Rimutaka winds bowl rider

INJURED: Featherston fire service, Wellington Free Ambulance and police help a female motorcyclist who flipped off her bike on the Rimutaka Hill Rd yesterday.PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK WTA230214ABBIKECRASH

A Christchurch motorcyclist learnt about wind gusts the hard way after she lost control of her motorcycle coming down Rimutaka Hill Rd yesterday afternoon.

Kay Smith, a Christchurch chef, was riding with her fiance and friends towards Featherston when her Ducati bike drifted into gravel near a road barrier, flipping her into the road shortly after 1pm.

She was not seriously injured but dazed and "nearly unconscious", according to her friends.

The Featherston Fire Brigade, Wellington Free Ambulance and police attended, with traffic held up for about 20 minutes.

She was taken to Wairarapa Hospital.

Ms Smith's fiance, Jeff Brown, also of Christchurch, had been travelling behind her when the crash happened.

"She just came around the corner, it was almost like a gust of wind kept her more upright than she should have been.

"She just didn't make the corner, and once in the gravel, the bike stopped, she flipped off and went into the road." He said they had come up from Christchurch for a wedding in Kapiti on Saturday, and thought they'd experience the Rimutaka Hill Rd yesterday.

The group wanted to thank those who stopped to help. "A paediatrician, a vet, a midwife - we had everybody. It was great the amount of people who stopped."

Marion Pawlson, of Wellington, was the motorist who phoned 111. "It took ages for the person on the other end to figure out where I was calling from."

She agreed there was "really good response" from passersby.