Whangamomona

After hearing about the mighty Whangamomona for years, it was great to finally get the chance to go and have a look.  It's a bit of a trip from Vegas but well worth the effort, not only for the tracks and station drives that we did, but also the history of the area.

You can see why the returned servicemen walked away from their ballots after trying to make them work.  Ruggedly beautiful country but unforgiving.  Some of the tracks were hellish steep and that's not including the bum puckering drop offs often on both sides!

The Bridge to Somewhere

It's a hard life in the sunshine; sunday wasn't so rosy.

Alan testing his trailer to the limits.

Hopefully there're more photos to come (hint).

As usual, if you weren't there, you missed out.

CAPTION COMPETITION

Captions please.

But:

No wise cracks or arseing around.

Send to Griff

Thanks to Colin, we had a working bee at Marcel's new sheds.  We lined walls, put up walls, put in windows and put up lights and drank some beer (mostly in that order).

 Then thanks to Alan Hoffman we had another working bee.  We cut holes in the side of the building and put in windows, lined walls, put up more lights and drank some beer (mostly in that order).

sorry about the upside down photos.

Maungaroa Station 2013

Another awesome trip into Maungaroa, Alan did a great job getting us back into a stunning place for four wheeling and just hanging out for the weekend.

Three trucks in on Friday afternoon with another three on saturday morning and a full long weekend of off roading, exploring, minor fixes, horse riding and peacocks.  Rain on Friday night was the worst of the weather with the rest of the weekend stunning (out of the wind!), warm and sunny.

If you weren't there, you missed out.

TECT Park Working Bee/October Club Meeting

October 20th saw a few members show up for a working bee and club meeting at TECT Park.

The last trip ended in carnage for a few members vehicles on one of the tracks and so despite it being very much a non-event this time round, a 'safety rut' was dug into the corner and a few other potential new tracks were explored and opened up.

Alan must get the stink day of the month award with two punctures and a busted CV (and only a few days to fix things before Mangaroa Station!).

The recent weather showed how it can change the tracks for both the worse and the better.  Once again, those who didn't show missed out.

Check out the pics:

First hole blues. . .

. . . for pretty much everyone.

That is indeed a 35" tyre almost visible.

Observe an insanity plea about to be entered.

Oh no Daddy! That man is using my spade,

from MY sand pit!

Beadlocks do NOT help if using racing slicks. . .

Vinny a wee bit stumped.

Brass Monkey Weekend Minginui 2013

Early June saw a few hardy souls brave the cold of Minginui for this years Brass Monkey Weekend.

Young Daniel had a spot of bother with a wee axle break.  Perhaps a comment made in jest resulted in a novel way of retrieving the broken piece of axle. . .

Step 1: Tip truck over using winch and fish around with a magnet until broken bit falls out.

Step 2: Fit new axle and top up with recycled diff oil.

Step 3: Do up drive flange and replace truck on level ground.

Job done!