Report from camp

After the early start from Grammar the boys traveled in one large peleton, strung out behind Peter Gibson's wagon, complete with music blaring from the roof mounted speakers - no doubt causing some consternation for the local residents woken at 6.30 in the morning to rousing tunes from the 80s & 90s at high volume.

After pausing at Blockhouse Bay for the back markers the group then split up as intended - with the faster older riders able to go on at speed to Cornwallis for the first ferry crossing over to Big Bay. As with last year the weather was fine & the seas calm, so we had an uneventful but very enjoyable crossing. The three different peletons had different courses to get to our intended lunch venue at the Lighthouse at Manukau Heads - but such was the speed of the first group over the relatively short distance that we got there long before the expected arrival time. There was even the suggestion the first group (which had the longest planned course) had gone the wrong way & had taken a short cut they were so early. However a check of the maps showed that was not the case - it was just a quick ride for the seniors.

There was plenty of time to check out the Lighthouse take in the views across the Manukau Bar & to learn something of the history about the wreck of the Orpheus "New Zealand's worst maritime disaster". There was an ample lunch (thanks to all the production line work from Sue Porter, Joy Williams & Jo Hunt) then a much more leisurely ride, with everyone in one large peleton, to head back to the camp ground at Big Bay.

It wasn't without incident, with one rider having a fairly spectacular spill (fortunately at relatively slow speed) into a bank going down a steep hill. No serious injuries, but the bike had to be retired to the following car, along with the slightly dazed rider. This was later resolved back at the camp ground, thanks to The combined mechanical efforts of Joe Sparks & Russell Scott.

The boys had plenty of spare time at the campground & lots of energy to burn - having some fun racing a couple of mini BMX bikes down a steep hill (again with some spills, but no injuries of note), playing soccer (of sorts) & an improvised / bizarre game on bikes involving drink bottles, with supposedly some rules explained by Aaron (which seemed to be made up as the game continued). Some fairly vigorous rounds of bull rush followed - with even Peter Gibson involved at the end. This hopefully used up any remnants of surplus energy - leaving the boys ready for dinner - including the repeat appearance of the Gibson Gourmet Desert, as featured at last year's camp.

We're now hoping for more fine weather tomorrow, for the second day of the camp.
Regards

Richard

Sent from my Blackberry (ph. +64 21 223 4741)
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