KTM NEW ZEALAND ADVENTURE RALLYE
P82
Feature
choice of several desserts. Rally
participants raised $2000 for the
school through their generous
donations.
Before lunch was too settled,
the Ultimate Race qualifiers
headed out just behind our lunch
spot and poised themselves at
the bottom of a massive grass
hill. This would be the start of the
spectacular special test that be-
gan with a flat-out hill climb to the
top on incredibly slick grass!
I took a sight lap around the
course with Birch and actu-
ally got stuck on a tricky corner
where the pitch turned a steeper
grade! My shredded rear tire with
30 psi of air didn't quite help, but
it was no joke of a hill. What really
got me bothered was the other
side on the way back down! Hav-
ing a 500-plus-pound machine
pushing you down a grass hill
looking straight into the ocean's
depths is a bit intimidating to say
the least. I was praying I could
control my momentum enough
not to lock up the front wheel.
Watching the racers them-
selves give it their all on the
course was mind blowing. They
were absolutely flying and the top
five really put in some impressive
times.
Once all the riders had fin-
ished, the remaining field took off
and were treated to more green
mountains and got to traverse the
2000-acre farm that felt like you
were poaching Avatar!
Day 6 (158 miles)
It was hard to believe we were
waking up to the last day of the
Rallye. We took off on a chill
schedule lacking a bit of motiva-
tion from being woke up by an
absolute flogging rain at 6 a.m.
But all stoke was restored when
I walked out to my bike and
spotted a sharp knobby front tire
mounted! Harry put one on and
said; "There is no way you were
going to ride where we are going
today with that 50/50!"
Man, he couldn't have been
more right. The reason for the
seemingly mandatory tire change
was due to the trail in store called
the "Carolina Reaper." Rated with
five chili peppers this one wasn't
for the faint of heart!
The course brief described the
breakout as "a long climb up to a
ridgeline bush track. Frictionless
clay descents with consequential
ridges if you blow a corner. Be
prepared to bulldog your bike if
necessary."
Wow, they were hyping this up,
but had been on point with their
chili system so far and I was ex-
cited to see the gnar! As soon as
we pulled off for the breakout, we
dropped our tire pressure to 10
