We got away from home at 7am to arrive at the trail start around 9. Two trucks and a crew of five  to cut and slash our way through the bush into our new GPS plotted track which was to join up  two existing tracks.

We hopped out for a stretch and to lock our hubs in and that was when the day started going bad with Chris's RH hub on his 413 not locking in properly. I pulled it apart to find it pretty well full of crap and cleaned it the best I could and put it back on this time the knob turned around to the "lock" position problem solved - Yeah Right !

The first part of the track was to prove more slippery than I had anticipated after 300mm (12") of rain had fallen in the past 3 days. I locked up Mudfkr ARB's front and rear and made the first short climb after two attempts to a step of about 2' that I knew we'd be winching over where I waited for Chris. Hearing his 413 screaming it's nuts off  I look over to see no drive on his front end and the eze locked rear throwing huge roster tails up - not a good sign  :'(

It's was decided to just snatch him up to where I was as I'd have to winch him up the step any way as he has no winch 
Pic below.


After getting over the step we then relished we couldn't get traction on the hard slippery surface  and we'd have to continue winching up until we got to the first flat area where we could get a run up for the next climb.
Pic below..


That was all good until I caught a small stump just below the surface while wheel spinning hard out  and blew my RH C/V to bits, Luckily I'd left my spear at home . I decided it would be a bit of a PITA but I'd just drive it with the front ARB locked when needed as  I wasn't giving up!. At around this time Chris's 413 had regained drive to the front, hubs must of freed them selfs up a bit 
Well the  first 85meters to the flat area took us just over an hour and a half 
Where we then stopped and fried eggs on the Warn M6000 motor for breakfast, actually thats not quite true but it was hot enough to fry on !!! 

Then we were off for the second part of the climb.
Pic below...


I got at least 30 meters before losing traction again and stopping then it hit me !!!!!!!
while I was mucking around with Chris's hubs we'd both forgotten to air down  I was still
running 30 psi all round  so out with the deflater an down to 8psi  Then I hit it again and got a bit further but still came to a holt after losing grip again. I never regained traction for the last 325mt's left of the climb so I winched the whole way to the top with Chris tied to the back of me, it only took us 4.5 hours of winching and slashing to do just over 400mt's !! 



At the top we stopped for lunch then moved off down the other side to find a few drop offs about 20' but drivable in a Zuk  Pic below


Shortly after that we ended up coming out of the native bush on to a saddle with short scrub left over from logging native wood out in the late 60's that was to be the highest point with a good view all around so we stopped for a few pics again. Pic below


Then it was off down the ridge and back in to the native but this time on to a semi cut track from the logging era, much easier going now  Pic below


Coming to the end of the native we frond a few step down hills runs on a type of clay we call parpa which is like ice, hard but slippery if wet. Luckily it wasn't to wet and we only had a few moments where Mudfkr wanted to take off. Pic below


Then we get to the end where we should be able to drive to the main track in to find that the loggers had destroyed all the tracks out to the road, great no frickin track 
A bit of spotting from the ridge and I chose my escape path   


Not to bad going...


Dodging stumps and logging slash


Funny it didn't look that steep from up the top 


We both got down on the road OK and picked up our winch man up who had decided to walk down
then proceeded to drive home which then after 10 minutes Mudfkr decided to break the clutch cable which I had not tied back in place properly while mucking around under the hood and it rubbed through on the alternator pulley  Good stuff when you've got a 100Km's to get home and no clutch but  you can change gear OK with out it when you have to.

Below is a shot from my new mapping program of our trail. GPS rocks

Nice Pics and write up Shane


The last few look..... scary!

Cheers

Nick

Nick,

I hadn't finished writing and hit the  post button so theres a bit of text with the last few pics now that I've edited it.

Yeah that last bit was steeper than it looked from up the top but it flattened out just before where we had to stop and turn so it was all good 

Shane

Cool.

What sort of GPS let's you do mapping like that m8? I am thinking of replacing my Garmin Emap, but the UK is going crazy for sat nav type GPS, not what I would call true GPS systems.

Cheers

Nick

superb trip mate, would love to come on that,

Next Memory map has all the OS maps for the uk and you can plot. i have the maps just got to get the software for my PDA.  you do you plan on your plc then transfer it to PDA

Cool.

What sort of GPS let's you do mapping like that m8? I am thinking of replacing my Garmin Emap, but the UK is going crazy for sat nav type GPS, not what I would call true GPS systems.

Cheers

Nick

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend and the mapping soft wear is call Tumonz which stands for The Ultimate Map Of New Zealand. I can down load way points or tracks to the soft wear from the GPS or do the just the opposite and build a track on Tumonz then export it to the GPS to take with me. Next step is to buy a laptop and then I will be able to live track to.

You can also view it in 3d which allows you to move the sun to shade it differently and then you just click and drag you way around or "fly thru" using you mouse to guide you. Heres a shot of 3d veiw


Another handy feature is you can draw a line across the map then click "line height" and it will show you the side elevation which is crash hot if your planning a track. The track I planned for had a 50mt drop into a stream  we changed which way we'd go after seeing that. 

Awesome trip, looks like a lot of fun.

I think I have decided a wide, and I mean a really
wide and aggressive tire, like the LTB Swampers
like mine at 13.5 wide help prevent things like the
nuked CV you got out of this trip.  How could this be
you may ask   Less slippage, more traction, at first
is seems backwards, more traction less breakage ?

But here is the logic (mine) to this, more traction
and less wheel spin, the kind that rips up CVs when
the tire gets an extreem amount of traction, like that
tree stump you dug into with your tires spinning at
XX miles per hour (Km/Hr)

I hit sand hills and dirt hills, mud hills on occasion, and
let me tell you, witht eh engine a 6000 RPM and the
boost guage at 7 PSI im pushing 125 HP at the tires,
multiplied by the stock low range reduction, and the
only thing I have ever broke is a 22 spline long side
front axle shaft, and that was after I started bouncing
really bad on a stupidly steep rock face that I had no
business trying to get on top of

On the flip side, you get great carnage photos 

Wild

I know I may have asked before but where are you in NZ again?  Looks like a great time man.

Can't say I'd blame the winch man for wanting to get out.

Wild,

I don't know if huge swampers would of helped alot. The climb is steeper than it looks in the pic and after 300mm of rain in the area I doubt any tire wouldn't clog up and spin.

I understand what your theory is saying but some times more traction is also a problem, I guess you can't have it both ways.

Mudfkr

I know I may have asked before but where are you in NZ again?  Looks like a great time man.

Can't say I'd blame the winch man for wanting to get out.

I'm in Napier, Hawkes Bay.

This trip was half way between Napier and Taupo.

IIRC you didn't come down this way when you were NZ, if you come back be sure to look me up and you can come and be my winch man for a day - your not allowed to hop out though 

Heh, no problem man.  I didn't get away from Christchurch last time but wanted to.  Consider that offer accepted!

The wife keeps saying she wants to go to Australia and I keep saying NZ is on the way...one of these decades...

that is some steep hills... did u drive back up it again?? 

Have to get the nelson club to go there next year on the northern safari

that is some steep hills... did u drive back up it again?? 

No, But I'm going to  .

We've planed another 2.4Km's of track to cut and thats the quickest end to start from otherwise we've got to go back and winch the 4.5 hrs to the top at the start end again.

We're going back this weekend to take some Gps way pionts over where I think we're go to come out so I can plan the track a little better on the lap top.

Should be a good track, in 3D on the lap top it looks mostly down hill with the last 150mts being extremly steep which is the only real big concern.