Waitangi Day Celebrations

Last year we heard rumours that there was a ride-on mower race on Waitangi Day among the residents of our road, and indeed, we saw ourselves the remnants of the festivities and the very merry participants as we returned home that day. Having since acquired a ride-on mower - Denise, as the most practised member of the household, decided by hook or by crook that she was going to be lining up at the start this year. We found out indeed, the race was on, and we started with a 'Meet and Greet' at Mick and Sylvia's place. Now, we don't have many residents on our road, and not all of our residents have ride-on mowers, so it was great to see a generous percentage of neighbourly support crews turn up.

Rules and a route were hastily agreed upon, and our four participants lined up at the start of Waitangi Road.

Brian looking to see what the hold-up at the Start line is. It is Denise, resplendent in appropriate attire, having a quick tipple from her flask. There was a further hold-up when she felt the need to touch up her lipstick and then found her handbag was unclasped. For some reason, she thought there was a TV news crew arriving, even although we assured her they were all otherwise engaged with other more important, historical events.

First call was a short sprint up the road with a couple of driveway turns, a reverse park, refreshments, and a house and garden tour. Then away again on the next leg, the endurance stretch where it was all about how many horsepower your mower has.

Brian was an easy winner of the Endurance Stretch - by a mile and several minutes. JUST LOOK AT THAT SPOILER! And - LOOK UNDER THAT MOWER! Do you see any blades? The rest of the competitors became somewhat suspicious (when they eventually arrived at the end of this leg) when Brian came up with every excuse under the sun not to participate in an Activity Challenge of mowing several lawn strips and it didn't take long for an observant spectator to point out that not only was the mower body suspiciously high off the ground owing to HUGE replacement tyres - but there was an awful lot of fresh air and nothing else occupying that gap. On a show of hands, Brian was elimiated from the competition by the remainder of the competitors. And the support crews.

At this stage, a Scrutineer was hastily elected and serious discussion and inspection of competing machinery ensued. It was found that our flash Italian job was in fact, the lowest horsepower, so Denise got a good handicapped start on the final leg. Brian the Cheat was allowed to follow only at a discretionary distance at the rear of the field.

Mick nearly loses it showing his jubilation at coming in first on the final leg. The photographer nearly lost it as well a few seconds later.

This last leg ended up being an unplanned obstacle race. Our region happened to be hosting a National MG Annual Meet, and they were all off on a rally. We ended up with a stream of vintage vehicles weaving in and out of our competitors. The support crew did their bit and put the MG crews on their correct routes. Their directions were a bit haywire.

Denise finishing a very credible fourth on the last leg.

We all ended up back at Mick and Sylvia's for a BBQ. A thoroughly enjoyable, social day. Thanks to Denise, from now on, it is agreed, the annual Mower races will be held in costume and we will be handicapping the lower c.c. machinery. The worry of it all is that Denise is already gathering pamphlets on huge c.c. engined mowers. Thankfully, the reality of our upgrading is remote as it's not exactly on the 'getting on with things' agenda.