The Fastest Indian

Iain and I made it off the ferry into our van and into Invercargill in time to get a bed in a downtown hostel a few blocks from a much dreamed of Irish pub. We had almost been locked in the parking lot in Bluff when we couldn’t find our voucher, but the woman who was locking up took pity on us and for the price of 9 days parking set us free. We also lucked out at the hostel, the woman at the desk had just locked the door but we must have looked truly pitiful because she opened her door to give us a bed and a discount.

We hobbled the two blocks to the pub and were greeted by live music and a very lively after work crowd. We found a corner table and stared vacantly into space as we waited for a waitress to bring our beer. Iain’s first sip of the rich, dark Guinness transported him to a happier place for a few moments. Then we dug into our lamb dinners and relished every bite of fresh food. I was overcome by exhaustion as deep as my hunger had been and pulled Iain away from the pub after two pints. He was ready to party and all I wanted to do was sleep for days! I crashed and he went out for pizza but eventually sleep caught up with him too.

We were sore the next morning; my legs felt every step of the 23kms I’d walked the previous day. We wanted to hit the road fairly quickly so we were checked out and had the van repacked by 10am. Before we could leave though we had to go back to the local hardware store and see the Fastest Indian.

When Iain had first mentioned that he had seen the fastest Indian I thought he was making a very politically incorrect joke. I soon found out that the Fastest Indian was a motorcycle built by Burt Monro, a New Zealander. I may be the only person in this country who hasn’t seen the movie based on the story of the legendary bike! The original Indian and various other prototypes built by Burt Monro had been bought by the hardware store owner and placed around his store for display. It was an unusual combination of specialty museum and old fashioned D-I-Y hardware store. The owners, E. Hayes and Sons had branched out over the years; they started with the Fastest Indian and other antique motorcycles and incorporated antique chainsaws and lawnmowers. It was a fascinating place to waste time and we spent an hour reading up on the various bikes before we hit the road.