Rain affected play on this year’s Manawatu 4WD Club charity Safari in the remote Waitotora Valley in late January. Murray Taylor explains how and the effect it  had  on what was planned as a two-day event.

The plan for this year’s Safari was elegantly simple.

For several hours one day we would explore the vast Makowhai Station located at the top of the Waitotara Valley. Covering 8,903 hectares (22,000 acres) and with 65 km of track, there is some interesting history and great scenery in this area.

The other day would then be spent on tracks through native bush and over farmland in the area with some high points with spectacular views.

After the year all of us stoically endured in 2020 thanks to the Coronavirus it was very much a case of case of what could go wrong?

The weather, that’s’ what. But I’m getting ahead of myself

The night before I was due to leave for this year’s Safari, my tow vehicle/sleeping quarters, aka the Tin Ten, and Little Whale were parked outside awaiting the early morning kick start but a quick check of the local weather saw me furrow a brow and wonder what conditions were like in the far west.

In what I will call the ‘near’ east where I live, it was still windy, with the odd rain shower and the rivers running higher than normal.

The actual forecasts kept on changing too. Though that was never going to stop , me. In fact I arrived ‘at camp’ so early eh net day that I was able to go on a recce trip, checking that the track on Longreach Station was still in usable condition.

This farm track climbs for a considerable distance up a very long ridge taking you to the highest point on the Safari. The track was in reasonable condition, only requiring a small amount of work on one section to improve clearance due to it being a corner with an undercut on the outside and a considerable drop.

Ready, steady...

Come Saturday morning, and the sense of expectation was palpable At registration the night before, Safari-goers had been split into six groups, and given an instruction page as to where the morning assemble point was along with their particular start time.

The idea was that each group (of around 20 trucks each) headed to a different start point for their first track of the day. This arrangement allowed for plenty of separation between groups covering the same track and appeared to work very well.

At the individual assemble points, the Trip Leader identified himself, along with Tail End Charlie and the other club truck within the group, before a briefing on Safety, that group’s activities for the day, plus the radio channel they were to use.

Go!

As my group was to be second to do the ‘Lakes Road’ section in reverse, we headed up the true left of the river to visit the old woolshed and the site of one of the first houses in the valley which was surrounded by European trees and an Orchard, the remnants of which still exist. The track was damp in places and we had a light shower heading up valley, with views across to the logging operation working on a face above the river.

A section of really soft, wet ground meant you headed towards the water table which caught a couple of trucks out. Just before the end was a creek which you dropped down into then climbed straight back out of.

Bugger!

At the bottom once in the creek looking towards the river it was only about four metres to a small waterfall of – say – five or six metres. On the outwards trip, as the track was in and out, the creek and wet papa track caught a few out, with one truck on a second attempt to climb the hill ending up too close to the downstream edge and having it collapse under the left hand rear wheel.

This resulted in a lengthy delay as it required positioning a winch truck and setting up recovery points, winch cables etc to get the truck back on the track.

After a short break to catch our wind, along with leaving one Toyota Hilux back at camp ‘my’ group headed down the Waitotara Valley to commence the drive around Lakes Road. Just before the bridge on the main road which crosses the Waitotara River we took a small turn right onto Puau Road, which hugs the true left of the river for some distance, passing one set of buildings before passing Kowhata Station house, which has its garage on the other side of the river serviced by a Suspended Foot Bridge saving some nine km of travel, which – back in the day - could have taken a day or more.

After the house the track turned into very much a farm track with the odd damp patch which required some concentration, extending to a very steep short dip filled with water which claimed an exhaust pipe, and “Little Whale” needed a small tug to complete the exit.

The track continued downstream across river flats before turning right to go around a small knob, passing an old hut in the process before dropping to cross a small creek at the bottom of the climb. Here the track was dry and rutted as we climbed away from the Waitotara River; starting at 20m elevation the climb ran along a ridge moving across it as we climbed to a peak 300m cutting through the ridge to another water catchment, before a short downhill to Ridge Road, then soon onto tarseal and a very sharp 180 degree turn into Mangawhio Road.

Not long afterwards we hit the gravel of Lakes Road and with it a call that a truck had a flat tyre. All hands on deck and before most had time to react the tyre was changed and our group was on the move again.

Which, again, was fortunate because we were soon on a bush track which took us past Lake Mangawho. The track was just damp enough to make it interesting without any real hold ups along the way, Arriving at a gate, there’s a steep uphill section into a pine plantation which was well cut up and looked worse than it was - except for one hard left to avoid going off the track!

From there we were into the pines and onto Kaimanuka Road, the original access way into the head of the Waitotara Vallley. Built in the days of man & shovel power and travelled by horse and wagon, the track is on the side of the ridge crossing over in a couple of places before it heads down past another house and finally reach Waitotara Valley Road and our weekend base,

But wait, there’s more!

In theory that was the first of two ‘runs’ for our group, but because it was 3.30pm already, our leader made it a voluntary call to head away for the second ‘afternoon’ loop of another four hours. The trip was to Pete’s Bush and having been there before I made the call to stay in camp and relax, along with a few others.

The rest of the group departed, however, and had a great drive up and around the 80 hectares (200 acres) of original native bush, with just a track through it and a very nice bush hut up on the ridge with a great view over the farm and ridges etc. as an outlook.

Not all went to plan, however, as one truck suffered serious radiator issues and the subsequent delays meant some of the trucks in my group did not get back to base until around 9.00pm.

Due to the lateness of the group getting back the Raffle draw was put on hold till Sunday morning…a good thing as it turned out. Because with light overnight drizzle turning into intermittent showers over an early breakfast and steady rain as the raffle was being drawn the club made the difficult decision to cancel Sunday’s driving activities.

In doing so they acknowledged that the degree of difficulty on Saturday would only be made worse by the rain. This was accepted and the camp packed up as the rain showers continued, although the sun was fighting to come out and did show its face later on in the day.

Before I sign off though I need to write a word – or two – about the raffle. For a start there were three main prizes, an ARB fridge freezer, a Combat Custom roof rack, and a full Diesel Performance Solutions’ vehicle tune. Plus a whole pile of other good items.

So to the organizers, the Manawatu 4WD Club, a vote of thanks for running the event once again, even with the weather and conditions against you, to the team leaders for all their work, plus – of course – a special thanks tox all the sponsors for their fulsome support of the event, and a very special thank you to the land owners for the privilege to be allowed across their land and to see their sites as well as the sights.