SouthIslandClubCaptainsTour.

Report and Photos contributed by Ewen Duthie. Thanks Ewen.

On Saturday 18th March 16 cars arrived at Ashburton for the start of the tour. Amongst them were Roddy and Yvonne Maxwell in their 1935 Chev and myself and Murray George in my 1955 Austin A90 from the Central Otago branch and my good friend Keith Heineman with co-driver Colin Adam in his 1930 Model A from Dunedin. Also, a Rover 90 and in day 3 a Hillman Hunter joined us from the North Island.

We all meet at the Ashburton VCC Clubrooms and had a look through the club’s Museum before we had a light evening meal and briefing from the organisers Alon and Tracy Mayhew for the upcoming event.

Day 1. We left Ashburton traveling to the east and south crossing over the main road and heading to Geraldine. After a bit of a tour behind Geraldine, we headed north, zig-zagging up the plain on whatever gravel roads Alon had found. We had lunch at Rakia before continuing north. I did a short detour into Kaiapoi to catch up with my daughters for ½ an hour then continued to Rangiora. Normally it would be 110Km from Ashburton to Rangiora, but we covered over 330kms that day. Dinner and evening get-together was at the 5 Stags that night.

Day 2. We left Rangiora heading South to Cust and then on a variety of gravel roads north to Waimak Classic Cars. After looking through the collection it was lunch at Amberley and a zig-zag trip via Gore Bay coming into Cheviot from the east. About 240 kms that day. Dinner, and get-together was at the Cheviot Lodge that night.

Day 3. With the Hillman Hunter joining us we headed west on a loop in the country back roads then north to take Leader Road through to Waiau. For coffee. While on more gravel roads heading to Hamner we came to a ford, the Rover 90 had continued through it before the rest of us got there and was on the other side. He did tell us it was up over his door sills as we surveyed it. Keith in the Model A was keen to go through it and found that keeping to the left it wasn’t as deep. After watching the Model A go through I decided The A90 would be fine and went through with no issues. The rest of the crew chickened out and did a 10km detour to get to Hamner.

One of Alon’s observations that night was that all the cars that crossed the ford had male co-drivers and all those that didn’t had female co-drivers.

We arrived at Hamner for lunch and had a free afternoon. 4 of us climbed aboard the model A and headed up Jacks Pass to the start of the Moleswoth Station and down Jollies Pass back to Hamner on pretty rough roads full of potholes. Meeting and dinner was at 5 Stags that night.

Day 4 We left Hamner on the main road heading west over the Lewis Pass and all met up at the turn off to the Maruia Saddle Road. Once all cars arrived we headed over the saddle in convoy. This is a very narrow road zig zagging its way to enter Murchison from the east. A great trip through the bush, I would love to do it again sometime. We met that night at the Mataki motels and then on to the Murchison Sport and Recreation Centre where the locals set up a display of their vintage cars. That night a community group supplied our evening meal there.

Day 5 -2 more cars joined us and we headed down the Buller Gorge with a detour into Westport for coffee. Then south turning east before Greymouth up the north of the river, via Taylorville continuing around Lake Brunner zig zagging our way to Hokitika. Another big day with 340kms travelled. We met on the seafront and most of us sat outside with fish and chips that night.

Day 6 was on to Haast stopping at Ross and Fox to look at collections of cars and motorbikes, stopping at Franz Joseph for lunch. The MG traveling with us had the bearings seize in its alternator so was towed the last few kms to Haast by the model A. We all met at the Heartland Hotel and had dinner there.

Day 7 We left Haast in the pouring rain stopping at Makarora for coffee. After coming over the top of the pass the weather cleared and a light blue 1300 came towards us. It was Graham Taylor and Don Yeaman, coming to meet the tour. After a detour around Wanaka, we arrived at Wanaka Machine Hire for a look at Alan Dippies’ great collection of tractors and cars etc. After lunch it was on the final leg to Cromwell and after a couple of back roads ending up home. We met at the Lake Dunstan Motels that night then on to the clubrooms with a meal catered by the Black Rabbit. Thanks to Alf O’Sullivan for opening the rooms and parts shed for us.

We managed to get a prize for doing all the route and going through the Ford and the Maxwell’s got the furthest travelled in the South Island.

A total of 2140 km travelled from when we left Cromwell to arriving back a week later. We had a great week and met a lot of interesting people. I would recommend this trip to anybody.

Usefultoknow.

Helpful info from Gerry Spencer

If anyone's car or motorcycle has broken down, or you're keen to do some tinkering on an engine, Haynes Manual AllAccess has just released over 280 car and motorcycle manuals from their extensive back catalogue, bringing the total to over 980 manuals!

The best way to access will be via this page: https://codc-qldc.govt.nz/libraryonline/online-learning. Access is free using your Library card and pin/password.

It is likely CODC library Users would also be able to access this as QLDC and CODC libraries use the same card system.