GoBush young man!
No sooner was he back from Zukfest than Murray Taylor saddled up his trusty Suzuki Samurai and headed for the King Country for a weekend away with Sulphur City 4wheelers.
The location was the GoBush block deep in the heart of the North Island’s King Country, and having seen photos of the location and read about it, it was time to visit. The invitation was for Queen’s Birthday weekend and we packed the van, attached ‘Little Whale’ ( Suzuki Samurai) by the A-frame and headed north late the Friday afternoon before. Daylight was gone as I headed over the Desert Road, so I decided to camp for the night at the Kaimanawa Road campsite ( a free DoC campsite) at the end of Kaimanawa Road. Saturday morning the frost/cold forced me out of bed to fire the van up and head for Turangi for fuel, some shopping at New World and a cooked breakfast before hitting the road. Once on the road it was along Highway 41 heading towards Taumarunui, with a brief stop on the way at
the Waituhi Viewpoint to enjoy the views, There were some clouds about and there was still snow on the sides of the road in places from the fall earlier in the week. It was then a matter of looking for a horseshoe bend with a blue drum on the side of the road (!!! Ed). Both were found fairly quickly and we were soon nosing our way down the
driveway in company with another ‘ Zuki ( this one on a trailer) heading towards a gate where we met Keith then followed him to the camping area.
Caters for all
GoBush has some 283 hectares (700 acres) of native bush with tracks both old and new suitable for both shiny and club 4x4 vehicles. The campsite has a toilet/shower building and kitchen building which overlooks a small pond, for swimming etc in summer. Also available is a BBQ and outside fire ring to tall tales around at day’s end. Once all had arrived Keith and Steve gave a prep talk about the area and the tracks that were being proposed, along with a safety briefing and what PRS radio channel we would all use. The first track was a short run to test the water, so to speak, but ended in some very steep downhills – the last being so steep that it was a controlled slide for the top half. Unfortunately a Jeep took a small detour at the bottom and did some major damage to the left hand front suspension linkage when bouncing/ hitting a log. The vehicle was parked up as a result, and the rest of the crew had lunch. We then headed back up the same track as the morning with the intention of going a lot further along it and get some views of the surrounding area. Back along the track and down past the creek was not a problem for the first few vehicles then it was a case of winches out for a couple and the rest driving along it with a heavy foot. Another section of track called for a detour, in order to keep the group moving forwards. There was then a short stop for some photos on the ridge before we headed further along before starting to drop back into the valley. Once down we turned hard left into a creek and out again to head up a ridgeline track requiring a multi-point turn even for a ‘ Zuk and you could forget an 80 series! From there it was a steep climb through both old and new bush up onto a main track which we headed down before turning right uphill to go back along the ridge we had started on.
A good run
It was a good run with one needing a pull just before the top due to the slippery nature of the track. The rest took a