After a delayed start we made it to the start of the Whanga Road and unloaded, deflated and changed tyres

and had a coffee. This is where we met the Love Artic.

With the dry weather we thought the tracks would be farley dry – nope!

We found a long stretch of water that Pop entered like an Ice-Breaker, then followed by Andy.

Some of the bog holes were deep and rutted, requiring you to pick your line with care. The Papa clay or

slurry was very slippery with unknown depths in some trenches.

The vehicles with wind screens kept the driver dry but had some issues with visibility. The drill pipe site.

God bless the tight seal on the back door. Thanks to a little pull from Jeff I was on my way.

We made it to the ‘bridge to somewhere’ only to find it blocked by a wedding party on a photo shoot.

We could have given them a lift and saved the cost of a chopper!

The accommodation we found very comfortable except someone snored all night.

On Sunday morning we found that it came with a very capable sucker!

Once we were loaded we shoe-horned over this bridge for the treck home. This is when Pop’s zuk started

misbehaving with the starter and fuel pump. This got worse when we went over the logging track that was

very rutted this year.

After we traversed to the mill site Ross sent Andy to scout a track down to the Whanganui River. When

Andy got back to us his gearbox was louder than his radio. Oh hark and BUGGER we were on the low

side of big decent and a plan was hatched that would see Jeff in his new cruiser and Burnhard in Jeff’s

Safari link together and pull up Andy. So with one false start resulting in Andy’s winch rope being pulled

out of the drum, they made it up with minimal effort and wheel-spin.

So with Burnhard towing Andy and Bill being shunted up the spare tyre all the way to the pig hunting hut

things were going well. We passed some lovely Series 1 Landies, some with road tyres, on the way down

to the hut. Once over the bridge Ross hooked bill on and pulled him out.

I got Andy home to live to fight another day – or at least when he isn’t “over it”, Paj will be back in action

again I am sure.

Thanks again Ross for another outstanding trip.

Steve Kernot.