Spring Run to the Waikato
The Spring Run, from Tauranga and vicinities to Matamata and Cambridge was something of an occasion for the Club – the Dents actually joined an outing after many, many months of absence. (I’d better rephrase that – an occasion for the Dents).
There were 3 attractions lined up for the day by Sheryl: Morning Tea at club members’ Ces and Heather Thompsons’ residence in Matamata, Lunch at an out of the way Punnet Café near Cambridge and finally a visit to the ‘Avantidrome’ Cycling Velodrome, also in Cambridge.
For the Taurangan troupe, the day began with the usual clear blue sky and blazing sunshine and thence to a marshalling of the members at the Western BOP Council carpark. A stern blast of her whistle gained Sheryl the full attention of the members; our driving orders were received loud and clear and off we went. The warm, fuzzy feeling on the way lasted as far as the Kaimais summit – from there we were met with a dark and stygian view of the Waikato plains below. Dense cloud blanketed the whole province and the spirits sank somewhat.
If readers have the same memories as I, they will recall that from this point, on a club journey a couple of years ago to The Styx Café in the backblocks of the Waikato, I myself, wife Beryl and Mrs G.P.S Garmin (on the dashboard) all disagreed on the route to follow and the Dents eventually arrived at the Café very late and with me in a high state of dudgeon after following feminine logic instead of the instructions given to us for the trip.
No mistakes this time? Well, yes.Another careful plan went out the window, nearly followed by the (bleep) Garmin. I had diligently updated the thing the night before and switched it on in full confidence as we motored on. Instead of the mellifluous English voice of Mrs Garmin, we heard a guttural, unintelligible stream of advice in a foreign language we had never struck before. A subsequent check later in the Garmin ‘Tools’ menu (I didn’t even know it had one, let alone a choice of language!) showed that the we-know-best people back in the USA had updated it online with the first entry in their alphabetical list of languages – Afrikaans!! They never asked me if that was OK!
End of story. On this trip I carefully positioned us towards the back of the cavalcade so that I could see and trail Jags in front of us and thus we coat-tailed Michael Creak’s E Type the whole way to the Thompsons’ residence.
And what a marvellous setting greeted us when we arrived mid-morning. Jaguars lining up on parade on the extensive lawn, morning tea outdoors on a grand scale: scones with lashings of cream and jam; savouries; sandwiches, cake and of course tea and coffee. Ces and Heather were killing us with kindness. Their beautiful residence had a marvellous semi-rural setting and Heather kindly invited one and all to do a walkthrough of their home – which wowed Beryl for one, after five years of living in our confined city apartment dwelling.
This was clearly going to be one of those great club outings. As we reluctantly set off for the next venue the sun crept out of the grey blanket over the countryside and from there on it was just another Tauranga style sunny day.
The next event was lunch. As if one had any room to put it? Some Jag drivers ahead of us disobeyed Ralph and Sheryl’s directions at Cambridge and took a “shortcut” through town instead of via the town bypass. What did Beryl tell me? “Follow them – we’ll miss the big trucks in front of us”. The town was jammed with locals enjoying a very big market day occasion. Inevitably, we sat in line with the abovementioned deviant Jags at the main highway intersection – watching all our other mates drive past from the abovementioned bypass. The abovementioned Beryl was offside with me again……[Sheryl, these events are becoming injurious to my mental health – and maybe our long marriage].
The relatively new Punnett Café was located in a strawberry growing area (Punnet? Get it?) on the outskirts of Cambridge and required a lot of skill to find it – it was cut off from its original access by the new SH1 Cambridge Bypass and thence along several country roads. Lunch in general was not my cup of tea, I’m sorry to say. The place was overcrowded, over noisy – and overpriced ($9 for a small bottle of light beer -that’s Auckland Viaduct pricing??). Food was OK. At least the company of fellow members was just great. [NOW I know I’m going to be offside with Sheryl].
From there a quick journey to the Avantidrome. The Avantidrome indoor cycling stadium was a real eye-opener. Opened in April 2014 by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (naturally), it seats 1,525, is 77m x 120m in area, equivalent to a 6-story building in height at its centre, consumed 3,500m2 of concrete (= a 30km footpath!) and cost $30million – funded by central and local governments, trusts and commercial sponsors. The centre of the main track complex can house 3,000m2 of other sports events and includes a raft of exercise machinery, bikes and – yes – motorbikes.
It’s an Olympic sized facility and is to host the UCI Track Cycling World Cup this December.
Our guide answered a lot of questions on our tour. In answer to the most obvious question – how come cyclists don’t fall down the 43.5 degree slope of the track? Centrifugal forces my friend – and the fact that each (imported Siberian spruce) board (***) is a fraction of a cm. below the one above – so assisting the cycle wheels to stay on track. Crashes? Yep. Highest speed ever? 75kmph. (*** – laid end to end the boards would total 52km in length.
See what the rest of you members missed that day? Thank you so much Sheryl for another great piece of organisation, sorry about my rant at The Punnett management and more than sorry Ces and Heather refused any payment from the Club for their wonderful generosity that morning.
By Jack Dent