 Another
successful car rally was completed on Sunday 2nd September by 10 cars.
The day started out beautifully sunny and stayed fine all day unlike the
day before and the day after when Auckland was deluged with rain.
I’d like to thank all the teams that participated, including my boss and friends, Ron and his wife, Adele. They thought this year they wouldn’t get the divorce papers before the rally but would wait until after! And another married couple, Raewyn and Ash who are, thank goodness, still speaking to each other!! Another married couple, Marion and Barry, came in so late they must have settled their differences before coming to dinner!! Jill and I thought we would like to do a coastal run this time after starting the rally at Greenlane McDonalds, so our route took us all around the waterfront at Mangere, the pooh ponds then across town to the Waitemata Harbour ending up at The Poenamo Cobb & Co. We had a reasonable turnout, although because of lack of response from 35+ Club I had invited members of a car club I belong to, the MR2 Owners club. We were lucky to get four members from there making up our 10 cars. As this was Jill’s first time helping me she took it lot calmer than me. I always panic that no-ones going to turn up or that there will be some big mistakes in my typing, which there were as it’s easy to miss a turning here and there. Mostly the teams used their common sense and managed to get round the route. The first team to afternoon tea at Kings Plant Barn in Remuera were CJ and her husband Graham from the MR2 Club. I had been panicking as they rang us up while we were waiting and said that I had made a mistake by missing a right turn in the clues at a major T junction. The next team in were Raewyn and Ash who had gone the wrong way at that T junction and couldn’t find a certain bridge. Fortunately they used their common sense and turned round. Various teams trickled in but we couldn’t wait any longer to greet them so we missed the possible conversations for the newsletter. Again, at the Poenamo, the first team in were CJ and Graham who said they had a good time. They have been on rallies before and were trying to get two teams together as they like to compete against each other. Maybe next time, guys. But they did really well and ended up as 4th placegetters Well done. After them teams started drifting in so Jill and I had our work cut out trying to decipher the answers and marking the papers. Some of our clues were just silly ones that everyone got a point for regardless of what their answers were, like what colour was the sea today and most people gave the answer of muddy brown. That was quite accurate as it really was a muddy brown!! Another question was how many mandarins were there at a certain house in Paratai Drive. One team from the MR2 Club, David and his son, Isaac, counted them all – 131, plus 11 lying on the ground. Well done for that. By the way, I had a lovely email from David to say that it was a good way to spend Father’s Day and Isaac enjoyed the rally so much. Another question was asked about the man at Number 23 and some of the answers were so funny – everyone was different. When Jill and I compiled the rally he was actually washing his lawnmower down and we had just about had enough for the day when we threw that question in. Then there was Adele and Ron. For some reason other teams had trouble around Mangere but not as much as Adele and Ron. They found a little dog (their cat is bigger than the dog!) that had been run over and it’s paw was hanging and floppy so they knocked at a few doors. Needless to say, they didn’t find an owner so they took the wee thing to the SPCA in Mangere to be looked after. The SPCA still hadn’t found an owner Monday afternoon so they could claim the dog as their own…. Watch this space as they are both pet lovers…… Around the same area we took the rally round past Villa Maria wines and teams had to call in for a business card. That was a wrong thing to do as we had three ladies in one car. I dread to think who was driving but one of the ladies had such a good time at the vineyard!! They got a chocolate fish award for being drunk in charge of a car rally!!! Up until then they had been doing very well. I hope you ladies didn’t get a ticket on the way home. Another chocolate fish award went to Jan for not seeing the locksmiths shop or perhaps that’s part of the past she wants to keep in the back of her memory banks….. Well done, though, Lynn and Jan. as you got quite a lot of correct answers up to the point where you opened. Barry and Marion also got a chocolate fish prize (we had six fish in the packet) for coming in very, very late and their reason for opening the envelope was that they couldn’t see any more!!! I would like to mention another team that couldn’t stay for dinner and they were from the MR2 Club. Their names are Will and Juan and they came in late but had so much fun they said they would like to come on the next rally. Well done you two. It was really good to meet some MR2 members. I’m surprised at none of the ladies spotted the red Ferrari and the spunky driver, but there again there is so much to look out for…….. ….. and none of you found the milk bottle tops we strategically placed by the blue and yellow fire hydrants… oh well. You all did very well and more so for turning up and that is what it is all about. Here are the results:
All in all it was a good day and fun was had by all. I would like to thank Jill for helping in a BIG way to compile the rally. It’s not an easy job and a bit scary when people start coming in or not coming in. I would also like to thank my friend Noel for helping with the counting. Article from Inez |