Club Captain’s Report

Winter is just starting to show its claws. Pokeno has had a couple of very heavy frosts where our farm is completely white first thing in the morning. But afterwards we have had beautiful days. Alas the month has also given us some very heavy rains and Papatoetoe experiencing a tornado. If you were affected by this awful event, please reach out if you need any help or assistance. No doubt a good number of you will have visited the Covid 19 stations for your vaccination – Martin and I have our first one’s next week. None of us realised a little over 15 months ago, what an impact on the world this pandemic would have. But, in comparison with most other nations, we have been very fortunate and the envy of so many countries with us being able to attend and enjoy concerts, motoring events, rugby, soccer and so much more. John Stokes’ Veteran section continues to have good attendances and from John’s notes they have some robust discussions, ideas etc. with maintaining their Veteran vehicles. Even if you don’t currently own a Veteran vehicle, you are still most welcome to join their Saturday afternoon group. Murray’s Vintage section continues to grow, even a motorcyclist or two have been attending. This group covers those who own vehicles from 1919 to 1931 –a great era of the motor industry, covering those trusty Model A and Model T’s just to name two vehicles. There is a lot of very useful information that gets exchanged at these meetings and a great place to start if you are seeking a part or repair advise. Again, if you are thinking about buying a vehicle of this era, go along to the meeting. The Motorcycle section had another great meeting, with a guest speaker from the Neurological Foundation who was also a fellow motorcyclist. An extremely interesting speaker where we learned so much about “mental health” and modern technology now being used in NZ for stroke victims. The Mid-Week tourers (open for everyone to enjoy) had another excellent finish venue where eyes popped viewing a wonderful array of different racing cars. The Motorcycle monthly run went to Malcolm Anderson‘s man cave and engineering workshop. He has a wonderful motorcycle related museum on site and also has a good showing of his engineering expertise. Thanks to Malcolm and his partner, Vicky for feeding the hoards with sausage rolls and a sausage sizzle plus the cuppa. June was a quieter month for motoring, although there has been a couple of really good out of town events that some of our members enjoyed. A number of members attended the Irishman Creek Rally in the South Island. Although the area had had tremendous snow a few days prior, the entrants did not have to cope with snow, but a bit of drizzle and of course it was pretty cold. Apparently, they all had a wonderful time. Another event a number of our members attended was the Waikato Double 50. And, we came away as the winning team. Well done to everyone. The Whanganui Branch had their annual rally and our old members Ken and Annette Foot won this event. Ken and Annette moved from Pakuranga to Feilding in May and are now planning to move into the new home they have just purchased, at the end of July. We wish them well in their new home and look forward to meeting up with them on a rally or two in the future.

Club Captain’s Report Contd..

June Club Night was just a noggin ‘n natter, as we had our AGM two days later. There were only 12 people in attendance, but some interesting discussions were being had around the large table downstairs by the fire. Shaaran Price put on a light supper of snack foods and cake. The Club run for Sunday 27th June was cancelled due to the land around the Flax Mill being totally waterlogged. We will go to this venue in the spring. Our new website is about to go live – our web builders have had some issues with the previous webhost, passing over very necessary information in order that we can retain our email addresses for enquiries. Hopefully we will be live in mid-July. Emails from the website will work (which was an ongoing issue with the previous website) and there is a lot more information available on the site and can be viewed using either your cell phone, tablet/iPad or computer, so it is a much friendlier website to use. If there is something you would like to see added, please contact me. Saturday 26th June was the Branch AGM and although I didn’t count numbers, I believe we had about 90 people in attendance. We farewelled Ian Hubbard, our Treasurer, who has done a sterling job for the past 4 years and we also farewelled Alan Price and Robin Elliott. Robin will work “off committee”, still finding and organising wonderful speakers for Club Nights for us . We welcome aboard Alastair Moffatt, as our new Treasurer and Graeme Crawley as a Committee member. All other members retained their positions. My personal thanks go to those retiring Committee members for their invaluable input and service to the Branch over the past number of years. Stay safe, remember to keep signing in wherever you go, including the Club rooms. I look forward to seeing you out and about, attending meetings, club nights and events and please enjoy the photos of the trophy winners which were awarded at the AGM.

Keep those 2,3 and 4 wheels turning safely

Lynda Spicer