Why does the title say Ha_ast? cause this system appears to have a bug and the link wont work with aa

Date: 25/04/2008

Trip Leader: Bob Dickinson

Trip Report by: Lex Bloomfield (Plan B)

With fixed pictures of the disasters from the 2005 Haast trip set in my mind, I tentatively set off to collect Chris Baird (Cuzzy) from his home in Wakefield.

With Graeme Nicholls & Harald Ahlfeld leading in the Red Mitsi we shot the gap for Greymouth Top Ten Holiday Park. It was Wednesday afternoon so a nice drive to Greymouth would cut the edge off the distance needed to travel the next day. The usual flack was passed back and forth, this time mainly pointed at the number of text messages Graeme was getting from a certain lady who I won’t name but it sounds like Gay & starts with the letter "K". It was a pleasant drive with the Jeep jokes taking a back seat for a change. Booked in & paid up we searched out our accommodation for the night. "Throw your sleeping bag on that bunk & I’ll have this one," said Harald. "I beg your pardon? Sleeping bag?" " I told you two months ago to bring one." Nasty nuts Nicholls & Cuzzy broke into laughter as I stood there with no bedding.

A quick trip to the Warehouse would fix this problem. "Sorry mate. They closed two minutes ago." "Oh! Pooh to you too." With extra clothes on I got through the night while all around me countless snores echoed the peaceful sleep of others I happened to know. After purchasing a sleeping bag the next morning we did the tourist thing all the way to Haast. To add insult to injury as we checked in the nice lady asked if any of us would like a sleeping bag. Grrrrr. I just damned well bought one and have two more at home.

We awoke the next morning to a continual stream of gorgeous blonde women in pajamas walking past us as we ate breakfast. Graeme’s smile turned to custard when half an hour later their 2 metre tall partners all appeared from the same rooms. Trim, athletic, muscular, intelligent, farmer boys. They made us feel completely inadequate. As it turned out they were a really good bunch of people.

Seven trucks gathered and after Bob Dickinson’s greeting and quick pep talk we headed off toward Cascade River. The weather was perfect only being outdone by the scenery. While Bob attended to business at the homestead we all aired down and removed disconnects. We headed off into an area of light bush where Bob called a morning tea break and we were all intrigued at the activity around Jim McMahon’s truck. There was air going in and air coming out and all this was after ‘Jackson’ had already aired their tyres down. On enquiring we were told that Jackson had let the bead lockers down instead of the tyres. Now, I was a little confused when I was told that Jackson actually sold Jim the wheels and that he had carefully painted the bead locker valves yellow so as not to get a mix up.

The Cascade was crossed and the water was so crystal clear it looked to be about two feet deep. We all watched as Harald was chauffeured safely across the river he had unfortunately had a mishap on during the Easter 2005 trip. A bit more bush bashing saw Bob injure both his driver side doors on an unseen object and I managed to give my drivers door one hell of a good workout on the same culprit as well. We crossed the Hope River and made our target of Barn Bay for lunch break. We watched as a commercial cray-fisherman worked his pots and then we explored this beautiful area for an hour or so.

The return trip was uneventful and we stopped a Jackson’s Bay (not named after our Jackson of the bead lockers), as a few of us had never been there. We were in time to see the cray-boat unloading and he appeared to have had a more profitable day than we.

The evening meal was at one of the local pubs where we met up with Trevor & Rosie Prendergast who had come to do the next day with us.The weather was unexpectedly perfect. The scenery was unbelievably stunning. The company was pretty good as well.

Thanks to my co-driver ‘Cuzzy’ who kept me in continual laughter all weekend and trip leader Uncle Bob Dickinson & his co-driver Auntie Bill Knowles. (Bobs ya uncle & Bills ya Aunt.)

It was an awesome trip and a must for those who have not been there yet.