Lands End and Beyond!

The Wangs in the Wild had an extra crew member for our adventure today, Guppy! MJ had her new shoes on and we checked the tyre pressure and headed off. We grabbed Guppy from home just before 9am and headed to Little River for the trip briefing at 10am. It was interesting diving on the new mud terrain tyres as they were bigger and so much more noisier. We sounded the part roaring along the sealed road. It took a bit to get used to as the handling was different. I allowed plenty of time and we were able to have a cuppa at the Little River Cafe before the trip briefing. There was a great turn out on this dreary Sunday morning. The cloud was low and it was drizzling and the forecast was not the best.

The plan was to drive over Hilltop and head down to Wainui to head up Bossu Road to Lands End and have morning tea and then continue along Bossu Road to Birdlings flat, easy. The convoy of eighteen headed off into the mist. We made it in good time to Lands End. The crew jumped out and stretched the legs and shivered as we faced the cold wind. The cloud lifted just enough for a few spectacular photos. I have to admit Toby and I made our way down the hill a bit to check out the salmon farms in the harbour and I may have slipped on my bum and got all muddy!

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After a shiver, slip in the mud, a few photos we headed back up to Bossu Road and I was made trip leader! Eek, I was given the reigns to lead the convoy. I stepped up to the challenge and made our way. This road has been well traveled by us over the years and I could tell a few stories over our newly installed UHF radio (that was last weekend’s job). A few picturesque spots were visited by us and the camera shutters were thrashed. The call was to stop at Birdlings Flat for lunch and the weather was improving. The bonus at Birdlings Flat is the facilities and playground.

Up until we reached the bridge I was doing a great job at leading. Just before you get to Birdlings Flat there is a 100m stretch of soft gravel you have to negotiate before hitting firm ground. I asked over the radio how to approach this and it was advised that I put it in 4WD-LO 2nd and give it a bit of welly. Okay, we got 2/3 of the way and we couldn’t go any further. We were able to back out all the way and then gave it another crack with more welly and putting MJ into 4WD-LO low. We got 3/4 of the way and got stuck! Advise came over the radio to let out some air of the tyres. We were running road pressure at 35psi and I dropped the pressure down to 22psi. Apprehensively, I put MJ into gear and gingerly put my foot on the accelerator and we were able to crawl out all the way! Incredible! I learn another cool trick.

At our lunch spot we quickly fired up the gas cooker only to find the gas was empty and I was able to fry the sausages on the wee stove, the onions weren’t as cooked as per our usual standards. There weren’t too many complaints as the sausies were hot and spirits high. The next part of the adventure was to head all the way down the Kaitorete Spit to where Lake Ellesmere exits into the sea. Many years ago I made it down to the fishing hut in my Honda Civic, I was amazed we got that far. Only a few years back I got a bit further in a Nissan Navara but lacked the confidence and skills to go further. Today was a different story. We we able to go past the hut and along the track all the way to the mouth.

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Due to the tide coming in we stopped here and didn’t proceed to the other side of the mouth. I was keen to try but as I was with very experienced drivers I heeded their advice and stayed put. We hopped back into the vehicles and headed off the way we came. Once we hit the sealed road we parked up and filled our tyres to road pressure to make the trip home. I was able to use our new air compressor. We dropped off Guppy and headed home to quickly unpack and change the mud terrains to our road tyres and get ready to go out for dinner. Changing out the spare and four tyres only took me 20mins! Adventure done.

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