Worsleys Spur Shiny Trip 30 Sept 2006

[billyvanboheman]

Well here goes only my second attempt at a trip report so be gentle, this is only my second trip so I see a bit of a pattern here.

The day started at the meeting point which was to be Coffee Culture Cashmere here in Christchurch, myself, my fiancé and our 8mth old arrived a bit early and enjoyed the hospitality of the café with a very nice latte and sun dried tomato and brie muffin (no, I’m not originally from Auckland, he he).

The three vehicles departed the meeting point together after a quick intro between all of us and headed up to the start of the track. At the start of the track there was a quick outline from Mike on the approach to the day and goals we were aiming for, to get to the top was of course all that was on Elmo and my mind.

Mike was very thorough in his explanation of each obstacle, taking time to stop and point out the possible lines to each challenge and all of us discussing the merits of each before attempting each piece. Some of the photos from the album show slightly different lines being taken by us all as the strengths and weaknesses of each vehicle were taken into account (my open diffs saw me steer clear of cross locking problem spots where possible and straddling 5 metre wide ruts was no problem for Elmo’s Safari (sorry Elmo, couldn’t help myself!!)

I found out very early in the trip that I was going to have the odd problem with traction as I have a habit of having too few wheels on the ground, so that’s something to work on but at the moment a good experience for finding out how far the old Isuzu will go.

We worked our way up the hill stopping and discussing and tackling obstacles as we went, it didn’t take Elmo long to fall over while taking photos, this is a habit of his he tells me, if anyone can make a helmet for Elmo with rear view mirrors for when he backs up taking photo’s I’m sure he would appreciate it.

I was marshalling Mike from the top of a climb but found as the Surf crested the hill the hand signals I was giving became difficult as with my hands up over my head Mike couldn’t see them. Mike crested the top no problem as we were well on line before that point but he commented when at the top on where the signals had disappeared to and suggested that the hand held PRS I had might have been a better idea, but as I told him that was a bit difficult as it was in one of the hands over my head.

I’m very purposely steering clear of commenting on the Isuzu having to be towed through obstacles (it was only three times!!!!!) as there is photographic proof for those who want to see it, they would not let me delete them so that’s all I’m saying about THAT!

We got to within sight of the top but the first breakage of the day with Mike’s Left outer CV letting go.

Oh well, there’s always next attempt to try to make it all the way to the top, then there’s always the trip down again which only had a couple of small events, as we approached a bit of a slope my fiancé/navigator/photographer and all round great person did notice Mikes right rear wheel slightly leave the ground and commented “don’t turn it over Mikeâ€

[mike]

Great trip report Alex. It was a good day and I'm just glad I busted the CV there, just up the road from home, and not on a westcoast trip Because now I think I'll carry a spare!

Definitly good to see the capabilities of the different vehicles on each obstacles especially with a few surprises here and there.

Look forward to the next one.

Mike