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LAKE DANIELS 27-28 March |
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TRIP REPORT: LAKE DANIELS
Date: 27th - 28th March 2010
Trip leader: ‘Sav’
Trip report: Taz Gilbert
I arrived at Craig’s 4WD at 7am Saturday morning to find the affectionately named Bitsalux waiting patiently on her trailer behind the big blue VX. After a cruisey drive we met up with the others at Maruia Hall, to find Mark Coleman with his Rugger (the tractor!) and Leigh and Leigh with the mighty Lexus V8 Hilux. Slowly the others arrived, some from the hut who had camped the Friday night.
Mike got out the beanie with bottle caps, passed it to me and I pulled out a cap. He laughed at me: "You got the trip report." I was a little uncertain of the fact that, really, I could have pulled out any cap and seeing as I’m a wee bit green on the procedures, he could have just told me that cap was the trip report. But Craig assured me that drawing the Speights cap did in fact mean the trip report was now my duty.
After Sav giving us the low down on the happenings we were off, with Sav himself in the lead to begin with. After a few gate openings, Craig and I in the Bitsalux managed to be in lead. Give an inch, he’ll take a mile and he put foot to floor, with the V8 Hilux, the Nelson 40 series and the Tractor trying to keep up. We stopped at the final gate to let Craig’s tires down (and, ah, put his hubs in!) and waited for the rest of the crowd to catch up. Sav lead us to the old mining tunnels for a little bit of a history lesson, which was interesting to hear and see.
From the tunnels Mark was in the lead and he, us, the Leighs and Mike Holmes broke away from the group and did what a typical Marlborough driver would do: looked for the hard stuff, well off the beaten track. Mark certainly found it, getting himself bellied trying to get out of a bog, then Mike and the Leighs followed suit and suffered the same fate, by this time there was a crowd looking on with cameras. Needless to say, the Bitsalux wasn’t put through that hole. However, Craig certainly found another hole, though this one happened to be right in the middle of the creek. Hitting reverse then drive then reverse then drive did bugger all and with a yell from Craig and a fierce winding up of the window I looked around to see that the water was 90 percent of the way up the deck. Coleman pulled us out and a warning of, "follow the other trucks to the right of that crossing, there’s a big hole in there," went out over the radio. Somewhere in there was a nice stop for lunch by the creek (sorry, events I remember, chronological order of events I don’t).
The mad Marlborough boys were off again, and a call came over the radio from the group behind us saying "I’m going to try to catch these clowns up"… Lurch didn’t quite manage that, and after few more deep holes and rocky beds we made it to the hut around 2.30 in the afternoon. We sorted out our gear, pitched the tents, waited for a few other trucks to arrive, then set of for a play on Thompson’s Flat. Craig was the first victim "taking the wrong line" to get himself bogged in a big hole with a big bank. The others followed suit in various places and we reached the bottom of the flat. Here, Trev Jamie managed to get well and truly bogged, and Mike thought he would give him a tow. Mike tried to drive around Trev to get a good place to tow him out. Only, Mike managed to get himself stuck doing this. Mark attempted to pull him out, but with the mighty Nissan bellied and the Rugger "being too powerful," Mikes brand new tow strop snapped. After replacing the strop and being towed out, Mike backed up, attempted again, got into the ruts… and got stuck in exactly the same place!!
While at the lower end of the flat, a few of us took a pleasant walk to the very settled lake. Whilst we were on this adventure the rest of the guys headed back and we heard later that the poor Tractor fell victim to a certain bank that Mark took a few too many goes at. A large dent in the driver side door was the outcome. Alas, he never actually made it up the bank! A call from the hut to get firewood put a stop to the Bitsalux and the V8 Hilux getting too rowdy on the way back… but it certainly didn’t stop them from getting stuck! With a crowd looking on as the others had come down for a play, almost side by side we managed to get stuck in two different holes, leaning exactly the same way. By this stage the passengers side window had come off its rollers and wouldn’t go up… needless to say, we were leaning the wrong way and I got smothered in mud. Craig did a bit of self recovery then went to help the other stuck Hilux. It was too little too late for Leigh though, who opened the door of his Hilux and a small waterfall fell out! I think it is quite possibly still drying out from that experience…
Whilst cooking dinner, we were entertained watching the second group have a play on the flat. On their way back, we did a quick head count and something didn’t seem quite right. Trev Jamie and Grant Watson came puffing up the bank to the hut… on foot. Grant had lost his nuts. On his U bolts that is, causing his rear axle to dislodge and shift backwards. This rendered the Landcruiser stuck out on the flat until morning, with Grant praying it didn’t rain much so the creek didn’t rise too much overnight.
The bonfire was cranked up and those who wanted to brave the rain sat huddled around the fire. After dinner and around the table in the hut, Lurch sparked up about Craig’s new supercharger. It came up that the waste gate on the supercharger made the Bitsalux sound like it was saying "vrmmmm NA". Can you get through that bog? "Vrrrrm NA". Can you go through that hole? "Vrmmm NA".
In the morning Trev and Grant went down to recover Grant’s truck, after scrounging some nuts from Leigh and Mike. After seeing a big cloud of blue smoke rise through the trees, he brought her back to the hut without too much trouble. Now (Mrs) Leigh wanted to drive (Mr) Leigh’s truck, so to make it fair, Craig decided that I should be driving his truck, so we set off home with the girls behind the wheel. I wasn’t feeling too comfortable in the drivers seat, and the ol’ Lux of course said "vrmmm NA!" to me driving, so I gave her back to Craig to follow Mark down the "hard lines". Mark and Craig got a little competitive, and began racing through bogs, seeing who could drive and/or winch through to the other side first. They both took off and getting back to the main road a call came from Leigh (after getting back in the drivers seat of his truck) saying "Jeez you guys are hard to keep up with!" We all met back at the Hall and put the trucks back on the trailer, whilst the others began to turn up. The journey home began…
So, lessons to be learnt from the trip? Always wind up your window BEFORE you see a big mud hole and have a little lean to the right; if you get stuck, take a DIFFERENT line the next time, and at some point, that bank/creek/tree WILL get the better of you. All up, a very enjoyable weekend, covered in bruises, cuts and mud and water (both myself and the truck!). Thanks to the trip organizers and leaders for their time and effort. This was my last trip for a long while, so I will dearly miss the action, and hope the boys make up for it! Happy four wheel driving and thanks again!
Taz Gilbert (regular passenger in Craig’s Bitsalux and Big Blue, and Jamie’s Rugbug).
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Past club trips 