D.B's Top of the Sth Tour 2013

[DieselBoy]

We had been planning a two week trip around the West Coast of the Nth island when it was quiet after the peak summer madness and schools had gone back, but music intervened

We ended up booked to play a 2hr set on the main stage at the Luminate festival in Takaka on Monday the 8th of Feb which was right ion the middle of our trip. Not wanting to let the bro's down, I ended up with a plan B. The rest of the Band flew down, and I got my ferry crossing payed for, they brought some of my gear down with them and met up for the gig.

I had a weeks notice to organise an impromptu 2 week Sth Is trip. It was a bit gutting as we had to ditch Zuki (Dog) due to staying at the Luminate festival, and UBZ n Chess couldn't make it due to the late notice of plan change.

It was just us at the start, so it was time to hit the tourist route and explore the sounds as we had never done that before.

First up it we threaded our way up to French Pass and stopped the night at the Doc camp up there

French pass

Cool Little Doc camp site

Sand Castles on the beach



Cruised over to Harvey bay

Cool views on the way


Found a mint little spot for the night beside a stream


Next up we cruised up to Omaltutu Bay Stopped for the night at a Doc Camp at CowShed bay

Picturesque spot



Locals coming to check us out (Weka's are a big deal to Nth Islanders )


Had to make a improvised shower tent out of the radiator blind and the quick awning co's of the other campers in the site



Back on the road the next day up to Kenepuru and Omalatutu Bay, found another mint little spot for the night at the waters edge.

Crazy assed tree in the middle of the road

Bombed some rocks

Camp for the night



Got sick of the tourists, so jetted up to Rainbow road, met up with the Hall Seniors in their Troopy shipped fresh back from an OZ tour and continued the mission. We waited around for them for an hour or so, couldn't get them on the PRS or the CB, so went for a drive to get reception. Turned out they had got half way to us and got a stone clean through the front windscreen of the troopy. Punched a small hole through it and shatterd a big part of the screen. They were on their way back to Blenheim to get it replaced at 3pm. They met up with us at about 7pm that night with a fresh new windscreen. Joys of a Toyota, woulda bin a different story with the Defender I would say.

Next day payed our $25 per vehicle (hurry up PANZ, this is robbery )
and got the cruize on. Lunch stop up the river:








Lake Sedgmere


Can't remember the name of the hut


Mean View from the Hut


Stop for the night was our secret (not so secret these days lol) spot at Lake Tennyson






Heading over to the summer spot:

A nice soft water crossing keeps most out

Looks like its seen some visitors though!


Camp site for the night under the beach trees outa the sun



Our nice cool shady private beach, it was over 26 degrees in the sun



Sand Castle time


Coulda spent a few days there swimming and walking, but the next destination was only open 3 weekends a year, from Friday lunch time to 5pm Sunday, so we had to press on......

[DaveM]

Coulda spent a few days there swimming and walking, but the next destination was only open 3 weekends a year, from Friday lunch time to 5pm Sunday, so we had to press on......

Clarence Reserve?

[lilpigzuk]

Nice errr view there satalite

[skid]

Nice errr view there satalite

trust you to spot that fanta


soooo jealous of your trips Pete, Sez & junior

[DieselBoy]

we fueled up the main tanks and the jerry cans in Hanmer and headed toward Kaikoura and into the Clarence Reserve.

The Clarence reserve is only open three weekends a year from miday Friday to 5pm Sunday. Ya have to sign in with the DOC ranger at the end of the road, fill in some paper work, get a bit of a vehicle inspection, do a little dance etc etc

Having never been in there before, I had no idea we were about to spend two and a half days in low range, covering a total of just under 200k's (in low range ) in 35 degree heat and the DUST, holy sh1t was it dusty!!!!

Anyway we climbed, and climbed and climbed. 2nd gear low range climbing, watching the temp gauges as the out side air temperature sored. It was 26 degrees when we left the DOC ranger, it was 28.8 degrees at the Blind Saddle.



Looking back to Kaikoura




Winding road winding away through the mountains



River Valley way down there is were we are heading


Stopped for a break in the shade under the Poplar trees at Black spur hut


We decided to mish it all the way into the Palmer hut and up the Palmer river for the night. didn't erealise it was gonna be such a treck. 20k's took us 2.5 hours of rough winding narrow tracks over the mountains.




Finally found another nice shady place up the Palmer for a late set up




Trekked Back the way we had come and checked out the Cobb house at Quail Flat






Found some more shade for the night, 35 dgrees and the water in the Clarence was like a heated swimming pool, spent a few hours drifting down the river washing the dust off!

We set Alex up with some where to play and emptied the truck and tried to clean some dust out. The fridge compressor was full of it due to a tear in the rear door seal



DUST!!


Cool old hut, complete with bunks





Lotsa trekking round, 200k's, 2.5days in low range, wicked place to visit, even just to swim in a river that's soooo warm

We had to gap it over to Takaka, so was mission on to get there for gig at 8:30pm on the Monday night!!!

Next on the list after the gig was to have a look down Teetotal road at St Arnaud........

[DieselBoy]

Triple postage

[stealth]

looks like a fantastic trip! love how clear the water is up there.

[skid]

now this is one of the faaarking good reasons why this website can be awesome

we can see wonderful scenic places like this that some of us had never heard of and now pencil them into our bucket list

you guys rock

[mercutio]

soooo jealous of your trips Pete, Sez & junior

i agree totally i always enjoy reading about their trips

[DieselBoy]

After a bloody late night/early morning at Luminate, and jamming for half an hour over our 2hr set time co's they wanted more (frikken hippies ) we headed through to St Arnaud, up to the lake look out


Then rambled down Teetotal road and pitched an early camp as we were all running on bugger all sleep. Wicked little spot by the head of the Buller river. Good swimming if you didn't mind the odd nip from the monster eels that had escaped Lake





Next up was Letham Road

That was a major surprise. We just thought it would be a boring old logging road but it turned out to a awesome cruise through the mountains with a couple of little water crossings to keep you entertained!!

Swing bridge near the start


Moving goolies, dam little road wheels




One of the huts up the Leatham Valley


Camp for the night




Next day headed up to the boulder hut, was frikken hot, Alex had it sorted at lunch time though



From there we headed up the branch river track up the hut at the end. Could have sworn i took a pick of the hut, its more of a log cabin!!

Crossing the branch river


Sussing another crossing


More little crossings



Any how, there was a track off the end of the hut, on the map it looked like it went up to the ridge behind the hut. Rude not to take a look right??

Bloody track sure as hell went up, like 600 meters in 3k's up according to the GPS plot!!!! Was the steepest continuous track i have ever driven, hair pin after hair pin, almost straight frikken up for 3k's!! Lockers in and kept the turbo pumping at 15psi in 2nd low, no room to chicken out and back off, had to maintain the momentum and pick you way through the deep water ruts on the fly.....
(ok, shut up you central boy's, you guy's do steep better than anywhere in the country )

Couple of big heavy long wheel base trucks full of 100liters of fuel, 40 liters of water, food, gear, so yeah, they were working hard like the drivers

On the way down, we were both on the brakes in 1st low to stop the trucks
running away. Pretty shaky by the time we got back down to the hut, adrenaline???

Naturally no pic's of that track, you gotta go see that for yourself!!

Camp for the night was a nice spot on the branch river bed:


Well worth the drive up there

We had a day to spare, as my folks were heading elsewhere so we hit some east coast beach's around Blenheim






......and the end of the road for this trip, some 3500k's smashed and shock horror, no issues with the Defender. OK, i have the wheel alignment a knock somewhere, but other than that it survived the work out in the heat and dust nicely. Maybe "Dusty" will survive her trip to OZ after all.................

[sig]

jealous much

[mike]

epic!!

I sure do hope you do some posting from oz, would love to follow a couple of kiwis we know over there (al doesnt count)

[badnuz]

by far the best trip reports on here ! awesome stuff guys, jealous!

[DieselBoy]

epic!!

I sure do hope you do some posting from oz, would love to follow a couple of kiwis we know over there (al doesnt count)

We will, gotta get there first though

[Madaz]

What did you think of the sandflys up the Leatham?

[DieselBoy]

What did you think of the sandflys up the Leatham?

Sandflys, wasps and bumble bees start to do your head in up there alright

Secret is to camp on the river bed out in the open away from grass, in the wind, and make your campfire smokey and up wind of the camp sight

[Sadam_Husain]

sounds like it hasnt changed much since I took my camper up there fawk those little bastards can bite, in the early morning they were so thick you could barely see through the black cloud I must have breathed in about a million of the little buggars nice peacefull place up there we pretty much had it to ourselves for the few days we were up there, took an old fold out bed/couch up there with us and a camp oven to keep the bread supplies going and a chillybin full of ice and coldies to keep hydrated, awesome spot

[Dirtydog]

how was luminate? mother went up there for a road trip, for about 2 and a half weeks, heard some good things about it, may head up some point.

[Madaz]

What did you think of the sandflys up the Leatham?

Sandflys, wasps and bumble bees start to do your head in up there alright

Secret is to camp on the river bed out in the open away from grass, in the wind, and make your campfire smokey and up wind of the camp sight

Random thing was we did a week long hunting trip from the branch hut on the other side, no sandflies, bees or wasps..........

(No f##kin deer either.......... Thanks DOC and your heligunship )

[DieselBoy]

how was luminate? mother went up there for a road trip, for about 2 and a half weeks, heard some good things about it, may head up some point.

Lotsa Ladies lounging around in the sun in Bikini's or less, electro stage was pumping untill the sun came up, no munters, good coffee and cool summer vibe. Worst part was all the vegan food, I like my MEAT

Prana still takes the cake, the beach is awesome in the middle of the night

[fullthrottle]

What a cool trip. Nice to see the family survive it.
I probably would have left my kids behind after the 2nd day of continuous moaning.

Great stuff.

Did the trip take some time to plan or was it an 'as you go' type journey?

[Dirtydog]

how was luminate? mother went up there for a road trip, for about 2 and a half weeks, heard some good things about it, may head up some point.

Lotsa Ladies lounging around in the sun in Bikini's or less, electro stage was pumping untill the sun came up, no munters, good coffee and cool summer vibe. Worst part was all the vegan food, I like my MEAT

Prana still takes the cake, the beach is awesome in the middle of the night

Get lucky then?

But yea i may pass if its all vegan food, im a 2 servings of meat, and some veg, not veg with a side serve (if any....)

[Taz]

how was luminate? mother went up there for a road trip, for about 2 and a half weeks, heard some good things about it, may head up some point.

Lotsa Ladies lounging around in the sun in Bikini's or less, electro stage was pumping untill the sun came up, no munters, good coffee and cool summer vibe. Worst part was all the vegan food, I like my MEAT

Prana still takes the cake, the beach is awesome in the middle of the night

Get lucky then?

But yea i may pass if its all vegan food, im a 2 servings of meat, and some veg, not veg with a side serve (if any....)

Bring your own meat man! It is currently one of the best festivals in NZ imho. The right time of year and the right distance away from most places to put off that 'tard' element that is more and more common at outdoor gigs =)
I just hope it doesn't get too big and go bust like they all seem to do eventually.

Nice pics of your trip too DB. Thanks for sharing.

[lilpigzuk]

how was luminate? mother went up there for a road trip, for about 2 and a half weeks, heard some good things about it, may head up some point.

Lotsa Ladies lounging around in the sun in Bikini's or less, :

Get lucky then?

...)