying in my sleeping bag, woken up by the lightning flashes, listening to the sound of thunder getting closer, followed by the sound rain against the tent and thinking horrible thoughts about the day ahead. But the rain basically stopped and I got to see the last few drops as I opened up my tent. It definitely got brighter and warmer as the day went on. After breakfast and packing up our gear, we headed away.
- The ride was quite nice, although the terrain was quite hilly, including the long grind to the top of the Dansey's Pass. After the previous days heat, John had organised some water to be available for the riders enroute, as well as porta-loos at the top of the Danseys Pass to take care of the excess water anyone took on board.
- I waited at the top of the Danseys Pass for the rest of our team, even managing to repair a chain for another rider. On the way down, there is a very sharp left hand corner, and another rider had flown over the edge. I leapt over the edge of the bank and ran down the hill to assist. Fran saw my bike where I had dropped it on the side of the road and thought I had gone over the edge. After picking up my bike and trailer Fran came down to help as well. We spent about 2 or so hours on the side of the hill waiting for the ambulance to turn up and eventually the injured rider was carried up the hill in a stretcher and helicoptered out to Dunedin Hospital. What really annoyed me was one guy who was adamant that we had to roll the rider onto her back!
- Fran forbade me to speed down the remainder of the downhill bits ... and on the downhill ride to the Danseys Pass Pub lunch stop I had a blowout in the rear wheel, but a quick tube replacement fixed that and we were on our way in no time. We arrived at the lunch stop a long time after everyone else had left, but lunch was still there for us! It was quite a sober ride in the afternoon heat over the rolling hills to the nights camp at Naseby, and Jess was starting to feel the effects of the long day and the heat. We were the last ones into camp [again!].
- Opened up the box on my trailer to hand back the jackets that I had carried for some other riders and found that someone had added a 3 litre water bladder [full!], a rather meaty looking and quite heavy bike D-lock, along with the spares I had been carrying ... no wonder it was hard work biking up to the top of the Danseys Pass!!!
- Fran's chilly bin had been placed in the trailer chiller, which was quite a good thing, as Jess's bag with 3 bottles of white wine were strapped to the top, and they were chilled to perfection. After quickly pitching our tents in the first spot we could see, we opened the wine and sat in the warm sun and relaxed.
- The meal was another awesome event, complete with apple crumble and ice-cream! We somehow managed to run out of wine by early evening, so I biked down to the pub at Naseby and got some more supplies. Personally I put it down to the hordes of other riders that seemed to hang around our tent site every evening! Things kind of got a bit blurry after 11pm, but I do recall someone shouting at us about 1am, sleeping with the tent door open to take advantage of the cooling breeze and someone looking into my tent early in the morning too.
- Day 3
- Start: Naseby
- Finish: Alexandra
- Distance: 88km
- After the few red wines and such the previous evening, it was quite a struggle to get out of bed ... I'll put it down to the heat and stress of the previous day! The wind was starting to pick up as we were having breakfast and this turned out to be quite a strong headwind and a long grind right across the Manitoto Plain all the way from Naseby to the Ida Valley turnoff. Folks I was riding with were getting buffeted by this strong wind and it didn't help that they couldn't draft behind me because of my trailer. The change of direction as we headed up the Ida Valley had the wind pushing us from behind all the way to the lunch stop in a paddock on Auripo Road. Fran and I managed to pick up the pace and we were pedalling along quite nicely at a wind assisted 30-35kmh.
- From the lunch break, I grabbed a large tape recorder/boom box from John Fridd, stashed this into my trailer and headed away before most of the riders had finished lunch. I biked along the Rail Trail and stopped after going through the first tunnel ... I took out the tape recorder and set it up so it boomed back down the tunnel ... John had recorded some train sounds [steam train taking off complete with 'chuff chuff' sounds, steam whistle and the 'clack clack' of the wheels on rails] ... I walked down to the start of the tunnel and sat in the dark for an hour or so watching the riders reactions. Some were horrified and jumped off their bikes and hugged the walls, some wouldn't go through on their own, but everyone laughed. The acoustics through the tunnel were excellent, and it sounded so real!
- Not long after I packed up the tape recorder, I managed to catch up with my team mates and we quietly biked our way down the Rail Trail to Alexandra, stopping off at the Chatto Creek Pub for a coffee.
- Once again we were one of the last people into the camping ground at Alexandra, but we had been enjoying the scenery and were really in no hurry ... it wasn't a race even though some folks treated it that way.
- We stayed on for the 'after match bunfight', well the post bbq and debrief and then packed up the bikes into Fran's 4wd and headed away arriving back home about 1am.
- Conclusions
- This was a very enjoyable 3 days of riding through North and Central Otago. While most of my tours I have been self sufficient, organising and carting my own gear ... it was great to have it all laid on and done for you ... all you had to do were wash your dishes, pitch and pack your tent, ride your bike and of course enjoy yourself.
- My advice is to definitely try and get on one of these rides if you can! Word is out and once entries are opened, this event fills up within 3 or 4 days.
