Well its certainly a sad day, my great mate of over 45 years has finally ridden his last ride and passed away today. I first met Wayne (Aucky) in 1965 at the Tawian Coffee Bar (near Wellington) he was there on his bike and we got to chatting, well we never really stopped from there on, we hung out, Tried the TON down the main drag, Tinkered with our bikes, partied, oh how we partied, and rode many miles over the following years until we both slowly moved into married status and started families of our own,

Years later we moved up country but always kept contact and popped in whenever we were down, Wayne ( & Jenny & Trudy & Debbie) had a printing business by then so it was always a stop off point.
A few more years went by and our respective children grew and finally we moved back to the Wellington area and ofcourse straight back into a tight relationship,
By that stage whilst we were still into bikes ofcourse, but Aucky & Jo had progressed into another phase, “Movanning,” Thats building ZMobile homes and touring the country and staying in the most secluded spots.
This ofcourse meant we also wandered into the lifestyle and had many years of travelling NZ and spending weekends away in our movans and enjoying each others company.
Another decade went by and we got transferred to Auckland so we were back to calling in when in the area. Lo and I dropped in on Wayne either in cars or on bikes,and stayed the odd weekend or just dropped in to say gidday,
At this time in our lives we spent quite a bit of time travelling the world but whenever we got back we would make a beeline for Auckys to catch up, and ofcourse Wayne would need a full report on what where and who we had been and done.
Only a short number of weeks ago we dropped by to see him, He was still quite perky as usual, even though he was on the downward spiral health wise, in his usual manner there was no ducking the problem, he knew his life was on a short leash (and he was going to enjoy his last months),
Watching him eat his meals through a straw, and him laughing about the process.
We left him feeling heartbroken, Lo & I rode back to Auckland chatting via the intercom, just how unfair life can be. but amazed by his outlook,
We were just this week planning a trip down on the bike next week to call in and see him.

Rest well my friend. you will remain in our hearts and our thoughts. Our lives were richer for having you as our freind.

To Trudy, Debbie, his grandkids and Jo, our thoughts are with you all,
Johnny & Lo, Richard & Kimberly