At the end of University year two students - Hamish Avery and Ryan Cooney - decided that it was time to start a 4WD club. From the large numbers of 4wd's parked on and around campus they were probably expecting plenty of interest from the leaflets drop that went out. Since I don't normally drive the rangie to campus I missed the leaflets. I did see their leaflets posted around campus notice boards. Naturally I called them and stated my interest. Apparently about half a dozen people were interested too. After exams were over we decided to have a quick drive to determine the keeness of the participants. The most convenient place to go was of course the Waimakariri River.

The day finally came after a long wait due to end of year exams. I can't remember whether it was 7th or 8th of November 1998. Five vehicles met at my place for a quick chat and we were off. On this first trip there were Giles and Malcolm in Giles' Land Rover SIII 88", Pieter Kirkstra and fiancee Claire in his Toyota Hilux, Glen Lewis in his Isuzu Bighorn, Ryan Cooney in his Toyota Landcruiser and Gareth, Sarah and I in the elderly Rangie. All of us were students except for Pieter and Glen who were staff members (but we didn't hold that against them :-)).

After attracting plenty of strange looks from people on my street (I don't think they seen such a group of 4wd's before) off we went on our first day out. Ryan in the lead and I was the tailend charlie. Upon arrival to the area we encountered a stream and everybody drove through with relative ease. Parralel to that was a deeper puddle that we decided to try and tackle. Giles went through in his landie with no worries and it came to my turn. And sure enough I misjudged the speed and broke the bow wave. The water churned under the truck into the engine bay. Luckily I made it through but the engine wouldn't start again after I turned it off while waiting for others.

I soon realised with a stream of curses that nobody had a can of WD40. Wiping dry the electrical bits was not enough. Ryan towed me so I was facing the sun and I waited half an hour for the engine bay to dry with my bonnet up. Meanwhile the other went ahead to have fun on the river bed. I was told on the CB that Giles almost tipped his landie over. *#@!, *#@!, *#@! I can't believe the fun I was missing out on! By this time, of course, I realised that I didn't bring my camera. Most of the trip went undocumented until Glen realised that he had a camera in his truck. That was at the end of the trip.

After having to drip dry for a while I caught up with them downstream just in time for lunch. After lunch everything went smoothly and we were happy. A couple of hours later we arrived in the 4wd play area. A couple of steep humps made good training spot for some of us newbies. It was a wide open area where you can pick a variety of different obstacles. We went up and down the steep humps a couple of times and we swapped trucks just for fun. That's my first time in a SIII and boy it was fun! I want one!

Then came the most adventurous bit of the trip (also the costliest, ouch!). Pieter decided to drive through a deepish puddle. He forgot the rule of walking the trail if you're unsure (must've been the heat). Driving in at an angle he soon discovered that there is a sudden drop into a much greater depth - about this much;

If you look carefully you can see a dim-wit sitting on the top left hand of the photo in another (dark coloured) Hilux. He was bellied himself on the hump and was trying to get his wife to sit in the back in hope to weigh down the rear end enough for the wheels to grip. I thought it was not very complimentary to his wife (or girlfriend, I'm not sure). He would need to think she was very fat to weight that down! Anyway, I was trying to help pull him out when I realise that he didn't even have any recovery points. That's when I heard Sarah yell for me a fraction of a second before I saw Pieter frantically waving out of his drowning Hilux.

We all raced to his rescue and Malcolm dived in to tie a tow rope to his axle. Due to the loose grave Ryan's Cruiser was not able to pull the dead weight of the vehicle out. We ended up towing it with the Rangie and the Cruiser in tandem. After the water was let out of both the cabin and the air filter housing Mr Dim-Wit drove past in his shiny Hilux, proclaimed loudly that he was a mechanic and told us what to do. Not knowing any better we took his advice. He told us to tow the Hilux backward while it was in 1st forward gear. Supposedly it will make the engine throw the water out through the exhaust valve. This of course did not work! After a few loud clunks from the engine it finally seized. About this time, an acquaintance of mine - Bob Pullan - drove past in his shiny new Nissan Patrol. He asked what happened and shook his head at the "mechanic's" advice. He didn't think it would work and some damage might've been done from this method. I don't know who was right but personally I'd put my money on Bob's advice.

Pieter was completely distraught since he hasn't even finished paying off the truck. We decided to call it the day and went home. Ryan towed Pieter to Claire's parents and there they managed to start the diesel after draining water out. Later on the found out that three conrods were bent and twisted.

Three of these certainly cost quite a bit. Although we had a few more trips since then we haven't had the pleasure of Pieter's company in any of them. I hope he was not discouraged from off-roading. Here are some pictures from later trips.