Right so ended up heading down to the west coast with my wife Dani and a friend from yachting, all in the Surf and with no other vehicles.
We drove from the ferry through to Lyell near Inangahua and camped out at the site of the old town or near there. Pretty epic piece of history. Awoke to choppers ferrying in mountain bikers. First one was cool to see but then it got old pretty damned quick and we couldnt wait to get out of there.
By chance I dropped into the Lyell creek and we drove a wee way up it, and as far as creeks/small rivers go it was pretty epic scenery.
We stopped off and read about the history in the local musem and that is one town that takes their gold mining history seriously with a whole building dedicated to it with full on information boards with maps, photos and books filled with locals stories and newspapers from the era. Very fascinating.
We drove straight to Denniston and went up to the top to the TV tower. So much scenery and the views were as far as the eye could see. The day was perfect. Spent a long time exploring the old mining ruins and reading about the history of the area. Was a crazy crazy place in its day.
We camped out at westport holiday camp and caught up with nuts, andy and carl?? . So yeah andy asked if I had a winch and since I said yes he said I'd get through tailings! Hmm I thought, this is a self drive shiny trip down the west coast and the hidden implications of that sentence were endlessly going around in my head
The next day (Saturday) dawned and it was pouring down so we ruled out Mount Greenland and decided to nosey in and have a look at Tailings.
The track started off awesome, river wasn't in flood but there was plenty of water on the track with sections of it little rivers so to speak. First stream crossing was a walk in the park
and then the first rocky section wasn't too bad, as long as I can turn around get back she'll be right. This is what I kept thinking to myself the whole way in.
Next up was the big river crossing in the middle of the track. Clearly no one had been through since the last big down pours, as there were big branches (or small trees in wellington terms) blocking the exit and I had to scramble across and clear an exit before even attempting the crossing. Getting to the river was going to prove the biggest challenge as there were some very big rocks/boulders (pebbles to the rock guys) in the way. The surf is locked in the front so you have to take that into consideration when trying to turn sharply in tricky situations. Just off the front wheel was a nice big hole and without solid axle artic the surf will fall into it and not be in a very good position. It was slow going and thank god for auto and left foot braking!
On exit of the river there was a small climb with a small wet rock face, and Murphy's law says if you don't get stuck in the river you will get stuck on the easy bit just after the river when you're feeling all confident and the like, and look like a complete dork! Had to winch!! First time for the winch. total 30cm
Probably could have fanged it, but might have slid sideways further and ended up down that little bank knowing my luck.
After the river we started to climb a long way up and it was awesome. We came across a slip and it was very narrow and I decided to dig it out further while the girls made lunch. I removed quite a bit and built up the drop off side and even lay my spade down as insurance. Back right wheel hit the end of the spade, so glad I put that there! I had visions of a recent facebook vid of a bus trying to negotiate a slip and disappearing over the side!!
At this point I still thought we could get back with out too much drama and decided to carry on. I for the life of me couldn't remember this track, and at this stage, if we had cell phone reception I would have tried to get hold of someone to ask if it loops back round or ends up coming out in oxford or something! Once we got to the top we started down hill and we almost came to grief in a hidden hole. The navi saw it and I didn't, and unfortunately the navi had been calling every bump in the track as a gaping crevasse up until now, so I didn't heed the warning and drove straight into it! Ouch! from now on, I'll educate my navi's. They have half the field of vision so they have half the responsibility
The track started to get fairly overgrown and we were starting to wonder how many people come down this far. It was starting to get on in the day and from google maps it looked like we were heading to the mountains and not turning around anytime soon
It was a real "where the hell are we going" sort of adventure. We were well setup for camping and it really wouldnt have mattered if we had to stay the night in there. Secretly I was wanting to stay as that would have added to the adventure and mystery of it all, sort of like the explorers of old.
We came across a T-intersection and the road we had to turn out on to was a river! Track meets river/creek and no exit in sight. No option but to go bush searching. We located the exit and an old broken bridge for the track/road we are wheeling on and returned and grabbed the truck and headed off along the creek to rejoin the old road/track.
We meandered along a ridge-line and then the track turned hard left which is the point where Dani and I both simultaneously remembered doing this track 2008ish. The rocky roller coaster ride from hell !
Essentially we were a train wreck out of control going down here. I managed to slightly dent the fuel tank, knocked the transfer case quite hard, probably more than once, and bash the lower front A-arm plate between the front wheels. I think it would have been smoother with no wheels and sliding down on the chassis rails! Dani was on the camera got such a fright at us heading for her she couldn't focus in time!
We got ourselves together and then had a nosey around the corner only to find a nice big deep bog. Last time I drove straight through and it was pretty fun. That was 8 years ago, god knows what it was like now!
I grabbed a stick and checked the depth, straight down and broke off, bugger I thought. Do I want to get another one and see how deep it actually is? Screw it, just drive it I thought. So I got in and chucked it in D and started off. Problem with low range auto is it sticks in L for ages. So we dropped in and slowly started forward and got just past the log and stopped. The bonnet disappeared under and I thought shit this is deep. Put it in reverse and nothing, crap I thought! and then it started to bite and away we went with my foot hard down. We go back out and I breathed a huge sigh of relief and checked out the water that started to fill in through the tunnel and doors (tailgate included).
No vehicles to tow, winch completely put away, recovery gear still in the back, that was dumb, real dumb! This time I got the winch remote out and hooked it up, got the gear ready, picked out a tree put it in high range dropped the front in and nailed it and climbed out the other side. Steam everywhere and muddy water in the vents.
There was no turning back now, we were going to complete this track whether it killed us or the surf! We headed on down to the river and got twisted up a couple of times, made our way across the river to the very impressive rock climb out. This climb out is impressive. Large rocks all the way up, quite steep and logs fallen across the track that had been cut away, cut away to fit a Suzuki through on 27" tyres. We walked up and built up some rocks that the surf would struggle against and figured we would have to stop at the fallen tree to check it anyway if we actually make it that far. Well the surf groaned, struggled and bounced (slowly) its way up to the tree and I actually had to stop before ripping the snorkel hat off.
I was so impressed it got that far that I suspect it would have driven right out of the top. We hooked the winch up to give us control in getting past the fallen tree and cut outs without damage.
Once we got to the top, we got on to a nice track and made our way back out to the state highway and headed for a camp ground at punakaiki. It was very unusual seeing normal cars on the road.
I had such a blast on this track that I didn't actually do any more wheeling and just did a little research and enjoyed the west coast for it's more normal activities. This leaves more time for wheeling in the next trip in November
