Taupo Road Vehicle recovery Oct '09

[dazza85]

Around 4pm Crazee called in to my place and said that the police were looking for 4wd's to help recover vehicles that were stuck in snow on the Taupo road.

So I grabbed some extra layers and after a stop at the gas station we headed off.
We struck the snow just after Dillon's hill. and through Te Pohue there was already a good layer of snow on everything.
On up and over the hill and into the work.
4wd's were lined up to take turns pulling people out and over the top so they could drive carefully down the other side ant out they went and the 4wd joined the back of the line to do it all again.
Snow was continuing to fall and I think we probably had 300 mm or more in 2 hours. This made the down hill section quite dangerous and with the failing light the decision was made to get the people out and so the ferry service began.
The well setup trucks were ferrying people down the Te Pohue hotel.
And the less well setup (Me on not the best tyres) then ferried them down to the Te Pohue hall while buses were organised to come up to the snow line.
Then we all got involved in ferrying the people down to the buses.
I also took a some medically unwell folk straight into town as did a couple of other 4wd's.
I believe that most of the 4wd's left around 12-1am

I would like the others from here that were there to post their experiences.

I have only done a little driving on snow before so really appreciate the help from all the great people that told me what to do / watch out for.
Also a speical thanks to Crazee for putting gas in my truck so I could come and help
Also to Weemsy who pulled me off the fence after I touched the brakes to avoid someone that had stopped in the middle of the road at the turn off to the hall.

[badnuz]

well done Steve, Dazza and all the others that helped out

[nzhunter]

good work guys.

Any pics?

[Jerry]

sounds like a good story for either of the 4wd mags....., would any of the local papers be interesed in putting a small piece up?

[dazza85]

good work guys.

Any pics?

I have some thou not very good I will post them up tomorrow

One of the many tows before we went to recovering people only

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/video/snow-tow

Some photos here

http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l106/Dazza_HB/Taupo%20Road%20Snow/?albumview=grid

[J_Dub]

good storys for the papers to show how 4x4s can be helpful

[Flyingpony]

Good work people!

Is there a register the police have or they simply contact a local 4wd club?

This is something I'd like to do once my old girl is ready.

[lilpigzuk]

Nice work fullas, A few 4wd name plugs on TV1 news tonight...

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/strande ... 8236/video

[Jerry]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2931028 ... ered-roads

[Andrew1706]

http://maidennz.wordpress.com/2009/10/0 ... oad-chaos/

Found on another forum

[its_that_guy2]

sharp effort guys ... yet another pat on the back for the 4wd community in general

[jeremy]

http://maidennz.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/pictures-of-napier-taupo-road-chaos/

Found on another forum

Photo of Wayne Lovejoy in his Winch Challenge Zuk helping out...


http://maidennz.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/dsc_0277.jpg

[Jerry]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2934092 ... ins-closed

Heres an updated report on stuff which just credits the Taupo 4wd club and not the others involved.......

[skid]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2934092/Snow-covered-road-remains-closed

Heres an updated report on stuff which just credits the Taupo 4wd club and not the others involved.......

its the same every few years when the road gets a good dumping

last time I was in there with the Taupo club and all the reports had the HB club as the rescuers.

It doesnt matter who gets the thanks, its all a good plug for the 4wd clubs of NZ and the effort they put in to help out.

Using their own fuel and working all night to rescue trapped people

It just shows more of the good spirit involved within clubs in NZ

[pruggerdore]

I was there doin my bit, good pr if only our effort had been acknowledged. news reports are that civil defense and army did it. all over by the time they turned up. bit pissed about that. I informed the breakfast show on how it really was which they mentioned on air briefly. good fun playin in the snow tho

[corosafari]

Good effort guys and girls
Had it been a day earlier my elderly mum would have been caught in that.
Dont get hung up on poor media coverage or anything like that, you done an awsome job, the people you rescued will never forget that.
Im not a club member, still looking, but after hearing about this from contractor in Tauranga, not news or papers, the word is out.

[T-Boon]

Wow, good work there guys.

http://www.usar.govt.nz/usarwebsite.nsf ... enDocument

Join the civil defence team and you will likely get to do more of the similar. we're going down on excercise to taupo labour weekend, so should be fun

[Weemsy]

i was in there with dazza and the rest of the guys.

im from the uk, so i know what a lot of snow is like, but i cant remember ever seeing so much snow fall so quickly. everybody there did a bloody fantastic job of getting those people from the top of the titiokura(sp) down to the te pohue pub and beyond.

there is a de-briefing by the transport authority at the Taradale RSA on tuesday 13th at 8pm to get some comments from all involved, as the guys from transit and the rural fire boys had all said that us 4x4 boys had gone beyond the call of duty doing what we did, as we were there from 1.30 sunday arvo til way past midnight.

everyone who we rescued will remember how 4wd's got them out of the cold, so its a big 'thumbs up' for us in general. hopefully they will remember what we do before they complain about seeing a convoy of us heading home from a great run, covered in mud

a big thanks to the guys from the taupo end too. a customer of mine was in one of your trucks sunday. he sends his best regards to you, unfortunately he cant remember the name of the driver, but a big thanks from him

weemsy