Day One - Hokitika

Trip leader:    Scotty

Mount Greenland - Saturday
 
We met up at Ross for our venture up Mount Greenland.  8 vehicles all together with Scotty in the lead.
We bounced part way up the hill until we came to a bog - our first obstacle.
After a bit of a look at potential paths, Scotty powered through followed by everyone else.
With a few needing a tow, a couple more than others.
 
Bouncing on again through a gorse ridden track we carried on until we came to what looked like a canyon.  The track needed a bit of adjusting.  Out came spades and grubbers - the chain gang begins.
One by one the trucks came up.  Part way through some very impaitent motorbike riders came and wanted past.
 
Our next obstacle was a very stoney climb.  A slow bounce up and we were up.  Kooze was a bit short and needed a bit of help from his winch, Chris powered on up and with a bit of guidence a nissan made it up.
 
After a last little bit of track along the top of Mount Greenland we stopped for lunch with our heads in the clouds and a few spots of rain. 
After refuleing ourselves it was time to head back down.  With no problems until we made it back to the bog.  Where for my first time I saw Sav being towed!!!!  A very very persistant Lurch made it through with not needing a tow.
 
We reconvened at the local Ross pub, which was enjoyed by all.
 
On our way back to Hokitika we stopped in at the Kaniere power station to wash under the vehicles and have a look at the water races etc.
 
Great trip and a great day.
 
Teletubbie aka Malita

Day two

Weather, Check.  I stick my head out the window, the sky is BLACK.  I look next door and see two other heads poking out.  Bugger, 2:30am, it’s way too early to still be awake, so I go back to bed and sleep until 7:00am.  A much more respectable time to be getting up.  So it’s up out of bed, Scotty’s quiet and Sav is alive, I saw him move.  So we shower have a coffee and breakfast then it’s time to move.  The meeting place is the Hokitika BP station. We settle in without tripping over any huge steps and wait for the Hollie family to come down from Greymouth.
Ooh , a police car stops and chats with Nessie, a woman who doesn’t talk very much.  He pulls Sav into his car, the baby could be there for ages, I’ve seen Sav talk, poor bugger.
 
A young Swiss girl turns up, jumping in with Al and Trace.  There’s still no sign of the Hollies, Christmas will be here before they turn up.  We are lined up and waiting, Kooze, Sav, Scotty, Charlie Brown, Al, Pat.  All here bar the Hollie family.  Okay, Kooze starts walking towards the beach, that’s my ticket. I start following him so as not to start sleep walking.  The sun is high, the Hollie’s turn up, and we’re off.
 
Trip guide Pat Burrows from Kanarie, which we passed though and turned off to go through the Blue Spur forest block.  Two minutes on, a gravel road and we turn right onto a simple forest track.  Sav is the third last truck, he doesn’t stop turning over broome and into a hole after which he bellies his jeep.  Yep, tow jeep on jeep, one is yellow, the colour of spew, the other is green, the colour of envy.  He can’t quite figure out how he managed to accomplish this and succeeded in getting the trip report, what a legend ay!!!  He looks at me, yea me… total fascination from my side and he pulls the con he does on Tracy, on me this time.  ‘I am so helpless, can you do it for me’.  Yea, hero driver, all sound and no substance.
 
We go through valleys that have mountain bike tracks onto a rifle range visit to a private Pat Burrows track.  From there we head out of the Blue Spur towards Doe Boy Road.  Private access though a farm where we stop and talk to dairy farmer.  Well the eyes of the group study the farm girl in overalls… Men all eyes and talk!  The hot gas will add to global warming.
 
From there, through Doe Boy, the Hollies stopping every 5 minutes to pick shale stones.  He might have to leave the kids behind to make room in his wagon!!!  I also noted that he always picked the shitty side of the track to make his wife get out to open the gates for him.
 
We thread our way round to Hokitika garage to visit and have lunch.  Also to perv at a porch car with too many rivets.  Next it’s down to where stanly Graeme’s house was, and a memorial  site for the people’s life that he took.  Back to Kanarie, over a bridge and into another forest block.  After which it’s a short drive with scenic views.  The Hollie family took there leave through mud from here and said goodbye.  We moved across old Ross Woodstock road into a logged area with skidder tracks after a moss hunting trip with no gardeners on board!!!
 
This is the fun bit here: we could hear Kooze’s truck revving everywhere which brought a smile to everyone’s face.  We ended the day with a debrief at the local Kanarie tavern and found a good chippie for dinner and beers in the lounge.  Now bed looked really good and that was Sunday finished.
Cheers,  Bairdie

Day 3 - Hoki Day

By Lurch
 
Monday morning of labour weekend, dawned bright and sunny, and being that we were in Hokitika there was a little bit of a surprise about that.
We had hoped to travel the Wainini Valley on the Sunday and thanks to another club visiting the area, we were lucky enough to be allowed in there today.
We travelled our way back up to Lake Kaniere and through to Milltown and up to the gates into the old Power Board access roads.  After negotiating a little with a local Texan with a slightly different version of the access agreement, we weaved our way into the top of the challenging section of the track. 

There had been an accident at this very spot this weekend, so our group not wanting a repeat episode, had quite a good walk around the small gully before we drove down, uneventfully.  All things that go up must come down, and vice versa, so at the bottom we had a short but steep climb to get out of the creek bed.  Our local guide Pat wasn’t going to risk it so he winched his cruiser up the slope.  Once he was up and a rope was set for towing, Sav lined up the hill and drove it.  Kooze was next, and with a little revving from the yellow Jeep and little more revving from Kooze inside, trying to will the Jeep on, he drove to the top and with a quick tow he was up safely.  Scotty driving his Surf got up next and Darin followed.  My old Surf made its way up using all 25 of its horsepower.  One thing noted for the downhill then the wee climb was that none of the nervous passengers were keen to ride this section opting to “take photos” instead.
From here we worked our way out to the riverbed via some typical green West Coast forest tracks ... Awesome.
After a small trek along the riverbed we made it back to the sealed road.

After thanking Pat for all his help over the weekend we headed along to Moana for a quick blast of air for the tyres, then through to Reefton for lunch.
After sharing the roads back to Nelson with three quarters of the complete New Zealand population we made our way home.
The trusty old Surf had a small shudder at high speed when we left but when we were almost home, the shudder was there at lower speeds, a quick bit of “head out the window” diagnosis, proved that the front wheel was loose.  Being only a few hundred metres from home we limped up the drive.  A quick inspection showed that four of the six wheel studs had in fact snapped off.  Check your wheel nuts is the lesson here!!!

All in all, the group had a great weekend on the sunny coast.

Photos here