Sunday 5 June - Mike Murphy
I was Sitting at home on sat night when Jim rings up and tells me we should be down at Mike Dredge’s place instead of Nelson and as Joe was hangin out with his mates I thought to my self why not, so shot down to the garage put the good tires on and got the cruiser ready for an early start .6.15 next morn we were on our way and arrived down there with plenty of time for a cuppa before we got in to it.
Some of the vehicles were suffering a few probs from the previous day mainly alternators and radiators they said there was a bog hole from hell they had to get through also Don Noble’s Hi lux wasn’t lookin that flash but I wasn’t there so you’ll have to get the story from him if he feels like talking about it.
Around 9.30 we set off out the back of Mike’s farm and crossed a good size river we all got over and carried on and came across an innocent looking bank to climb I went at it to slow and it being boggy at the bottom I sunk down and got stuck which is the reason I’m writing this report anyways I wasn’t to be the only one as not long after one of those jeep things also got caught and put the call out I need a tow well there was already a jeep thing owner on the right side of the bog and hearing his mates call for help got so distressed he took off at high speed got tangled in a electric fence done a 360 shot back up and carried on to give his mate the encouragement needed to negotiate his way to safety, there must be heaps of loyalty among these jeep thing owners anyway he says the reason he got stuck was to prove he’s human.
After that we headed off to a neighboring farm to check out an old track with Pat Pretty leading the charge there was a few miner boggy spots and then it got to some heavy bush bashing I weren’t sure if we were still on the track or Pat was up front making one.
The sheriff was having alternator problems and couldn’t turn the whale off and accidentally stalled it but after a bit of towing and pushing we got him going again and headed off eventually coming to another steep track where we had a 90 degree turn to get on to it which was a bit of a pain to get on and to and keep momentum to make the climb Sav gave me some good advice that worked a treat and up I went.
We all had dinner up top and then it was off again heading down hill to end up in a river with boulders half a metre high where I found myself backing off a few times to get round them then it was through another bog hole and back on to Mike’s farm and onto a track through some manuka forest which was quite tight to negotiate in places and ended up back at Mike’s bush camp, then it was a few Ks to the next one which was a neat track going up a reasonably steep hill with a couple of hell corners on the way up then dropping down into a soft boggy area where we had a bit of fun getting through then down hill again where the sheriffs whale spit the dummy and decided it had enough luckily it stopped where it did cause if it had done it sooner we would all be still there trying to get it out we gave it a push and it was all down hill to the end of the track after that there was a little play on the open part of the farm and them Jim and me headed off home
Thanks Mike for great days 4wheel driving
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Past club trips 
