We have two trip reports. The other is after this by Jordan Noble - photos here

Lex has gone to a lot of trouble to make up a few pages of photos with real funny captions. You can download or view them at the bottom of the page

The weekend started for dad and me Friday afternoon, with dad picking me up from school. After some smoko we loaded the truck and headed out the gate at 4 o’clock. Heading up the Mot valley just out of Tap, we could hear the sheriff on the radio. Dad said they must be just in front of us. As we came to the Kuhatu pub NTN pulled around in front of us, on his way to pick up his navi for the weekend. We stopped and had a yarn with Chris and waited for NTN, and then we hit the road together. The boys stopped in Murch for tea, dad and I carried on, meeting up with Scotty, Ange, Kuz and Sav at Reefton. From here we all traveled to Greymouth, checked in, and the boys had a few ales. I shared a cabin with dad, kuz and Sav. We all turned in for the night looking forward to Saturday’s trip. Dad snored.

Saturday dawned very wet, gear was packed and Kuz and dad went to full up with diesel, which reminds me, this is something Warrick should have done Friday because even jeeps need diesel to run don’t they?. We headed to the meeting point. A quick briefing from trip leader Warrick and we are on the move. We headed up to No Name road. It was raining very hard at times as we traveled on gravel roads, mud tracks, and up creek beds. Soon we arrived at the first play area, with a couple of nice boggy tracks. Several people had a go; dad tried and got really stuck. NTN come in and attempted to snatch dad out but the mighty jeep could not move the wedged in Cruiser. Time for the winch thanks Bob. Once clear of the bank we could survey the damaged door, this was later to lead to new nick name Donald Dent. Next play area saw John N stuck and Warrick trying to recover him, once John was extracted from the mud, Warrick gave a demo in the art of balancing on three wheels. Requiring some added ballast form 5 guys to keep it the right way up. We carried on through the track and out across the river and headed for Kumara for lunch. Here we sheltered under shop verandas while the sheriff had some tinkering time. Leaving Kumara we headed back towards Greymouth, turning off and heading up pass Shanty town dropping down into a creek to head up. We traveled up the creek for some distance coming to a split we all headed up one way while Kuz went the other way to have a look. After about 10 mins we got a call from Kuz saying he had broken his panard rod and was making his way back down the creek. Dad and I decided to turn back to help while the rest of the team carried on around the loop. Linking up with Kuz it was soon decided to remove the panard rod so it could not do any more damage. It was a slow trip out with the Jeep diving from one side to another as if it had no driver. After about an hour and a half we made it back to the main road and into the Paroa pub car park. We went in for a beer and Dad spoke to the locals about getting a welder to fix the truck. After a short while we had a workshop we could use for the cost of a few beers. The jeep was fixed and we headed back to camp to show and go to the pub for tea. We all turned in for the night looking forward to tomorrow’s trip. Sav farted, Dad snored.

    Sunday arrived windy and wet. Meeting place was Ross at 10 o clock. We all lined up ready to go and another team of 4wders arrived and drove in a head of us, we decided to wait a little to give them abit of a head start. We headed off up Mount Greenland not far up we come to a stop as they did some track maintenance. There was a piece that had been washed out we had to get around then up a slippery climb. Soon we came to a deep mud hole; everyone had fun getting through this. We carried on up the track until we had to stop as the group ahead of as had come to a halt on a steep, rutted clay climb. Guys had shovels out making a way up; while they worked on the track we had lunch. Soon we were on our way again heading up higher and higher. The day cleared and we got to see an awesome view of the coast. Next challenge was a loose rocky stage that was very difficult. Some trucks required assistance here. From here it was an easy drive to the top. Some trucks had left and carried on down to a hut on the other side; we were too late to go down and waited at the top for them. On there arrival back we surveyed Grahams dent and then started the drive back down. Just as we were nearing the loose rocky stage we came to a stop, hearing on the PRS that someone had rolled over, heading down on foot we could see the Nissan on its side. No one was hurt and the boys set about getting it back on its feet. Two winches were used and in a short time it was back down on all four wheels. We carried on down with a short stop to change batteries over in the Suzuki’s, onward to the mud hole where we had to tow a fellow Cruiser out. Getting out to Ross just on dark. A short stop at Paroa Pub then back to camp for hot shower and tea. That night we stayed at the camp and watched a movie before turning in. Kuz muttered something about being a good welder and panard rods all night, Sav farted, Dad snored. (Note to self take ear plugs)

    Monday, can you believe it, woke up to sunshine (because we are going home). Today’s Plan was head home via the caves. We headed to Ahaura, short stop and then turned off towards the caves. This track is not too difficult but has some tricky spots, especially when Scotty needs to back up and dads on a step piece with his handbrake not working to well. We had a short stop while Bullet Proof went down and back up Subaru hill. We carried on the track coming to a big rutted piece where dad tested the stability of the truck, once through; we came to the caves where I tried to scare everyone by hiding in a hole in the cave wall. Once through the caves we stopped in the sun and had lunch. From there we carried on down the river, and out stopping to pump up tires on the edge of the river. Back on the tarsal and we are heading for home.

Thanks Warrick for a really neat weekend. Catch you all next trip.

Jordan Noble

Greymouth Trip 3 June 2006

Having arrived down on the Saturday due to work commitments we missed the first day’s driving but never mind we certainly made up for it the next day.

We all met at Ross and headed for the hills, Mt Greenland in fact.  As I was the driver the last time we went up there I thought ‘yes Ross can drive”, it certainly was rough.  He is a good driver and I still trust him even though I swore at him, a slight driver error put us on our side.  Yes there is some damage but it is fixable.  We all make mistakes.  I enjoyed going up there again the road has got a lot rougher.  A big thanks to all those who helped winch us back onto our wheels and with climbing out of the truck.

Monday, another great day’s driving.  It seems we took the back road into the Waipuna Caves a small challenge for some, muddy with a very deep rut to negotiate.  Some crawled sideways through it while the Nissan straddled it of course with Scotty driving.  Heading down we drove down the river bed to the caves, it certainly was pretty through there.  It all seemed like something out of a fairy tale.

Thanks again everyone

Ross and Janette Stobie

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