We started out at at Turakina beach for the run down to Scotts Ferry.
We had a strong Westerly this time round, so ended up hiding away in the forest off the beach in an effort to get out of the wind. Didn't get many pic's as a result.
The next day we waited for the tide to go out enough to start weaving our way though the drift wood down to Scotts Ferry. The tide was marginal, but added to the fun
The shock was when we got to the Scotts Ferry end of the beach and climbed the dunes over to the exit off the beach. What had been a big hard pan between the dunes and the forest a few weeks ago was now a salty lagoon waist deep in places. Funny thing is, the 1:50 shows it as a lagoon
I had a chat to a local who casually cruised through on his quad on his way out for a fish as we watched, as i was interested to know if the lagoon level changed with the tides. He didn't think it would, but surprised me with an offer for us to head to his place, where to find his hose pipe and that we could wash down the four trucks. Unprecedented generosity which was greatly received as we had no real option but to cross, or travel back up the beach the way we had come.
So we had to cross.......
Even after a good hose down i wasn't really happy, so we went to a river on the outskirts of Feilding and gave the trucks a good wash down on the river and camped there for the night
We headed up Takapari road up onto the top of the Ruahine ranges the following day. The weather was good, and the views expansive:
After lunch the cloud rolled in. We ventured past the A Frame hut and rounded a corner to find a stock Pajero and two cold and worried occupants stuck in a water table. They were "just turning round", more like trying to show off to his missus. I winched em out and we carried on until we came to a washed out down hill section. In better weather, with more hours of day light we would have gone down it, but we made the call to turn round as its a good excuse to come back
The track was in excellent condition, just the visibility was crap
We broke out of the cloud on the way back down and headed for the river to camp.
The sun set gradually got more awesome as we descended:
We bunked down on the river bed for the night and made Pizza's in the camp oven for dinner.
We started heading north the following day and decided to have a quick look up Ridge road that runs between Mangaweka and Taihapi. Last report I had heard was from a few years ago were a slip had taken out a section of track.
The track started off good:
Then got narrow in a few places
It would be treacherous in the wet!!
The views were awesome
But it wasn't long before we needed to do some track work:
A few rocks to move:
And a couple of narrow bits to squeeze through
The Troopy sucking it in:
UBZ giving the fence a kiss:
Up next
We got to the slip, and there was a bypass round it, up over the ridge. I reckon this is where the issues with this road will be in the future, i doubt that the bypass is on the road reserve still.
Down the other side to rejoin the road. All clay, so would be really slippery in the wet:
The track continued in good condition up the the summit:
The views at the top were awesome;
Old wool shed
From there the track threaded its way down towards Taihapi. This side was in much better condition and looked like sees regular use:
At the road end, we were very surpirsed to make it all the way through with out a locked gate or slip!!
Homeward bound, end of another awesome trip. Time to pull the new transfer case out and send it in for a rebuild
