Orgainised by Brownie, Sav and helpers - awesome

Trip photos here 

Day one

Trip report by Leo Van Workum 

Hokitika – Moana

We assembled on a fine morning at Hokitika River Mouth.  The overnight rain was enough to settle the dust and give us some mud and puddles to drive through all day.

After the trucks all lined up for photographs we set off in our teams of 3.  I bumped my Hilux into Lurch’s in the car park, so my youngest son Stefan said he was driving and I was relegated to navigator.

We set off leading our brand new members.  Yvonne & Paul Fenemor and Rene, Anita, Robin and Marlou Voss on their first 3 day adventure with the club.

We were moving along well, following the instructions until I navigated us down a rough 4 wheeler track to a dead end.  We realised we could be on the wrong road as the instructions said we should be on tar seal.  We got to do some 4 wheel driving getting there and back out though.  I was moved to the driver’s seat after my navigating blunder and my oldest son Karl took over the navigating.

We stopped a Lake Kaniere for morning tea and a photo or two.  Then up Blue Spur range to great views over Hokitika.  A quick stop to put another teams Hilux gearbox back together and another marshall stop where Rene did a great time on the backing challenge. 

Time for a driver change, with Karl driving and me in the back seat.  We rattled our way down the pylon track to Dire Straits “Telegraph Road” on the stereo.  Then alongside the dam and past Dillmans Power Station, with a quick stop at the Greenstone Cemetery to find the oldest grave. 

The drive around Lake Brunner was scenic, with views of the lake and lovely native bush.  We finally met up with Brownie for our passengers to do some four wheel driving.  Yvonne, Anita and Stefan hurtled around the course showing us a thing or two.  We  then headed to Greymouth for the night  and an ATM to get money to cover the sheriff fines coming my way. 

Thanks to the organising team for a job well done.  We really appreciate the amount of work you put in to make this event possible.

Day 2 - Mona to Hanmer Springs
by Nigel

Setting off from Moana team “Leg” (Nigel, Darren & Lurch) had won the previous day (yes we know we did) and so were set to make it 2 from 2.

Out of Moana, we headed to Nelson Creek with a Marshall (Lex) in tow (no, not on a rope (yet)-  just following behind us).  Lots of dusty gravel was encountered before we started heading up the steep sides of Lake Hill with the occasional view of Lake Hochstetter to our left once we reached the top.

We even had to get the saw out to move a tree which had fallen over the road in a recent storm. Lex graciously (i.e. “towed” with the Jeep) placed it back on the track though after we left, as under the tread lightly policy the team was following we were determined to leave as little trace as possible that we had even been there.

Down past Kopara on the old main road we met Sav and Tracy on the edge of the Ahaura. Tracy still hadn’t gotten over her ping pong ball fetish by this stage and this time we had to retrieve them from the river and pop them back in the bucket. We then worked our way around a pegged course, keeping the vehicles within 3 lengths of each other and trying to travel as close to the pegs as possible. Our team won this challenge too!
Straight across the river which was luckily pretty low and on the way to the caves.
We had lunch in the valley after answering as many of Brownies questions as we could within 5 minutes. They were all 4x4 / safety and NZ geographic questions and it was quite fun to give the old brain a workout.

The track through the caves was pretty dry, the carwash waterfall was merely a trickle. But the camber on some of the bends might have been interesting in a shiney.
After the last cave, Nigel had to tow Darren down the river and around a cone (yes Jeep still working, this was another challenge) and Lurch had to change a tyre just for fun with Siggy watching on.

Then it was back on the highway and we made a quick stop in Reefton.
On the way to Hanmer there were a few questions to answer and a couple of short detours to look out for which kept the copilots mostly awake. Once over the Waiau we headed down to meet Brownie and Cookie and Vanessa had to guide Darren to drive around a course from the PRS while he was blindfolded. Vanessa was in hysterics most of the time so it was quite entertaining and how many of you discovered that when a vehicle is coming towards you that left means right..?

Into Hanmer we rolled (First team home actually…), we had a holiday home for the 7 of us and fish’n’chips were the food of choice. This was washed down by a few beers, most of us were pretty knackered and the night was a relatively quiet one.
Roll on day three….

Day 3 - Hanmer Springs - Seddon
By Lex

Being elected Sheriff for the trip had its advantages. One was having the task of selecting the person to do each daily trip report. Now you may ask why then am I doing it myself. Let me explain.

Day three started off with Brownie giving his daily briefing and then he handed over to me for the Sheriff session. Nigel Barker had been given the task of trip report for day two and a quick Sheriff session at the end of the day would reveal who, through some act of stupidity, would be doing report for day three.

The teams of three headed out of Hanmer through Jollies Pass and up into low cloud & light rain. The roads were dusty with the rain being insufficient to settle it. A few kilometers on our way the Brooks family had an unfortunate mishap that rendered them unable to continue, so with help from the other members of their team they returned to Hanmer.

We continued along the dusty trails of Molesworth Station with me jumping ahead of various teams to capture video footage. At a historic homestead site I took the chance to drive on ahead to capture several teams that had stopped to take photos. I traveled on and found a nice advantage point where I would see them coming from a distance.

I waited with camera in hand and after about ten minutes a truck appeared from the other direction. I asked him how far ahead of me the rest of our group were and when he said he had not seen a single vehicle I knew the days trip report was about to become my pleasure. He had just traveled for two hours from Blenheim. The anguished look on my dearly beloved’s face told me I was in serious trouble with her. God she’s lucky to have me.

A 10-minute return trip revealed not a truck in sight and the greenies will be happy to know that they had not even left a tyre mark near the main track to follow. Brownie had even conveniently taken all arrows marking the trail.

My black tracker skills came into play and after a bit of ear to the ground and sniffing the air I found tracks of thirty plus trucks heading up a riverbed. Out came the trail notes and we headed off in hot pursuit. With reminders from the co-driver that I was to drive extremely cautiously, as we were on our own, we quietly peel off all reference points on the map. At the top of a valley I finally got a weak radio signal and soon, after about an hour and a half since I last saw him, I made contact with Brownie again. From our point high in the valley we could see everyone heading out having just eaten lunch. No lunch break for us today.

At this point Brownie informed all teams that we were to get moving, as further up the trail Siggy had encountered heavy rain, and if it continued, we could have a major problem with slippery tracks. The rain continued and as all the teams closed in on each other, the trip became a mission in which we carefully drove the tracks with the inexperienced drivers receiving advice over the PRS. A prime example of this was when one vehicle got a bit sideways with a very big drop to one side. Leo Van Workum, their team leader, was heard giving cool calm instructions and soon retrieved what was a pretty precarious situation. Scotty was heard giving instruction of how to approach other potential dangers, and even though a little bit later than expected, we all exited in good shape over a fast rising river.

Because of the time taken to get everyone out safely, the trip debriefing was canceled so a few people escaped the final Sheriff session. You are not forgotten and I dare say the club Sheriff will wish to talk to me.

Finally I must say that this was an excellent trip. Everyone I have spoken to had an awesome weekend.
Linda, my co-driver, wishes to thank the team of Nigel, Darin & Lurch. The highlight of her trip was to see how sneaky you were on day 2. Also she can’t believe how disrupted our dear old tea drinking John Auld can be. You all created a million laughs.

Many thanks go to Brownie, Sav, Tracy, Siggy, Don & Cookie and anyone else involved in running the event. Please plan us another one. Please.