Trip report: Graeme Nichols

Had a look at the club calender and saw that the next trip was the Brass Monkey, to be held in Maruia and being run by Pat Pretty, so had a bit of a chat with the good lady Kay and decided that as we were a couple of really tough old birds we would go on this trip. There were a couple of compelling reasons why we decided that we would do this one; the first was that we both really love braving the cold in the great outdoors, so we promptly booked the nearest motel to Dredgeville that we could find, and the second reason was that the last time that I had done this trip a few years ago, Pat Pretty had been the trip leader and he had made me do the trip report on that trip, so surely he would not expect me to do it again would he?

We drove down to Maruia on Friday after work, and settled into the nice and warm motel for the night.....NOT!!!! The motel was nice and clean and modern, but talk about cold Trev! We dont think that it had been occupied for quite some time, and the little heater in the room just was not up to the task. Oh well, only one thing for it; an early night. The next morning, up and about nice and early in anticipation of a good weekend ahead of us. After a cooked breaky, time to load the truck and head off. Only one problem; we couldn't unlock the doors on the truck as the locks were all frozen, so out came the hot water so that the key would go into the lock!

Arrived at the campside expecting to see lots of all those really hardy types from the Nelson 4WD club ready for a weekend in the cold to show us how tough that we all can be, but was met by Scotty with navigator Sav, Kooze and navigator Don, Pat with landowner Mike, and the toughest of them all, Chris on his quad bike. That was all there was from Nelson, perhaps there was something else urgently happening on that weekend that prevented all the rest of the hardy club members from joining us. Also at the campsite were a couple of hardy Blenhiemers; Mike and Craig, so that made a total of six trucks and one quad bike. Upon getting out of our wagon and saying good morning to everyone, Pat announced that he had decided that I should do the trip report...again!!! Nice bloke that.

After the usual do this and don't do that's from Pat, we were away for a weekend of great four wheel driving. We headed out from behind the campsite and into the many tracks and trails that Mike had bulldozed into the bush around his farm. Some of them were quite tough, but you usually had the option of driving around them if you were a bit too nervous to have a go, and I don't mind admitting that I took this option on a couple of occasions! We worked our way around the Northern part of Mike's farm, enjoying magnificent views of the snow covered mountains rising from the native forests of the area; a truly awesome sight. One particularly steep drop off saw our fearless quad bike rider Chris putting on an acrobatic display for us; the bike came down all by itself and landing upside down, and Chris doing the rollypolly thing all on his own. No great damage done; just a bit of straightening of the handlebars on the bike, and a bit of knee massaging on Chris and all was well again. (I suspect that the ego may have been just slightly damaged as well!)

Mike had gained access to his neighbours property as well, so after leaving Mikes land we travelled on down the Maruia valley, following the Maruia river on the western side on an old track. This track does not get a lot of use, and is a really good four wheel drive track, with a few nasty bog holes that required the use of a winch and tow strops to get through, and we followed it for quite a considerable distance until it petered out. Time to turn around and head back out, and it was about here that Mike's neighbour turned up on his quad bike, so at last Chris had a bit of company. Around half the way out, Craig from Blenhiem noticed that he had lost the top of his snorkle, so our hero Chris took off on the bike to try to locate it, while we waited. A short time later he called on the radio to say that he had just found the neighbour's wife stuck in a bog hole on her quad bike! It seems that she had come to find us, but had got stuck, so it was just as well that the snorkle top had gone missing!! Chris and the neighbour went to her assistance, while we carried on. (The top of the snorkle remained among the missing). We all regrouped after we exited the bush, and the neighbours invited us to follow them, and took off on their bikes. The wife had a dog on the back carrier, and we wished that we had a video camera with us, as she took off really fast, and the sight of the poor dog hanging on with it's paws while it went up and down at speed was hilarious!! Most of the time it was at least ten inches off the carrier, but it didn't seem to mind; probably been doing it all it's life I guess. Had a bit of a look around their farm, and then headed back to the campsite and the end of the first days trip. After a few repairs to a couple of the trucks (nothing very major) we had a sit round the huge campfire that Pat and Mike had prepared for us, and watched as the frost settled on the ground all around us. At a suitable time after we had had dinner, Kay and I retired to our motel for the night and left the rest of them to keep the fire burning for us in the morning.

The next morning dawned not so cold, and back to the campsite to see what sort of condition that the rest of the lads were in. The looked to be not too bad, just a bit frosted but thawing out. Loaded up the trucks for the second days adventures. Headed up to the top of Mikes farm on the southern side, following some good tracks and then went on a trip that Mike had very kindly arranged for us on a property nearby. I am unable to give much information on this trip, as the property owner has asked that we do not publish any information that could identify the area, and this was done as a favour to Mike. Suffice to say that it was a great trip, following a creek bed a considerable distance, and then climbing steeply up a hill to about 950 meters to the snow line. On the way up, disaster struck for Kooze. While we were working our way up the creek, a stick had somehow dislodged his snorkle, and then when he went through some deeper water, the water got sucked into the motor and BANG, that was the end of the road for the jeep!! Mike towed him out to Reid's store, and it was a towtruck ride home for the poor little jeep. This put a bit of a dampener on the weekend for Kooze, unfortunately.

A really good weekend's four wheel driving, in great surroundings and excellent company. A huge thank you to Pat Pretty and Mike Dredge, as they both put a huge amount of effort into these trips so that we can enjoy them. Just a pity that more of our club members didn't make the effort to attend. (Funny that; I ended my last trip report saying exactly the same thing.)

Photos here