Author: Uncoffined

A Kiwi in Kiwi land

Restarting life, Lessons for the kids on motorcycles

It’s been about a month since the mandates ended, and we are headed towards winter, which is why I’m trying to get as many things done with the kids while the weather is still good.

It’s normally raining in April, so it’s a bit of a miracle that the local off road tracks are still dry and mud free.

It was my youngest daughter’s second day on a motorcycle, and she spent the day going round the learners track. She did 35 laps in total, before she called it a day. She was riding very consistently all day and is starting to get confident with changing gears.

My oldest didn’t do so well.. We had brought the Honda XR125 along for her to use, which she did, until coming to grief at the start of the B track (a cross country track 6km long (3.75 miles)).

Some other riders helped her out, and got her going again and she rode the rest of the track without a working front brake.

She got a few bruises from the accident (mostly to her pride), which put her out of action for the rest of the day.

The bike itself was OK once I straightened the front forks and unbent everything that was bent… It was still missing a working front brake though, but this isn’t a big problem when riding off road.

Our Honda XR, the other bike is one we hired for our youngest to ride for the day

It turns out I’m 3 minutes slower around the B track on the Honda compared to our Suzuki. This makes sense because the Honda XR125L is a farm bike, and the Suzuki DR350 is a 22 yr old 350cc Enduro weapon. Interestingly, both bikes weigh almost exactly the same. (129kg vs 130kg)

In the end it was a good day and we accomplished quite a lot, tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and the easter bunny (my wife will be leaving easter eggs all over the house tonight..

A Fun day out motorcycling with the kids


It’s been a long 18 months since we have been able to get to this off road track, so we were back with a vengeance in the weekend.

It was my youngest daughter’s first time here, so we organised a hire bike and some lessons from a tutor on site.

roadcones can be awkward…

She then spent the day on the learners track.
Like her older sibling was, she’s reluctant to use the throttle and initially took over 6 minutes to do one lap around the 1.5 km (0.9 mile) track. That time steadily decreased to about 3 ½ minutes, as she got more confidence during the day.


Meanwhile, my oldest daughter and I went off to try out the ‘B track’ this is a cross country track which is about 8 km (5 mile) long.

She usually leaves me for dead on this track, especially if it’s been raining. She has a natural talent for riding a bike when it’s sliding all over the place.
However, it’s been a while since we have been here and she’s naturally very cautious, which meant a slow start.
That all changed when I over took her, and then she kept up despite my best efforts to get away.
The lack of decent rain around here was a blessing for me, because my front tyre slides around very easily in mud, while the back wheel stays firm. To get around this, I just slowed right down for the occasional puddle.

I spent a bit of time on the B track, and quickly got close to my best time. I can’t go much quicker though, without changing that front tyre to something more suited to off road riding.

That front tyre is good on the road, but not so good off road. It’s designed for 50% road, 50% off road use.

The back tyre is for 10% road, 90% off road. (It’s one of those compromises you get when the bike is used on the road as well as off road).


All in all, it was a good day, and the kids enjoyed themselves.

Life is returning back to normal

With the mandates mostly gone, the hysteria’s mostly been replaced with confusion, regret, and a realisation that everything’s been crazy for the last two years.

The only holdouts tend to be office workers who work from home, and retired people, who are socially isolated and rely solely on the MSM (main stream media), which gives a rather distorted view of things.

This is illustrated beautifully by the event which happened to friends of ours..

“A group of mostly home-schooled children & parents visited Auckland Museum on the first day the vax mandates were dropped.
They’d been shut out for 8 months (with lockdown).
The kids were so excited.
The first people entered showing their mask exemptions & were told: you need to wait here while we “verify these exemptions”.
They never came back.
What happened next was unbelievable. They locked every single entry and exit from the building. No one could get in or out.
Not one person came out to talk with the group.
Internal communication quickly labelled the gathering as “protestors” but there was no protest, simply a bunch of kids really wanting to see their favourite exhibits.
People tried 📞 to figure out what was going on. No one seemed to know. Simply put, the staff were paralysed over not having a policy for dealing with multiple mask-exempt visitors on their premises.
Disappointed, the group left after a 1.5 hour wait & the doors reopened an hour later.”

This link is from a non MSM source and is very accurate.

Kids denied access to Auckland museum


This link is from the MSM (the title says it all)

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-museum-closes-its-doors-after-anti-mask-protesters-try-to-enter/IEMF6KZHLIAZTVEYLREMMDIYCE/

Local clubs and organisations are now trying to rebuild their depleted membership numbers. It’s likely that those that regretfully turned away the unvaccinated will be forgiven, while those who did it with glee, not so much.

We have since visited an organisation that has shown some contrition over the whole mandate thing, but in general we are keeping to ourselves and supporting the businesses and people, who have supported us throughout the whole mandate thing.