Trip Leader: Nick Hazlett
Report by: Kate
Members:
Nick: Short wheel base Pajero
Callum: Short wheel base Prado
Dan: Jeep
Anara: Surf
Eddie: Hilux
Greg: Short wheel base landcruiser
Kate: 80 series landcruiser
Temporary members:
2 x Nissan Terrano, 1 x Isuzu Mu, 1 x Red Surf
We all met at Roxburgh where the 4 tag a longs from Dunedin joined us.
Nick had a quick check over the vehicles and made our temporary members remove all tow balls off the rear of their vehicles. A quick paper work questionnaire all done. Tail end Charlie was agreed it was me again.
Nick took off and normally the others would follow, for some reason they all got lost and missed the turn off, whoops, thank goodness for uhf radios. Dip stick award for 5 trucks could be hard. Climbing up to Lake Onslow, the gravel road was in good condition and not too dusty for me.
Just passed the Lake Onslow Dam Nick did ask me if he was on the right road, and yes he was.
Deep creek didn’t live up to its name and the track slowed down a little. This is where it can very slippery and rutted especially with 11 vehicles it can take hours to get thru but today was very easy and no one got stuck. I came across the 3 bog holes, remembering from last year that one of those holes don’t fit a SWB Nissan Safari, and definitely will not allow a 80 series thru. MMMM which one was it that Mark got jammed in last year???? Decided to take the middle track, and yes it was wide enough to fit my truck phew. Sorry James didn’t find any missing Disco parts from last year on track 3.
Nick asked over the RT how far we were away from the Church. My reply was that was the last bog hole and we were less than a km away. Sure enough 200m later we could see the church down the bottom of the valley. As it was now 1.15pm it was an ideal time for lunch. We decided to park in a nice line for photo op.
Great Day
A Frisbee came out and was tossed around.
After lunch we saw another 6 or 7 trucks come down the other track (the one track that the club has not attempted). The lead truck seemed to be in a little trouble so Callum and Dan went to see if they could help out. Another group from Dunedin.
After we were all feed and watered we took off to Alexandra. A quick stop to see the ruins at the top of the hill and we were off again. We stopped at the Old Dunstan road to air up the tyres and say goodbye to the two terrano’s who headed home. Heading home my girl decided to make terrible grinding noise and lost all drive (on a gravel road). Trip leader came rushing back and decided it wasn’t the transmission problem and told me to drive slowly with centre diff on. So my great day ended badly but AA plus did its job and got my truck home to my specified garage in Queenstown and I had a trip down memory lane and jump into the mighty Pajero who gave me a ride home, then to his work and then gave me a loan car until it gets fixed.
But my truck did get picked up by a kiwi celebrity TV star. You may recognise him from the TV series of highwaycops. I was tempted to travel home with my truck but decided best to travel home with Nick.
A big thank you goes out to Nick for leading a great trip and all the help he gave tail end Charlie.
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