Labour weekend
23/24/25 October

Trip photos

Sometimes we are let down regarding trip reports. Invariably, the trip leader forgets to assign someone, or worse, the appointment is made but the trip report is either never written, or received by the magazine editor. This is one such occasion, where there is no trip report for the Saturday and Sunday. However below is the report for Monday

Monday morning dawned overcast and with the threat of even more rain about to fall, and the question on most people’s mind was whether Big River would have gone down enough for us to get through.

After a relaxed breakfast, and a wander through the camp to check out who did and did not have hangovers, it was time to pack up ready for the trip home.  First job was to clean out the inside floor of the tent, as after a weekend of fairly steady rain, it was getting rather grubby.  After packing up the tent and gear into the truck, it was just a matter of waiting around until about 2:00pm and low tide to assemble at Big River.  Some of the people went for a walk to a nearby waterfall, while the rest of us just sat around talking and telling lies etc.

At about 2:00 the decision was made to leave camp, and congregate at Big River for the crossing. An uneventful trip down the beach, and when we arrived, the river had dropped quite substantially, so at low tide we crossed.  The water was only just above the wheels, so most of the trucks were able to cross without any difficulty.  I wrote most, because out of 20 trucks, 19 managed to make it across easily, but yours truly managed to get bellied on probably the only log in the whole #!&# river, hence the reason I am doing the trip report!  My Pajero seems to just love getting its carpets wet, although a new member managed to christen her nice shiny Jeep Cherokee in a similar fashion.

We then drove down the beach to the Anatori river, with a few taking to the road from there, but the majority decided to carry on down the beach and driving through an archway formed in the rocks, and come out at the river at Patarau, where we all had a jolly good splash up and down the river in an attempt to get rid of as much salt water as possible.

Back on the gravel road for the trip down to Collingwood, with a stop at Echo Point to try to make an echo.  Some of the trucks went into Collingwood, while the rest of us went on into Takaka for fuel and air, and then over the hill to home (although I believe that one Suzuki managed to come home very cheaply, on the end of a tow rope attached to Chris Bairds Nissan – thought to have blown a head gasket)

Thanks Rick for a great weekend in spite of the weather not being as kind to us as it could have been.