Visiting bowls teams make way home from Gisborne through wind and rain

Wellington bowlers in action at the Octagonal women's regional lawn bowls tournament in Gisborne. They were among those affected by the weekend wet weather when it came to getting home. Photo / Bowls Gisborne East Coast Inc Facebook page

Wellington’s victorious women’s bowls team yesterday hired two cars and drove home from Gisborne after plans to get a rescheduled flight fell through.

Wind in Wellington caused the cancellation of their Sunday flight. Fortunately, they were able to book an extra night’s stay in their Gisborne motel.

“We got rescheduled to 7.15am, which they cancelled, so we picked up two cars and are driving home, five to a car,” said a team member speaking from somewhere on State Highway 50 yesterday afternoon.

“Some of us are going to the Bowls New Zealand national fours and mixed pairs in the Bay of Plenty, starting on Thursday, and want to get home before heading off again,” she said.

“One has already gone through to Tauranga, by way of Auckland.”

Cancellation of Sunday’s round of games confirmed Wellington had retained the Octagonal title for the third time since a new trophy was introduced to replace the original, which had been lost.

Other teams had stories to tell of their travel from the Octagonal women’s tournament in Gisborne at the weekend.

Taranaki manager Cathy Andrews said they had flown in to Auckland and found they could not get to New Plymouth. They took a flight to Palmerston North, reasoning that it was at least closer to home.

“We managed to get accommodation, but we couldn’t get a hire van,” she said yesterday.

“I’ve got my daughter to hire a van in New Plymouth, so she’s coming to get us in a 10-seater. We had 12 to start with. One went to Tauranga; two managed to get a brother-in-law to come from Whanganui to pick them up.

“We’ll remember our trip to Gisborne ... but they were wonderful hosts.”

Kapiti selector-coach Pat Taylor said conditions were “scary” as far as Wairoa on Sunday, with rain and “horrendous” wind.

“We had 12 people in the van and we were moving around a bit,” she said.

“We just took our time. They were some of the worst driving conditions I’ve seen, and the worst overtaking from behind ... passing on corners and hills, scary.

“It eased off a little after Wairoa and wasn’t too bad through Napier, but it was very windy from Levin, and we’re in a massive storm now (in Paraparaumu). I haven’t even got the van back to the depot ... they’ve said they don’t want it back ‘til tomorrow. I just don’t want to drive it in these conditions.”

Hawke’s Bay manager Jenny Sargison said it was a relief to be able to leave a bit earlier on Sunday, with the weather expected to get worse.

She dropped three players off at Waipawa and the rest at Havelock North and Hastings, and the near-empty van was blown around “a fair bit” as she drove it back to the hire depot in Napier.

Wairarapa manager Gary Muriwai said the team members were lucky to get out before the worst of the weather struck.

“They left in their rental straight after the last game on Saturday and drove straight through,” he said.

“They could see what was going to happen.”

Manawatū selector-coach Patrick Horgan said that, because the seventh round was called off on Sunday morning, they left at 9am in three private cars and got through before the worst of the weather struck.

“If the seventh round had been played, we would have all been in trouble,” he said.

From Gisborne to Wairoa, it was raining and windy, with a little bit of debris on the road and hardly any traffic.