Todays Trip Report

Departed De Bretts in Taupo at 9:30am – travelled to a farm where our first obstacle was a flock of sheep. As far as I know, all sheep were accounted for. From there we encountered some farm track work, a bit rutty, but nowhere as bad as yesterday. One tight corner, but excellent driving by J team – we thought our vehicle was going to tip on a hairpin, but we recovered OK. By the way, despite all the gearbox problems, Grant and his VX got around that hairpin in one go – unlike some short wheelbases – eh Arthur! And so did Shaun in his 60 Land Cruiser.

We then entered the Kinleith Forest. Only encountered one obstacle, which was a gate that the ranger seemed to have forgotten to unlock. Thanks to the gardening skills of the lead group, everybody managed to negotiate this by zooming up a steep soft mound beside the gate, getting past with no problems.

We ventured back into forestry, with lots of dust but not quite so much today as yesterday. A couple of vehicles took the direct route to the next night’s camp at Ohakune, to catch up on laundry and other chores.

I would like to take some time to thank the Whakatane Eastern Bay Twin Diff Club, The Geyserland 4WD Club and the Bay of Plenty 4WD Club, for their amazing help in organising days 4, 5 and 6. A special thankyou too for their help in getting the VX back on the road – Steve, Bevan and Damien are magnificent ambassadors for the region. Their unstinting and generous assistance made such a difference – thanks guys!

And now for a word about one of the casualties of the trip…
Grant and Jill Purdie have been so disappointed with their Cruiser. These are supposed to be the most robust and reliable 4WD vehicles in the world, so how could it happen that the gearbox gives up? Well, after the terrific effort by Albany Toyota in Auckland, replacing the seized gearbox in 48 hours, it started dripping red oil at a great rate after only a couple of hours yesterday. Chris Thompson, who as a Land Rover owner is accustomed to keeping an eye on the ground underneath vehicles, noticed the problem, thank goodness!

Steve Docherty promptly called up Cliff, his able recovery driver from Kawerau, who soon appeared with a truck. So there it was, the VX on a truck for the second time in only a few days. Steve kindly made his workshop and tools available, and it was time for the true hero of the trip to surface. Carl Furniss of the Wellington 4WD Centre insisted on dealing with the problem rather than let the Purdies slip off back to Wellington. Carl donned the overalls that he’d brought with him, then got right into it. To cut an extremely long story short, Carl led the charge over the next 11 hours. With unstinting effort and leadership, he removed the gearbox, established that we needed a new seal (the reason is yet another long story, and in no way attributable to Albany Toyota), drove the team all the way to Whakatane to collect a compatible seal that Steve had organised, then re-installed the torque converter and gearbox, ably assisted by Bevan and Damien. Carl deserves a medal for his generosity of spirit and effort, and for his mechanical prowess and expertise.

And now for some late breaking news…Simon had a problem today, which consumed half an hour of a few peoples’ time. Eventually the honourable Tony Brown, who is very experienced in fuel problems (and that is several stories for another time or two) established that the Simon had the most complex and difficult to diagonse problem of all – he had run out of petrol!

[Trip report by Margaret of 'J' Team]

Distance covered:

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Route Map

The map below shows the route followed the Challenge vehicles today.

 
Hutt Valley Nissan - Williams and Adams - Pudney and Lee Wormalds
Johnson, Lawrence & Elder

The North Island Four Wheel Drive Challenge has been put together by a small dedicated group of 4WD enthusiasts (all experienced club members) on a non-profit cost-recovery basis.

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