Long Live The King! - BOP Excursions

Kingfish that is, read on...

Hot, Hot, Hot! It's been a great family holiday away with some big boys toys thrown in for good measurse. Fishing, Mountian Biking, Road Cycling, BBQ's, Hot Beaches, Games with the Family and tearing it up in the Old Man's Ford Falcom XR6.
Ate too much before Christmas had even started, BMI equation = Xmas Ham, Pav, Beer ADD TO CART. Any chance of a decent place at Nats REMOVE FROM CART, I'll deal with that in the new year ;)

Fishing:
5 of us taking 2 boats out from Tauranga Harbour Mouth. It was a 5:30am start packing the cars and boats ready with large Chilly Bin for ALL the fish we were to catch. That was half right! Boat No.1 (Which I was in had little success) my uncle blamed this on me having sunscreen on my hands when baiting the hooks... fishermans myths I tell ya! but there must have been some truth in what he said, as those without sunscreen hands came home with a couple of decent Kingfish, Kahwai, Gurnerd and a Baracuda (Roars of laughter when my stupid brother brought the Cuda into the boat, razor sharp teeth snapping at everyones feet)















Not sure Tyler was that impressed with the Kingy

Mountain Biking:
Oropi MTB Park -
GREAT single track with a decent pump track at the bottom of "The Pines". A good variety of Grade 2-5 level tracks with burms and jumps everywhere. I'd give it a 3 1/2 star rating, problem being is if you're a cross country rider you would get bored quick as the ridable area is smallish, I rode around most tracks in about 1hr 30mins. Otherwise fun burms and great jumps.

Tect All Terrain Park -
Tauranga are planning to open up a new All Terrain park on 1638 Hectares of land comprising largely of Forresty & Native Bush. Activities available will be mountain biking, rallying, motocross, firearm sports, 4x4, equestrian, tramping and orienteering. This is still in the planning stages at the moment with HUGE potential for some wicked single tracks in the future. If your passing from Rotovegas to Tauranga (Via Pyes pa Rd) its worth a stop in and chat to Jarron the park ranger who might even point you in the right direct of some trails. Freindly bastard gave me directions and a walkie talkie if I got lost, I was called "Mobile Tony" ok that was a little boring but was fun playing bushman for the day.
http://www.westernbay.govt.nz/Major-Projects/TECT-All-Terrain-Park


The Turner Flux Christmas/Birthday present was awesome!!!! rode like a dream. Pics below but am sure you'll all see it in the flesh next race (Enduro rd2 & 3, Nationals & Karapoti) Unless wife drops the sprog on race day then I might have to miss one ;D



























F&*king HOT bike!
Also went for a bit of a skid around the Nduro course in Vegas to prepare for the Round 2 on-slaght. A couple of hours of single track included Direct rd, Sidewinder, Lentil Link, Hill rd, Frontal Labotomy, Billy T, G Rock, Roller Coaster, Old Chevy, Blah Blah back to the carpark (Thanks for the directions Cabin ;)

Road Cycling:
Reid Rd, did a couple of road rides while I was up that way as Joel my coach suggested I do Reid Rd. A bit of ahill climb in the BOP, good fun except I got the start finish places posts wrong and ended up with a little extra climbing, oh well shit happens.

BBQ's, Hot Beaches:
The Mt turned on another stunning day so Jacinda (My wife), Tyler (My daughter) and I cruised down to a friends house on the beach front for a morning of relaxing, building sand castles and playing in the waves.

Lollipops Play Ground:
Loads of fun for Tyler & I here. Had a good 2 hours playing games with Tyler on the bouncy castle, ball pit, merry go round, play kitchen and much more... tired me out while Lil T was amping by the end (The energy of youth I tell you!) need to direct her energy onto a bike soon :D



















Right then so back to Wellies where there will be some hard training, DIY (Building a wardrobe in Tyler's room) and eating a whole lots less...:)

Take care all, and may 2010 serve up wicked trails, great friends and Naked Orange Picking Dutch Babes.

Tiger

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Long Live The Queen! - Marlborough MTB Excursions

Yo!

Hope you are all having a nice Christmas break and getting in the odd ride. I am spending the Christmas break in Blenheim staying with my father outlaw, Geoff Palatchie. Geoff and his brothers used to be gun trackies in the 70's and had NZ Titles. He has vintage Francesco Coppi bikes in the rafters of his garage. Pity they are too small for me.

I have only been out on the bike three times, which is still a lot for a part-timer like me. I did a couple of rides in the local Wither Hills, and did the Queen Charlotte Track from Anikiwa to Punga Cove (in peak season you cannot ride to Ship Cove). Here are my brief ramblings...


I really enjoyed the QC Track. There were plenty of steep hard climbs and I had to get off a few times which I wasn't expecting. There were some good long downhills too - but you do have to watch for walkers. Highly recommended. Check out this website, which is the official track website, if you fancy planning a trip.

Check out my amateurish presentation of my day. You can right click 'watch in youtube' or click our youtube link on the top link bar as well.



I Googled for what to do for a spin whilst in Blenheim and found the website of the Marlborough MTB Club. It is not often updated, but did have a page with some route info. I also picked up a trail map at a local bike shop, a friendly Avanti Plus, who also lent me some headset spanners for my vintage steed.

There is a mountain bike park here. Unfortunately it was a bit disappointing. I think the driver behind the park was to create somewhere riders would have right of way. It must be difficult around here as there would be a small pool of willing trail pixies. There is no bush or tree cover, so there is no moisture (hence 'Wither' hills!). The trails are baked hard, featureless paths. I thought I would do the trails marked as 'Extreme', including one called 'Twister'. It was far less interesting and challenging than some easy tracks at trail parks like Makara. I was lucky enough to get something in my eye, so did the descent with one eye closed, upping the interest.





There is a route called the 'Mount Vernon Traverse' which looked like a good outing with rolling climbs over mostly gravel 4WD and farm tracks. A clockwise loop of the Withers, topping out at 422m on Mount Vernon.





It was a good outing for getting great views across Blenhiem, the vineyards, and across to the Kaikoura Range to the South East, and the Richmond Forest Park to the West. The views kept the interest up, but there is no technical riding of any kind on this 19km loop. But I would do it if stuck in Blenheim for a bit. The GPS of it is here.

I only brought my vintage 1990 Nishiki Ariel down with me. It has been excellent. An awesome cruising bike. I should do a write up on it soon.

Off to a vineyard for lunch.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Happy trails!

Davo

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Merry Bushlove Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

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Naked Dutch Orange Picking - Rotovegas Lulz Trip

The Vegas weekend had been eagerly anticipated. It turned out to be one of the best weekends for a long time. It was a good break from the Wellington climate. Even when it was raining it was warm. The traction on the flowy, well made trails was inspiring and even rank amateurs like us felt like XC (with some internet All Mountain) legends as we hooned around some of the best trails we had ridden.

Go get a cuppa.... Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin...




The cast:

Sharpie, Angry, Tiger, BGA, Rammer, Conners, Davo, Hayden, Goldie, Fastest Man (+ smokescreen, Mariska), Cabin, T-Rex and Hardman.

Old school comm's to save cell phone bills.

Space constraints meant Mono had to be aggressively packed.

Tiger's phone comes with a lame little pen.

We romped up on the Friday morning, via Macca's in Mana and Liquorice Cafe in Turangi (two lunches for worm-ridden Rammer) to arrive in Vegas ready to ride in the avo. Only Fastest Man, Mono and Al went riding. The remaining Spartan's bravado wore off immediately and after some wheelies and bike tests, we ate, drank and lulzed it up in the pools with some awesome macho challenges like one-legged long jump comps (win for Davo) and underwater swimming (well done Rammer).

Moar than one lunch is plain greedy

With Whacko still chasing young girls in Canada we needed a young courier who we could be sure would crash in front of us to provide the entertainment. Hayden didn't disappoint and pulled a stoppie to faceplant in front of the cabins during dinner. After dinner and removing gravel from Hayden, we hit the hotties and burned holes into naked dutch orange picker girls and their mums for a while, before hitting the hay.

Saturday dawned with a modest amount of drizzle and a lot of noise coming from cabin #5, as Hayden, BGA and Tigerbroner fixed each other's Morning Glory's. We met Cabin, Tim and Goldie at the Waipa carpark and hit the trails.

The trails were fantastic. Some of he guys are old hands in Vegas, but some had done very little, and it became abundantly clear why people make such regular pilgrimages up there. The trails were all well formed, had excellent features and flowed like a harpoon daily and nightly. We headed up to the top about three times, with the group mostly divided into the Guns and the Sweaty Pelaton.

Tigs rails the berm puling a mean little weasel face

"Tigs 1 to Tower, permission to do a fly by" - "Permission denied, Tigs 1".

Tigs does it anyway. Like Maverick FTW.

We did these trails:

Tahi, Creek, Piglet/Pig, up Katore Road to Gunna Gotta, then A-Trail, Tickler, up Direct Road (loose 4wd climb) then into Frontal Lobotomy, before more 4wd, to Tuhoto Ariki/Hatupatu (great trails, a rooty muddy contrast to the other trails), then back up to hit Billy T, then G-Rock and Roller Coaster. Up the hill once more to do Huckleberry Hound and Corners. Then we did Dragon's Tail before heading out.

We did lots of bike swaps which was cool. People took rides on Davo's rigid singlespeed and realised how hard he was. Davo rode people's fullys and realised just how easy it was. Everyone enjoyed sledding down the hills on the Stumpy (review coming).

Mr Ed rides Davo's SS - Davo insists it is 'Candy Copper' and not Ginger.

It started raining quite a bit and the trails changed, which was cool. Despite the mud the traction was still very good, unlike in Wellington. You don't have to allow for slick clay etc in Vegas, you just pin it like it was dry. Unfortunately Davo's wrists and rest of body were a bit rooted and he needed to get back to the hotties. Despite having moar left in the tank, the gathered strong men decided to pull the pin too and we cruised back for more pool lulz and after some contraband pool beers and a chat with zee Germans (regretfully the orange pickers were not there), we headed to Zippy's for tea.

The gay scene in Vegas was excellent.

On the way out we saw Fastest Man prepping his horse for the following morning's Mid N.Island Cup in Eskdale. Fastest Man would have won the race if it were not for a navigation fail within a snif of the finish line. So whilst mildly tragic, it was an awesome ride for someone who id 50kms the previous day and went out with us, geting only a few measly hours sleep. We watched him for cleaning tips. See how FM rep's his sponsors by wearing their hat for a photo op'.




We decided to walk. We each saved about $1 each and it took an hour and was very hot. And we got shot at my this Ned Kelly junior. Classic group decision fail.



After a Zippy's feast we headed to Lava Bar. After a leisurely couple of hours and a few jugs, the numbers of young blond tourists swelled considerably. The rugged old BLR womanisers spent some time coaching NoMiddleRing Richards, preparing him for a stab at a couple of the young Swedes. Sadly he was trumped by a local old man who came along and started showing them his naked fireman calendar. Unorthadox, but he was getting the digits, so full respect to the wrinkly guy.

Davo beat everyone at pool while the assembled cooing crowds watched our stick weilding and ball banging to the evergreen musical delights of N-sync, Back Street Boys and other mildly hetro 90's bands.



We finished the evening with a trip to our friend Alexandra's place. Alexandra had three good friends there who were a little more forward than we anticipated. We were a little out of place as we did't realise it was fancy dress. The girls there seemed to have no end of outfits and kept coming out dressed as nurses, cow girls, devils and such like. We were not accustomed to all this and after being given the good news as their inexpensive outfits fell off, we pleaded and paid them to put them back on. We made a very very hasty exit... after about 4 hours.

Sunday dawned and we headed out for a proper sifty ride and Conners worked his camera magic and later prepared our latest submission to the New World Disorder 13 video auditions. Cracking job Ben! We absolutely love your work. See how we make XC cool...



The Sunday sift was one of the highlights of the weekend and Mono served up a fine few trails to finish the weekend's biking. We stopped and jawboned a lot and took a few runs at some bits to capture some on the camera. The final descent of Rockdrop and Rose garden to the finish was superb. Tones and Davo even managed to man up for some slightly 'beyond XC' riding, including a log ride which was internet 3 meters high, and a huck which was internet 5 meters high.

Dave hucks off the 5 internet meter drop.

We did these trails on Sunday morning:

Rockdrop climb, then Grinder, Dipper, then Exit Trail, then the rest of Rockdrop, then Rosebank.

Angry's elbows are messed up. What a circus freak.

We got back, struck camp and hit the pools for more epic lulz in our bibs. The pool running race was a highlight. Not least of all because it captured BGA and Mono's awe-inspiring Big-O faces.






Rammer & Dave's mate, Stu Hardman joined us for the avo, and after moar Zippy's grub and coffee we headed to the Main Event - The Luge Grand Prix.

This was the most eagerly anticipated event of the weekend. Fiercely competitive men on small tea trays, hurtling down the hill.

A high speed finishing shunt puts Tigs in the water.

The gay scene at Skylines was at least as good at at the holiday park.

We did 5 rides. Mostly on the longer intermediete run. There were extreme shenangans and dangerous tactics as riders were nudged out and put sideways at full speed. Early rounds fell to Clive, Davo and Sharpie, but after a while being at the front held no win so anyone leading put the brakes on to get back into the thick of the action! The Luge was the most fun any of us had had in a very long time. Highly recommended for sure.

Then we returned home (via a traditional kebab in Bulls- v.good) to our beautiful smokescreens and/or adult website subscriptions.

An all time great weekend. Check out the photo album here.

Till next time. Happy trails and safe exploring over the Xmas holidays everyone.

Leonidas (BLR Press Sec).

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Makara World Cup

Football has Wembley Stadium, Rugby has Twickenham stadium, Cricket has the MCG, but mountain biking has Makara Peak. It is at this hallowed turf that mountain bikers go into battle at the annual Makara Peak World Cup, Bushlove mounted a strong team to take on one and all.

First Round – Creek to Peak relay

Bushlove got off to a flying start with Angry bursting down the wing to be first into the single track. He proceeded to block the competition for as long as possible, before settling into a support role. BGA picked up the ball for Bushlove but was chasing the star player of Roadwork's T-Rex and Revolution’s Jonty. The game was close as half time rolled round. BGA and Slacky stayed on field for the second half, but Angry was substituted out for Tiger.

With fresh legs Tiger sprinted up the field, but his laces (aka drivetrain) came undone allowing Slacky to put his set piece in play for the final descent. BGA was coasting along, defending position when just before the half time whistle; Slackboy sprinted down the line as BGA dropped the ball.

Tiger rolled in with his laces still undone, to take the points with Angry for the M1 and M2 team class (what a shame there wasn’t this category at this tournament). Kah took the full back position for Bushlove and made sure there were no early exits from the field this week.

After the first round, it was podiums all round but no win yet for Bushlove. Revolution stole the early glory in the teams event with T-Rex the man of the match in the individual.

Between games, the players and supporters tucked into some yummy chocolates….

...and gingernuts

The grand final – Makara Peak Rally

Davo, who had been dropped for this tournament, revved the team up for the grand final. It was up to Mono and Mr Ed to lift the game and bring home the silverware.

Mono and Mr Ed got off to a good start; they were working well as a team. Even when Mr Ed almost got carried away down the Leaping Lizard line Mono made sure there were no rules broken and keep both of them in game.

Coming into the final crucial part of the game, they could see Alex Revell charging down the line towards them. Mr Ed and Mono stayed together and entered the final descent to the line together. They had a gap on Alex, but who would touchdown across the line? It was going to be close. Just before the line, Mr Ed dropped the ball just like BGA had done earlier in the tournament. Mono saw his chance for glory and charged across the line taking all the high fives and glory of the match winning move. It was glory for Bushlove, but Mono was the man of the match with his last minute heroics over Mr Ed.

The play of the day award goes to...

Rose and Jackson on the Tandem. If you thought Trickle Falls and Vertigo were hard, try riding it on a tandem!

It was a tough tournament, but Makara was the winner on the day. The Bushlove team would like to thank all the touch judges and umpires (aka volunteers), the awesome groundskeepers (aka track work parties) and of course those who made this tournament happen.

And of course: full credit to the opposition.

Bushlove words of wisdom: Why join a boring gym when you can get a workout with good sorts and make some more mint singletrack! Earn some track karma, join a work party!

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Huka MTB Weekend - Some Other Titbits

We've heard in detail how our fine Spartan warriors, Sharpie and Slackshanks, got along last weekend at the Huka. But what of the other brave Bushies who went up for a romp around? Here are some quick factoids.

Tigerbroner: Rode well and ended up in a sprint with Jordini "Houdini" Blake. Tigs got put away by a foot for 10th and $100, but results now show Tigs and Jordan both out of the Top 10 :o( Good close racing between these two though. 4hr 07.43


Bennett: 27th in the Elite road race. He is a Good Roadie.



Ashley: Tough day in the office for Wonderwoman who enjoyed her ride and will no doubt be back to both break 6hrs and maybe find the dignity she lost when mooning everyone, or better still convince MJ to join her while the Boys, Smokescreens and Flamehaired Ladylovers gaze on. 6hr 01.56.

Al Crossdresser: Steamed into some trees and wotnot early on in the cut and thrust on the first few singletrack corners. Boxed him in a bit with some scrapes and an injured shoulder. Although it destroyed his flow, BGA sorted himself out and got back into the swing of things to finish, feeling pretty buggered, in a highly respectable 4hr 45.12.

Davo (Me): Racing in the 2 man singlespeed class, I got Silver and DFL behind local strongman, Carwyn May. Rode pretty well for a while but lost a bottle, dehydrated, got a headache. Rode a bit sluggishly to the 50km feed and downed a ton of water. Got my groove back on and dropped the hammer as best I could. My last 33kms was good. I rode pretty well but had to stop a couple of times to air up a slow flat rear tire. Better next time I hope. 4hr 20.17

Lots of other Wellington riders had good mornings in the saddle too. Stu Houltham won by a nose. Big Gav was in the mix. Cam Wood rode strongly as did Godfather Renall and The Painting Man, who put his gears to good use, pipping me by a minute or so. T-Rex didn't have the day he hoped and couldn't mix it at the front, but still scored a 4hr ride. MJ rode strongly and just pipped Lisa on time, with both lovely Wellington ladies finishing in a smidge over 5hrs.

A key event that needs moar attention was the Gaydar Contest, where Straight Trudi and Catherine ranked the assembled men on who was most likely to set off a Gaydar and get hit on in a gaybar. Results:



In other news we had a long night on the Saturday in some Taupo bar with cougars, Nicki, Rhonda and Megan, accompanied by cougar-in-training Amanda Jenkins. However they were massively trumped by the Elite Coug' who was hitting on everyman in the bar and pulled yours truly up to dance. I laid some drunken half forgotten salsa moves on her and she was suitably impressed. She said in a strong and unsexy accent "I am from Kazakhstan", "You know Borat?". I said yes but really made in into her good books when I asked her if she knew
Djamolidine Abdoujaparov. Although I failed on the country she knew him anyway.

I'm sure lots of other funny noteworthy things happened up there but I can't remember much else for some reason.

Next road trip - Vegas, baby, Vegas!
Davo

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Fresh Meaty Shanks - Crosslings Join The Stupidity

After copious amounts of begging via phone, letter, email and telegram, from Mrs Crossling to HQ here in Sparta; a meeting was called in Bushlove HQ to debate the potential debutants.



The gathered warriors surmised that the men of Crossling did fit the bill - and the motion was passed. Much to the relief of their female relatives, who had come in from Masterton to pleasure us with stuffed vine leaves, wine and RJ's licqorice chocolate logs (sponsor us please), to help sweeten the deal.

Ed and Al bolster the Team's already diverse make up of Manscaping Metrosexuals's, Macho men, Ginger's, Kids, Asians's and Strippers; by adding a "Fastest Man" and a Strawberry Blonde.







Its great to have you on board men. Welcome to the stupidity and devoid of charm or meaning, Bushlove Racing Team.

Leonidas - Club Sec.

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