Date: 3rd - 4th October 2009
Trip leader: Sav & Brownie
Trip report: Lex Bloomfield


A marshal’s view

Friday
"Set up 100 meters up the track, you should get some good action there."
That was my instruction. Off I go with my blue plastic cover & yellow twine. I find a likely spot out of harm’s way & lash some young saplings together and toss the cover over them. Secured with the twine, and waterproof, a safe place to install my drink, food, seat & umbrella. That’s it, I’m all set to go tomorrow. Rain is pouring down & there is very loud thunder.

Saturday
Up early, breakfast at 6.30. It has rained all night long & is still hosing down. Get last orders from Sav & Brownie, and off I go to my spot I have named ‘Siberia’. With my green Jeepy thing parked out of the way, I drag myself up the hill. Siberia comes into sight & it’s good to see no beasts have moved in and eaten my tucker. No radio contact. I make cell phone contact with Joe the marshal above me. "First team on the way." I trudge uphill to a deep rutted section. They slip on through, a few crazy angles, but they make it intact. Back to ‘Siberia’ and a quick drink. My socks are now in the toe of my gumboots, bloody uncomfortable that. Need to take a pee. Off comes the wet-weather gear. Just about got my coat on again when, "Next team coming". I puff my way back uphill. One is already parked, in a super-rut I named ‘The Crater’, two wheels four feet in the air, rear end pointed skywards. Very impressive, but that’s the easy bit. They extract him & move on to the ‘Grand Canyon’, a water-worn rut about 1.5 meters deep and 100 meters long. Track is angled off hard against the bank on driver’s side. A few side-mirrors get a good work-over.

The next team eases past ‘The Crater’, and quietly attacks the ‘Grand Canyon’. Two side windows are smashed. Didn’t see why, so I slip off down to ‘Siberia’. Just get seated when Sav calls in. "Go and remove small stump, its breaking windows. They say it’s loose, so grab it and pull it out." Uphill again, grab stump and it’s bolted through to China. Run all the way down to Jeepy for my grubber. "Next team on the way." I bolt all the way back up and a mighty swing with the grubber jars the living be-jeezes out of me. Hello, the next team is here already. I leap out of ‘Grand Canyon’ & wave them down. Stump’s only 120 mm across and they hook it with a winch. Their truck gets winched to the stump, so the three of them are joined together and successfully do the job. Nice lads those fellows. Showed a lot of respect for me, not like those sods back at HQ who sent me out into this wilderness. Back I go to ‘Siberia’ and get a visit from a Bush Robin. I must be going nuts for I’m now talking to it.

A quick drink & a snack and I settle back in my chair listening to the rain pattering on the cover. I nod off to sleep knowing Joe will ring when the next team is due. Wake up & the Robin is inside looking lovingly at me. Team comes through and video camera is all fogged up. Display tells me it has water in it. Damned thing shuts down, so off downhill I go again to Jeepy. Start up motor & get the heater going. 20 minutes later camera is successfully dried out, so I tackle the long haul back up again with camera tucked up in a small plastic toolbox. Tools are all over the floor in Jeepy. I follow the next team over ‘The Crater’ & along ‘Grand Canyon’. I may as well follow them all the way down this time. Slip ass over turkey and now I’m covered in mud & they have disappeared. Wander back to ‘Siberia’, sit down covering the seat with mud. I don’t care. Will this blasted rain ever stop? Now it’s blowing and the temperature is dropping. Heard reports of snow falling on other marshals so consider myself lucky.

Another team appears and I recognize our local club members. They negotiate ‘The Crater’ and head off in full flight down ‘Grand Canyon’. I attempt to follow on foot but I’m left way behind in their muddy tracks. I hear a chorus of voices desperately yelling for me to "Quick, run , run." I bolt off down hill at the speed of a three-toed sloth, but it’s enough to make a 64 year old marshal’s eyes water. I envisage a disaster. Maybe someone is caught under a truck, but no, they only want me there to film Scotty’s truck on its side before he winches it back on its wheels. Wheezing, I drag myself back to ‘Siberia’. I hear engines maxed out on the next hazard & the sound of voices coming up to me. I recognize Lurch’s voice & only one word I can understand. It’s a rude four letter one, so I assume it’s not all going well for him. I smile & wish I were there to see. The engine noises fade off into the distance & all goes deathly quiet. Maybe they have all gone to the club for a beer and forgotten me. I think hypothermia is setting in. Bush Robin pops back in to see if I’m ok.

If I ever get a second life I’m coming back as a bird, and every time those buggers who sent me up here clean their trucks, I’m going to crap on them. That brings a smile to my face. Suddenly I’m revitalized and as the last team goes through I pack up & follow them out. Man, there was some action here today & this is only a transition road. "See ya tomorrow ‘Siberia’." I realize I have really had a good day with awesome people. We’ll do it all again tomorrow.

The event
Well, once again Andrew (Sav) Satherley, Murray (Brownie) Brown, & their team of Murray (Siggie) Sigglekow, Mark (Kooze) Newport, Steven (Scotty) Newport, Graeme (No-tow) Nicholls, Don Roberts, Richard ‘The Pom’, ‘Flag’ McKenzie, and a contingent of track preparers, 32 marshals, paper pushers & general dogs bodies, have pulled off another hugely successful event. The first day dawned with heavy rain that continued through until nighttime.

A cold blast came later in the day with snow falling on one loop. The event attracted a full field of 18 teams and how the controllers at HQ kept their finger on the pulse is beyond me. At the drivers briefing it was pointed out that speed was not a consideration in the judging. The event was scored on teamwork, safety, and general care while completing a task. Loops were timed purely to help HQ to assess where to send teams. Marshals were to score heavily against speed & excessive wheel spin. Some teams were taking 20 minutes to complete a loop when others were taking up to 2 hours. This caused a backlog, which carried on down the line. There were a couple of minor injuries that, even though they happened to participants, occured out of the vehicles, while stopped. Both injured were up & about the next day. The tracks were picked to keep trucks off public roads as much as possible, and some of the transition roads between loops were just as bad as the scoring tracks. Day two was a repeat of day one with fine weather except for hail in one spot late in the day.

The event finished with a meal & prizegiving at the Reefton Working Men’s Club, HQ for the event, followed by a Sheriff’s fine session. It’s amazing to see how many people were happy to dobb in their mates to the Sheriff on trivial matters. It was all good humour & raised $272 for the Reefton St. Johns. There was a sausage sizzle outside HQ during the event, and a raffle during the meal, both in aid of a local school. There were 54 trucks carrying 108 people, 32 marshals & their trucks, about 20 extra partners & families. They all required food, accommodation, and fuel. It is estimated that the event brought into the town around $100,000.The President of the Working Men’s Club thanked us on behalf of the people of Reefton and welcomed us back next year if we wish to run it again. There were 17 Toyotas, 16 Nissans, 6 Jeeps, 5 Pajeros, 4 Suzukis, 2 Isuzus, 2 Daihatsus, 1 Rangerover & 1 Landrover competing in the event. Teams came from as far as Hawkes Bay in the north to Invercargill in the south.

Thanks go to the sponsors: Super Winch, Hampidjan, Cookes, & The 4x4 Centre. Thanks also go to the people of Reefton who once again made us welcome to their town. Thanks to Trevor Prendergast for the use of his shed & workshop for numerous repairs over the weekend. Without that opportunity many would have needed to pull out of the event. Thanks to the competitors for being such a good crowd of people. You made the marshals’ jobs easy.

The winners of the event were the Nelson team of:
1. Kyle Egan Nissan
2. Brendan Sangster Nissan
3. Brendan Ward Jeep

Second was the Blenheim team of:
1. Mike Holmes Nissan
2. Karl Townsend Toyota
3. Mark Coleman Daihatsu

Third was the Dunedin team of:
1. Richard Robb Nissan
2. Mike Kelley Toyota
3. Martin DeVries Toyota