I guess to a North Islander it’s like Whangamomona to a South Islander - in the backblocks. But very different backblocks.

It’s in the spacious Maniototo Plain near Ranfurly.

The Maniototo could have been formed by the sandpit controller spreading His/Her four large fingers with the middle one pointing south and pressing them into the sand.

The palm made the plain and the fingers the river valleys of the Manuherikia and Ida and the pair formed by the Taieri River as it meanders north from its birth in the Lammermoors to then loop clockwise through the lower Maniototo and turn south down the Strath Taieri valley to Middlemarch.

It’s some of the most majestic country in New Zealand, wide flat farmed valleys at 200 to 600 metres altitude edged by mountain ranges with pointy or vast rolling tops at around 1,600m with some closer to 2,000. The spot in NZ furthest from our coastline was recently determined to be slightly west of this area.

The climate is fairly dry but has our greatest temperature extremes – Ophir in the IdaValley is regularly the coldest spot (-21.6ºC) – but summer temperatures often get well into the 30s.

It’s gold country, once heavily explored and exploited leaving relics, buildings, water races and large sluiced areas scattered about. It’s the curling capital too.

Our destination of Waipiata is in an almost forgotten corner.

It began as a railway camp when what is now the 150k Otago Central Rail Trail that snakes through Otago was being laid. The church is a home and the garage closed but the tavern is OK I’m pleased to say. It’s a small town.

I was there for the annual Waipiata Country Ute Muster and what fun it was.

The town’s Domain was ringed with tents, buses and campers hugging the tall perimeter trees in search of shade or shelter. It was warm with a healthy nor’wester blowing outside. In the centre a throng of people clustered around an array of utes, tents and apparatus.

The tents offered beer, tucker, souvenirs and coffee.

Focus of the day was on the mainstay of farm and business – the Ute. Organisers realised that many dirt-bike riders use utes so had invited them to a trail ride, a good move to boost numbers.

The muster is essentially a fund-raiser for the local community with excellent support of prizes donated by local businesses. Entertainment ran throughout beginning with races for the kids, forward, backward, sack etc. Heats for the Tug-O-War, ticket selling for the sheep races and raffles.

My day began with the trail ride on a borrowed Honda 400 quadbike. There was a two-wheeled option available but was out on the 25k course at the time, anyway this is a 4WD mag so the quad was more appropriate.

It was an excellent ride though, challenging with spooky sharp rocks lurking behind tussock and thistle or sidlings awkward for the quad but OK on two.

A good turnout of riders with some kids and ladies in the mix. Some technical challenges and some fast open tops to let rip on.

Back at the muster things were warming up and that included the temperature. Entries and the sun were streaming in. The main act was to be judged in seven categories including “ours” – the NZ4WD magazine and Maniototo 4WD Safaris 4WD Ute.

Other categories included Chicks’ Ute, Best Dressed Ute, Classic, Street/Modified, People’s Choice and a Rev-Up.

Support acts included a pie-eating competition, tyre chuck, sheep fleece weight guessing, mystery animal, a buck-off using a mechanical bull and a fear factor event.

The fear factor competition was taken out by reigning champ Torsten Sandmark of Dunedin. It entailed eating a plate of red chillies and Weetbix with chilli sauce and drinking a stubbie of Tui. Quite a feat with some red faces and gagging.

Later in the day heat two was to eat a large offal and chilli pie. Heat three – the electric fence challenge – used a wooden structure with fence tape around it. Entrants had to straddle a central beam and transfer metal dog clips from one side to the other against the clock. Ouch.

The tug-o-war took place on a long raised platform with a gauge at centre to show which side was winning. Teams of five took their ends and lay with feet against crossbars to take the strain.

Coaches harassed them from the side. There were some very close heats and lots of bulging muscles and strained faces.

The intense final saw two stalwart teams – The Middlemarch Volunteer Fire Brigade v The RCs (not a religious phrase) – closely matched. The former had the weight, the RCs the muscle and technique, led by the now famous Torsten.
A set of portable yards had been assembled into concentric rings and a small mob of sheep had numbers raddled onto their fleeces. Spectators cheered them as they were released and chased by a shepherd and dog to race the circuit. Hilarious.
I was later intrigued by the yards, they were stacked together then a wheel attached at each side and a towbar fitted out front, dropped onto a tow ball and driven away!

Back to the utes. My job was to judge the rather sparse 4WD entries. I would have expected many more but I guess the owners of most in the area did not consider them to be candidates for “Supreme 4WD Ute”.

I found the job an easy if very personal choice. Four caught my eye – a very rare factory 1972 Ford Falcon 4WD ute, a well set-up 4WD Hilux, a nice home-built “vintage” 4WD ute and a straight-off-the-farm Series 1 Land Rover flat-deck.

The Landy was very original and well-used; it obviously had a more extensive history than anything else there. It had neither free-wheel-hubs nor door tops.

The Hilux had spring-overs, a short custom deck and roll-bar, winch, serious rubber and was clearly the most capable 4WD of the entries, though its deck was too small to be of much “working” use.

The vintage pretender was a 1930 Essex from Dunedin that had been built up from swap-meet treasures.

It had an Essex cab, bonnet and grille, period front ‘guards and lights from other makes and a homemade wellside all assembled skillfully to a 3-litre 4WD Hilux chassis.

With weathered-looking paint, pseudo-vintage wheels and A/T tyres it looked genuinely from the early ‘30s but was a fully practical, useable, legal and economic work vehicle.

It got my vote for First Supreme 4WD Ute.

The gung-ho Hilux took Supreme 4WD Ute and the Landy and Falcon were my next picks. The Falcon had tremendous rarity value (only 430 made) fabulous paint and nice under-bonnet prep but was scruffy beneath and they were unfortunately not a great success.

Was nice to see one in the flesh though ‘cos they are rare as nuts for nails.

There was a healthy turnout of 2WD utes, from some nice classics through to a bunch of mint HSVs/SSs and a good sprinkling of larger F-100 sized work vehicles of assorted age.

A nicely prepped red Falcon ute earned a place in Best Dressed by being draped with camo nets and decoys and protected by three suitably attired and dangerous looking chicks waving water-guns.

Best Ute and People’s Choice was a white heavily chopped 1948 Chev pickup.

Once the competitions, judgings and awards were attended to the bar and stalls got undivided attention and country singer Jody Direen took the stage and entertained till late.