An early start to the day as we had to finish loading up the wagon for the adventure, a quick cuppa and

away off to the National Park turn off to meet up with Dennis, Lynne, Andy, Louise, Henery, Wendy, AJ,

meeting then there at 6-30am before even the sparrows woke, we head off toward Wellington stopping

along the way for breakfast in Wanganui.

Once checked in at the Bluebridge Terminal it took a little while waiting to be loaded, a few photos were

taken of the views leaving Wellington Harbor where there was a yacht race happening, seas a little choppy

out of the harbor keeping those who were a little uneasy guessing, calm waters through the channel with

great sights and photos, once unloaded we headed off to the accommodation for the night.

After breakfast we headed to Blenheim to get to Awatere valley rd which puts us onto Molesworth

Station, which has some fantastic views, including the old cabins at the Doc camp where we had lunch,

after lunch we headed up the Rainbow Rd and Lake Tennyson, great photos taken of the area, a few fords

crossed and off to Murchison for the night, pub dinner was great also.

After breakfast we headed off to the Maruia Reserve, awesome sights, and a fantastic water fall where we

had a tea break/ morning smoko, a slight detour to plans due to road closures seen us travel to Westport

for more fuel, from here we visited the Denniston mine, then onto Karamea for the night, we found that

this area is called Sand Fly Point, bugger there where lots and they loved to bite.

From here we ventured off towards Westport again checking out the open cast mine but we were unable to

get close enough to see, they did how ever have a cutting which was called the Grand Canyon. After a few

photos over the area we headed down towards Franz Joseph, calling into sites like the Pancake Rocks,

checking out the Blow Hole caves and the seals, a cool and wet night so we stayed at a motel in Franz

Joseph.

I headed off to Queenstown to pick up Queenie after having to attend a funeral back in Reporoa, I took a

few photos on the way down, water falls and lakes of great interest. Meeting back up with the group in

Wanaka for the night.

From here we headed off up the Mt Aspiring Valley Rd., which took us up to some great views of the

valleys and sites of the ranges around them. A cuppa and more photos including a tourist doing the haka

in front of our trucks for a laugh. From here we headed towards Queenstown calling into Cadrona Ski

field 1500mts at the car park, after here we went up the race to the sky track where Andy drove down to

Possum Bournes memorial site, check out the monster trucks at Cadrona including the one used in the v

commercial, off to Arrowtown for smoko, we headed up to Macetown crossing the river numerous times

and narrow tracks to reach our camp site for the night.

Returned from Macetown after taking some photos of sum old mining equipment, more river crossings

and great photos, off to Queenstown for a break and laundry.

Today we headed up to Skippers Canyon, great views even though sum were a little daunting due to the

narrow roads, old school and buildings, including a very old bridge which we had to cross one at a time,

once out of Skippers Canyon we headed up to Coronet Peak, Nevis Valley which had sum awesome views

including water races that went for miles even uphill occasionally, then off to Cromwell. Accommodation

was slim but we managed to get a very up market house for the night, not the Hilton but very close lol.

Today we ventured up the Carrick Town track, which doubled back into Nevis Valley, at the 1300mt

elevation it was a bit cloudy, actually we were in the clouds, off to Thomsom Gore track, then onto Hayes

Engineering, old machinery which was belt driven, antiques galore, on to Alexandra for the night, we

checked out Tuckers hill just on twilight looking over the city.

From Alexandra to the Old Dunstan 2 Rd, its crazy how you just drive through farms as they have paper

roads going through them, awesome rock formations which were used in the making off Lord of the Rings

movie, next was the Old Dunstan 1 Rd, same sort of rocks and views, checked out the seals at Shag Point,

next we headed up the Duncan Rd / Eason Rd coming out at Hampden.

Checked out the round boulders at Moeraki, tripped up the Pareora River, meet a nice farmer who was a

little unhappy we were driving on his farm but after talking to Dennis and being shown the map he was

settled down , off to check out some sites in Oamaru , photos taken here and there, museums an all sorts

off old buildings, a quick trip through Timaru on to Geraldine where we arrived a little late to check out

the museum so stayed at a Farmyard camp site.

We checked out the museum today Vintage Tractors and equipment, including old cars, we headed off to

Aurion valley, and Mendip Rd which was a lot longer than we thought, out at Amberley with no

accommodation available due to the memorial at ChCh we headed up to Hanmer Springs.

From Hanmer we headed to Gose Bay, Kaikoura and up the coast to Nelson.

Around Nelson we found sum 4x4 tracks but due to fire season these were closed, also sum had roads

works happening closing the road, Pelorus track and the Maitai Rds both closed, so we headed off to

French Pass out on the point between Nelson and Picton.

Homeward bound from French Pass towards Picton checking out the views over the valleys and sea views,

boarded the ferry at 1-30 and arrived in Wellington at 5-30ish, we took a photo of all of the trucks last

stop together as we were all stopping at different places on our way home.

WHAT A GREAT TRIP, LOOKING FORWARD TOO THE RETURN TRIP

CHEERS TONY AND QUEENIE