www.m4wdc.org.nz - www.facebook.com/manawatu.4wd.club

Newsletter

April 2018

Committee List 2017/2018

President Greg Booth 027 256 0470

Vice President Phil Shailer 021 130 7913

Secretary Kelsey van Waas 027 3795 002

Treasurer Stu Earle 027 443 6665

Event Coordinator Ella Shailer 0210 227 8088

Newsletter Editor Ella Shailer 0210 227 8088

Website Nick Look 021 499 202

Club Steward President & Vice President

Zone Delegate Ella Shailer 0210 227 8088

Public Relations President and Vice President

Emergency Services Andrew Francis 027 686 4765

Store /Equipment Officer Phil Shailer 021 130 7913

Rivers Users President and Vice president

Clerk of the Course Nathan Thomsen 027 303 6432

Safety Officer Philip Law 021 132 0071

Extra Committee Bruce Gilmore 021 815 907, Jason Hamilton 021 142 6338

Nathan Thomsen 027 303 6432, Lee Turner 021 834 819

Grant Barnard 0210 887 2941, Jamie Elms

PO Box 5176, Terrace End, Palmerston North

Finding mud on the CanTeen Fundraiser! Photos: Shaun Robertson

What’s been happening?

Round 5 of the National Trials was up in Taranaki the other weekend, loads of the great driving and some

good results for the Manawatu guys - well done Sam & Princess, Stu & Bruce and Dean & Greg. Next week-

end is the Final of the Trials being run by Wanganui and held just out of Turakina, great opportunity to get

along and see the trucks in action and support the local lads!

That time of year again for AGMs. We’ve got our AGM on Wednesday 18 April at WillowPark Tavern, so come

along and vote for who you want on the Committee next year and have you say on how you want the Club

run. Hear there’s also going to be some tasty treats available at $5 a head :) - let us know your coming so we

sort numbers. Also it’s our Club Champs Prize-Giving :).

Saturday 21 April is the NZFWDA Central Zone AGM. CZ hold quarterly meetings, see what's going on in our

local Clubs, discuss funding for different tracks and find out what's going on at National level. Feel free to

come along and see what’s going on at Central Zone level, and meet some other 4WDrivers.

Probably my last Newsletter… so thanks for all the write-ups and photos - they’ve been awesome. Cheers, Ella

Coming up

Monthly Meeting: Next meeting is Wednesday 18 April, 7.30pm at the WillowPark Tavern, Tremaine Ave.

Manawatu 4WD Club

18 April AGM & Prize-Giving, WillowPark Tavern

June—TBC Winch Trucks, Pureora Forest. Trip Leader: Paul McElroy

TBC McKenzie Trial. Trip Leader: Lee Turner

Trip Info

If you are a club member and you have not had your vehicles tow hooks checked and put on the tow hook

register, that vehicle will not be allowed on club trips. Prospective, new and visiting members can attend trips

without vehicles being on the register. Please contact Lee Turner (021 834 819 ), Nathan Thomsen

(0273036432), Bruce Gilmore (021815907), or Andrew Francis (0276864765) to arrange for your vehicle to

be checked.

If you’ve got any ideas of trips or would like to put one on – awesome! Chat to a member of the committee

about the details and we’ll go from there.

Trip organisers please fill out Trip Sheets and send to the Trip Coordinator (ella.ballantyne@gmail.com).

If you require a Trip Sheet please ask, or download one from www.m4wdc.org.nz :)

2017/2018 National 4x4 Trial Series

14 April: Hosted by Wanganui 4WD Club

Events

21 April NZFWDA Central Zone AGM. Manawatu Amateur Radio Society rooms, 65 Totara Road, Awapuni, Palmerston North at 1PM.

19 & 20 May National Conference and AGM. Invercargill

29 April Suzuki Extreme 4X4 Challenge, Turakina

April Pres Report- Greg Booth

Hi all,

I guess this is the last Pres report from me, as you are aware my 2 years is up and it’s time to pass

the hat on to the next. I hope you've been thinking about who it is to be.

I recently passed on a cheque for $1500 (proceeds from fundraiser) to Canteen Manawatu which,

although not as much as we would have liked to pass on, was greatly received and appreciated.

Thank you to all who attended and to those from the club that helped in some way ...the feedback

has been good, and we will be running another next year. Rangitikei College and Apiti both benefit-

ed as well by providing meals for the weekend all of which were very good. (Bacon is good for

me !!!!)

There was a whisper that some of the trip attendees and some of our own club members managed

to drink Apiti Tavern almost dry on the Saturday night.

My truck is currently getting the bullbar modified and a snorkel installed, courtesy of Bronte at

Francis Mechanical Services. So will be ready for some trips we have coming up soon.

Last Round of the National Trials is also approaching ...14th April being the day at Turakina for that,

would be nice to see some club members there in support of the club guys that compete, especially

Sam and Mitch who are always good to watch.

Finally, I'd Like to say thanks to you all for your support over the last 2 years, have had a few issues

to contend with but generally these have been sorted fairly quickly by your hard-working

committee members.

Good luck and best wishes to everyone.

Pres

Over and out

Trip Reports!

Dee’s Most Excellent Adventure

Having inside information from you know who ...I found out through my excellent detective skills that there

was going to be an epic 4wd Fundraiser trip for Canteen Manawatu. ... OMG how exciting!!! ... Straight

away ...no questions ...I'm driving my Jeep.

So Friday (been counting down the sleeps, thought it would never get here) and we finally got out to Apiti

School where we were camping for the weekend, set up camp and relaxed as we waited for others to

arrive. One after the other in they came ...picked their camping spots and set up tents etc.

Special mention is Phil and Megan rock in with their pop-up love shack on wheels while me Greg and Andy

moved our chairs, grabbed a beer and had ringside seats while they set up. There were a few comments

thrown back and forth ...very funny and very entertaining ..I think this is going to be a good weekend.

Friday night for tea we went to the Apiti Tavern ...wow the place was packed .. turns out there was a

wedding breakfast taking place .. which was really weird cause it wasn't even breakfast time it was tea

time..true story ...must be an Apiti thing .. just saying ... We ordered tea ..Greg got steak ..no surprises

there .. and I got the fish n chips ..funny thing though was when it arrived ..Greg got his Steak but some-

how Phil Law thought my meal was his and started scoffing it ...must be an Irish thing ..just saying....

lol ..seriously though the food and atmosphere at the Apiti Tavern was fabulous.

Saturday morning registrations done we all set off in our respective groups ..I opted for the shiny trip, still

being a novice hoping to build my confidence, and I wasn't disappointed.

We drove through a central farm track which on its own was a challenge being steep and slippery in places.

This led to some fairly steep paddocks at the far end of the farm by which time I was thoroughly petrified …

omg I did it all on my own ...well ok so I had someone in the passenger seat telling me what to do ..but I

was driving it ... omg so scared. We looped around through another couple of paddocks back to the start of

the track.

I saw the most gorgeous dappled grey horses you've ever seen and couldn't resist the overwhelming temp-

tation to stop and feed them some grass and have a cuddle, to find out later that everyone was wondering

where I'd got to. Turns out that people we were to meet later at lunch were the owners and the horses

were rescued Kaimanawa ones, how cool is that.

Trip Reports!

Anyway I finally got back in line and followed the convoy

down to a creek crossing and up a winding track to some large

flat paddocks on the other side.

Our lunch stop was in the middle of a forestry block settle-

ment called BASECAMPGO ..a health retreat set up for those

with terminal illnesses and training facilities for carers. Such a

secluded peaceful place ..the owners Hamish and Orelle

McDonald and carer Jedi and his family are the nicest people

on the planet ...so so friendly.

After lunch we went to the end of the forestry road onto a

Doc track that led through a tunnel of trees to a big grassy

clearing...perfect for camping some time.

We then went back onto the farm where we met up with the

other groups that had done their trip and caught us up. Time

to get moving .. oh no another huge massive steep scary slip-

pery bumpy mother of a hill to get up ... a few trucks had

attempted and failed all I wanted to do was find a flat tar-

sealed track back to camp ... but Ohhh no that wasn’t going

to be.

So ..took a minute to put on my big girl panties ... listened to

all sorts of advice from numerous people ... mainly bystand-

ers ..not experts...lol and gave it crack ... totally nailed it

first time .. easy as what was the problem. Off to the river

for a quick wash up and back to camp ...

Tea was served up by Apiti School and omg yummy BBQ and

salads sooo good. That night some headed off to the glow-

worm caves and some to the Tavern for St Pats day bevvies.

Turns out Sandy (Andrews partner in crime) has or had rela-

tives in that neck of the woods and was shown who they

were in the many photos that adorn the walls of the Apiti

Tavern by an elderly gentleman that has lived there like ages

n ages, throw in a few ciders ..a few games of pool and it

was time for some well earned sleeps.

We woke the next morning to a temperature of 2 degrees

and the smell of bacon and eggs cooking for breaky done by

Apiti School after which we headed off on another

adventure, a daytime visit to the glow-worm caves ... but

that is another story all on its own aye Philip Law ...

Trip Reports!

I had a frikin awesome time with some really awesome people in a very cool part of the country ...so much

fun ...when’s the next one please?

Dee Smith

Such as awesome adventure Dee! Thank you for a fantastic story :)

Trip Reports!

CANTEEN FUNDRAISER - Lee’s Trip

On Saturday the 17th I tow the club trailer to Apiti to join the crew running the fund raiser.

When I arrived I found the school playground looking more like a camp site. Unfortunately the numbers of paying customers was

a lot smaller than we would have liked.

There was three trips organised, Shineys, Club trucks and Tough Trucks.

Ella decided to come with me as long as I did the

tough truck trip as. No issues there. When we had

registered and had the drivers briefing we lined up for

each of the trips.

There was only 5 trucks doing the tuff trucks and my

Pajero on 31 looked very small. Shaun was the trip

leader with Jase, Catlin in her dads truck, Myself and 1

of the paying customers in a Hilux with no snorkel.

We set off heading north of Apiti and dropped in to a

creek at the bridge at the bottom of the second gorge.

The plan was to head down stream to the Oroua river

and come out at the bridge at the bottom of the first

gorge.

This creek had the look of an area that had not been

driven before. We meandered downstream sometime

in the creek sometime pushing our way thru

overgrown landings on either side of the creek.

It is a beautiful place to drive without been to excessively extreme as long as you keep out of the very deep holes on some of the

corners and the of the bigger stones in the creek bed.

The trip was mostly uneventful but yes I did get stuck a couple of times and once on a rather large log. I would like to point out

that the co-driver should have been looking out for thinks like this and warned me. She did not see it as neither did I. Two high

lifts and a couple of strong blokes to pull the log out and we were on the way again.

The creek ended up at the Oroua river and we headed upstream towards the bridge. Shaun had a couple of compulsory mud

holes to try on the way upstream which required a couple of tow outs and we reached the bridge had a quick wash and aired up

for the trip home. As it was my Father in laws birthday I headed back to palmy while the others in our group went looking for

more mud.

I returned to Apiti on the Sunday morning in time for breakfast. On Saturday night after tea Pete Robertson and a few other

club members went up to the glow worm caves on Limestone Road. Andrew and Gregg decided that the whole group would go

there first and have a look before we split up to have a bit more of a play.

I had not been to the caves for a very long time and had

forgotten what they were like. Very impressed. There is a loop

track that drops down to the cave which you walk thru under

the road and then climbs out the other side of the road and climbs up the hill and back to the road. Some were faster than oth-

ers as the climb was steep in places and we are getting old. We got back to the road and found that we were missing 1 member

of the group. After waiting a bit, we sent 2 guys in to back track and two guys to go thru from the beginning to find the missing

person (Phil) both groups had radios and he was soon found.

While we were waiting Gregg headed off with the guys that wanted to play in the mud a bit more while the rest of us took a quit

site seeing trip. We all eventually found our way back to Apiti school to break camp and head home.

Talking to the punters that had payed to be there they all loved the trip and asked if we were doing the same again next year and

said that they would come again.

All in all a great Trip, Lee.

Trip Reports!

17 March 2018 Canteen Fundraiser Trip - Apiti

Report: Grant Christian

Saturday morning at Apiti School we all gathered for a briefing by Greg, following which we formed into lines

of tough trucks, club trucks and shinies. There were about 12 trucks in the club truck group so we divided

into two groups, with me leading the first group of six, and Phil Law the second. I was thankful that Pete

Robertson was in my group because he has a lot more experience in 4WDing. We were heading for the

Mangoira Stream at the back of the farm. After reaching the farm we headed across the farm tracks and

paddocks. A steepish track leads down to the stream and we took a bit of air out of our tyres before head-

ing downhill. At the bottom we dropped into the stream and headed downstream towards the Oroua River.

I had done a recce with Greg and a few others the week before but it wasn’t easy to remember exactly what

route we had used. Some tracks existed from when they first checked out the route that went nowhere.

After driving to the edge of a steep little drop, which wasn’t the correct track, Pete ended up in front and I

was happy to tail along at the back.

There were some interesting stream crossings and challenging obstacles along the way which meant fun for

everyone. At one stage Pete become lodged on a log and needed a tow to get off. We reached a narrow

gorge with a sheer bank on one side. You can see glow worms here at night. It was around here that we

took a break for morning tea. Phil’s group caught us up at this point. While enjoying my cuppa I noticed the

roving reporter’s (Murray who writes articles for 4WD magazine) vehicle move forward. I didn’t realise he

wasn’t in it and it crashed into the back of Pete’s vehicle. Murray had left it in gear because it was stationary

when he stopped and it had eventually moved forward. Unfortunately there was a bit of damage to Pete’s

vehicle.

After our break we continued down-

stream to the Oroua and then headed up

the Oroua. The boulders get a bit bigger

here but the valley opens up a lot

compared to the narrow stream valley.

Things proceeded uneventfully with

many straight forward river crossings

until the point where the young guys in

the Mu decided to take a different path

across the river to the rest of us. The

others in my group were a bit further

ahead but I looked round to see the Mu

getting in deeper and deeper and look-

ing like they were stuck. This will be an

interesting recovery I thought to myself.

Somehow they managed to back out

and taking a slightly different line. They

made it to the edge of the river, at which

point they became properly stuck. They

had got a lot of water inside the cab. We

attached a snatch strap from my vehicle

to them but it was muddy where I was

towing from so couldn’t get enough

traction to get them out. I then moved

around behind them and attached my

winch and pulled them back. This was

enough to get them out and we could

carry on.

Trip Reports!

We had a lunch stop by the river and enjoyed the nice weather. The two club truck groups had now joined

together... … and we decided we had had enough of bouncing around in the river bed so headed back

downstream to the Oroua River bridge.

We exited the river here and went to check out some of the farm tracks. The farm tracks were up and down

enough to be interesting and it was great to look around the farm. At the end of the track we met up with

the shiny group. They were heading in the direction we had just come from and some vehicles had trouble

getting up the steep track but all were soon through. At this time some of our group followed the shiny

group but we mostly headed off around the paddock we were in and had some fun attempting some of the

steeper hillsides.

We then followed the shiny group into some paddocks that had been sprayed for re-sowing or cropping and

we had free rein to rip them up. The shiny group were crossing a boggy section and we soon followed. It

got easier as more vehicles crossed. Just above this crossing was a very boggy looking spot. Eventually

somebody in a jeep attempted to get through but ended up stuck. After he was recovered Stu Earle

attempted the same track and with much mud throwing made it through. On the other side he had a

mechanical problem which was eventually sorted. A couple of others went through the same track and

came back the same way. The return was more difficult with a steep exit and a tendency to slide downhill.

The track was getting easier so I decided to give it a try myself. I made it across easily enough but on the

way back I opted for the easier route we had taken earlier. This track was tending to push vehicles to the

side and downhill a bit and I slid sideways with the back end against the fence. To avoid sliding further

downhill we connected the winch to Pete who positioned himself uphill from me. From here I was pulled up-

hill and away from the fence but not without getting a bit of wire rash on my paintwork. After that, I think it

was Phil, who slid into almost the same spot but just managed to get out without help.

After a bit more playing around we headed back to the school. Everyone in our group I spoke to had had a

great day. There were generous prizes for all those who had paid to take part. The day was topped off with

a great dinner put on by the Apiti school.

Thanks Grant, a great write-up.

And Pete got stuck on a log too!

Lee you weren’t the only one :)

Clu

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Co

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AM

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Driver

Class

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

A

M

Total

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

PM

To

tal D

ay Total

Place

Class

Place

Stu E

O

0

0

24

.31

0

0

3

2.5

2

0

56

.83

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

56

.83

1

1

Mitch

O

0

0

2

5.7

3

0

0

35

.13

0

6

0.86

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

6

0.8

6

2

2

Sam

O

0

0

24

.59

0

0

5

1.2

7

0

75

.86

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

75

.86

3

3

Caitlyn

M

0

0

3

3.2

40

20

4

5.7

0

13

8.9

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

38

.9

4

1

Dean

W

O

0

40

26

.26

0

0

3

2.8

6

0

99

.12

0

40

0

0

0

0

0

4

0 1

39

.12

5

4

Les T

M

0

0

32

.25

4

0 0

4

3.6

7

0

11

5.9

2

0

0

0

40

0

0

20

60

17

5.9

2

6

2

Shau

n R

M

0

0

4

7.0

6

40

40

3

7.0

5

0

16

4.1

1

0

0

0

10

0

0

20

30

19

4.1

1

7

3

Marcu

s P

0

0

3

1.6

5

40

0

48

.86

6

0

18

0.5

1

0

0

0

40

20

20

10

0 1

80

36

0.5

1

8

1

Cam

O

0

4

0 2

9.7

6

40

0

59

.19

1

00

2

68

.95

0

0

0

2

0 0

2

0 1

00

14

0 4

08

.95

9

5

Mark W

P

0

8

0 3

6.6

2

40

0

46

.15

0

2

02

.77

0

6

0

20

20

60

40

20

22

0 4

22

.77

1

0 2

Dan

iel M

P

0

6

0 3

5.3

3

40

0

81

.6 6

0

27

6.9

3

40

0

0

40

40

0

10

0 2

20

49

6.9

3

11

3

Jord

an L

S 0

6

0 3

7.2

6

40

0

60

.68

6

0

25

7.9

4

40

60

4

0 4

0 2

0 2

0 5

0 2

70

52

7.9

4

12

1

Lachlan

F

S 0

8

0 2

9.0

9

40

40

3

7.0

7

60

2

86

.16

0

4

0

20

20

80

60

20

0 4

20

70

6.1

6

13

2

Kelse

y S

40

80

45

.25

8

0 0

7

2.8

3

60

3

78

.08

4

0 4

0

0

60

60

60

10

0 3

60

73

8.0

8

14

3

Dale

6

0 6

0 3

6.5

80

60

4

8.7

9

80

4

25

.29

4

0 8

0

80

60

80

60

10

0 5

00

92

5.2

9

15

NM

Dan

iel B

S 6

0 6

0 2

9.8

3

40

20

2

00

2

00

6

09

.83

4

0 8

0

0

20

10

20

0 2

00

55

0 1

15

9.83

1

6 4

Mark L

M

0

60

34

.36

1

00

20

0

20

0

20

0

79

4.3

6

0

40

0

2

00

20

0 2

00

20

0 8

40

16

34

.36

17

4

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