By Graeme Nicholls

Saturday

Labour weekend was the scheduled time for a trip to Westport that had been arranged by Richard Barker, and this was to be a trip for the “Tuff Trucks”.  The trip requirements called for a winch, so this ruled me out, which was just as well as my Jeep was spread all over the workshop floor as per normal, so Warwick Smith was selected as being the person lucky enough to have me as the winch bitch for the weekend.

Saturday morning saw six trucks assemble in front of the supermarket, with the sky suggesting that we were going to be in for a wet day. Most of the group had arrived in Westport the night before, but one truck had traveled down that morning, so it was going to be a very long day for them.  We set off for a track that shall remain nameless (for privacy reasons), and were given the usual trip leaders talking to before airing down, and then away.

The track started out fairly easily for the first few kilometers, as the rain decided to set in for the day. We came to a river crossing, and from here the track became really challenging with lots of winching and towing needed to make progress.  The first casualty of the day was our Sheriff, who had the misfortune of turning his rear diff into crockery, so the new winch on the front of the Range Rover got a lot more use for the rest of the day than was bargained for.

Because of the rain (heavy), and the fact that this was a newly formed track, progress was very slow, with some trucks making really hard work of it, however we slogged onwards, eventually arriving at a really steep downhill section.  This saw most of the trucks being lowered down on a winch from the vehicle behind, but as Warwick was the tail end Charlie, he elected to do it unassisted.  It wasn’t that I was too scared to stay in the wagon with him; it was just that I wanted to get lots of photos of him coming down. Honest!

At the bottom of this was yet another bog hole, and this was were Warwick had to have his only assistance for the day by way of his winch to get him over a log that was in the bog hole.  We carried on for a short distance to a clearing besides another river crossing, which was only about 200 meters from the end of the track, and it was here that everything turned to custard for us.

First problem was that Steph and Vic had broken a steering arm on their truck, so they were stuck in the middle of the track with no steering.  While we were looking at this, and trying to figure out how to fix the problem, Richard called up to say that he had crossed the river, but it was rising fast, and we would have to leave both the Range Rover and Stephs Nissan behind and get out quick.  The problem with that was that the Nissan was blocking the track, so by the time that we got that out of the way, it was too late; the river which before was only wheel deep was now bank to bank, and rising fast.

It was now about 5:30, and with two trucks on the right side of the river and four on the other side with two disabled, it looked as though we were going to be spending the night in the bush.  Richards’s wife Janet was on our side, while Richard was on the other, and Janet didn’t like the idea of staying the night out while he lounged around at the camping ground, so John Hodgson was persuaded to try to get his Cruiser across.  A winch rope was attached to the back of him, just in case, and away he went.  About half way across, the water came up over his bonnet, and the force of it pushed him downstream, so the winch was quickly wound in, and he was dragged back to our side again.

Plan two was then enacted, and this was to have John’s truck on the edge of the river, and get his winch rope across to the other side.  Richard and Chris Hollis tying a rock to a length of rope on the other side, and then throwing it across to our side, where we attached the winch rope to it, achieved this and they pulled it back.  It was then attached to a tree and pulled tight, and a block was fitted to the winch rope with a tree protector attached to that to form a sling, and this was then pulled back to our side.  Janet then sat in the sling and was pulled across to the other side.  As there was still a very steep hill between them and the end of the track, they set off to winch their way up it, while we prepared ourselves for a night in the bush.

First problem: no one in our group were smokers, so nothing with which to light a fire, however after much searching some matches were found, so then the challenge was to find enough dry wood to make a fire. We eventually got an excuse for a fire going, with Warwick cutting down every dryish looking old tree that he could see, but everything was so wet that a good fire was only ever going to be wishful thinking.  Meanwhile Richard and Chris could be heard winching their way up the bank on the opposite side of the river, until Richard called to say that he was at the top, but Chris had blown the gears of his winch out through the housing, and he was still not quite to the top of the track.  Richard said that he was going to continue on, as we still had another river crossing on the way out to conquer, and would see whether they would be able to get across.

We were still trying to get a reasonable fire going, but it was looking quite dismal, so I took the opportunity to give Vic a lesson on how to remove a broken tie rod from a Nissan, so that we would be able to get that replaced in the morning, as Johnny (our guide from Westport who was with us) had a spare one at his place.  About this time, Richard came back on the radio to say that he had been down to the next river crossing and thought that he would be able to get across it, and that he had winched Chris up the hill, and did we want him to come and get us?  A quick meeting was held by our team, and we decided that there was no way that we were going to be able to get a decent fire going, and with no food etc it would be a pretty miserable night, so we would use the flying fox that we had made and get ourselves across the river, and walk to the top of the hill.

At the top, there was a race to fill the available seats in Chris and Richards’s trucks, with the unlucky ones having to sit in the back of Richards Hilux (remember that it was still raining quite hard) and we took of to navigate the next river crossing.  It was still very swollen when we got there, so the two trucks were roped together for safety, and we crossed without incident. Out to the main road we went, and as there were four people on the back of the Hilux, and five inside it, we could all listen to the nice new 35inch tyres that Richard had just fitted being chewed down to 33inch tyres.

As John Hodgson was staying at Punakiki, and his truck was still on the track, Richard took us to Charleston where some of us hopped of the back and went to the pub, whilst they carried on.  What a sorry looking bunch of people we were; wetter than a wet thing, and cold as hell, so into the pub to stand steaming in front of the pot belly fire and watch the final of the NPC rugby on the telly.  John came and picked us up in his parent’s car and took us to Westport, where it was a race for the shower and tea.  This was at 9:00pm, so it had been a long day for those who had traveled from Nelson that morning.

Sunday

8:30 meeting again, and off out to the track to recover the vehicles that had been abandoned the night before.  When we got to the track, the river had dropped back down to its normal level. So the flying fox was dismantled, the fireplace removed, and the steering arm re-assembled onto the Nissan, and it was time to move out.  John was first up the hill without any drama, followed by Warwick.  He got about three quarters of the way up when his winch decided to give up the ghost, so Richard had to then bring his truck down and winch the Jeep up.  Next up was Chris Baird, and he did surprisingly well, considering that he only had two wheel drive, even having to wait for Warwick to get out of his way on a couple of occasions!  Last one up was Stephanie, but luck didn’t seem to be on their side on this trip, as their winch rope (synthetic) broke numerous times, so progress was quite slow for them.  At the top at last, and it had only taken us about 18 hours of traveling time to do a track that we thought would take about 6 or 7 hours to do!  After a bit of lunch, we all set off for Westport; all except Warwick that is.  The Jeep refused to start, with batteries sounding very suspect.  A jump-start from Steph soon had it going, and $300 worth of batteries from the garage in Westport had it fixed.  Incidentally, this also cured the problems that he had been having with the winch.

As there was still plenty of day left, we decided (with the exception of Vic and Steph) that we would go and do Moa Bones, a track around Seddonville.  This was accomplished without too much difficulty, although there was still a fair amount of winching involved due to the large sections of deep ruts on the track.  That night was spent at Johnny’s place, watching videos that Janet had taken of us over the last two days.

Monday

This was the day that we were going to do the track under No 6 bucket line at Stockden.  This is a track that is not done very often, as to do it you need to get permission from Solid Energy, and they will only let you do it when the overhead bucket line is shut down, as the track is directly under the buckets, and they have been known to fall of from time to time.  When we arrived at the coal yards at the start of the track, a train was being loaded with coal, and this meant that we could not get to the track. We decided that it was going to be there for quite some time, so we would drive up to the top of the hill and see if we could find the track at the top, and then travel down it.  This was not to be, as a new road is being put up the Stockden hill, and we could not find the start of the track, so back down to the bottom we went, just in time to see the train finishing getting loaded.

  On to the start of the track, and away we went.  The track was very overgrown, and quite wet and greasy, so it wasn’t long before trucks were getting stuck. Not far into the track, and it was so overgrown that you couldn’t see the truck in front of you, when Vic was on the radio to say that they needed some assistance, as the truck was on its side.  Warwick and I were behind them, so it was all hands on deck to get them out of the truck, and then to winch it back onto its wheels.  There was no damage done to the truck, but as time was moving on, and people had to be back in Nelson at a reasonable hour, it was decided to abandon the track, and return to Westport, give the trucks a clean, and head for home. I came home with the sheriff, so that he would have something other than the horrible noises coming from his rear end (diff that is) to listen to.  Although we had been unlucky with the weather, and breakdowns etc, it had still been a great weekend, and thanks to Richard and Johnny from Westport for organizing it.