Mumsey's Ramblings: Come For A Ride To Paeroa

Harry asked me after August’s South Waikato's Four Wheel Drive Club meeting if I would like to come for a drive with him to Paeroa. He had volunteered to take up some cut down concrete power line poles to Paeroa. So I thought why not - the weather wasn’t supposed to be very good for doing much outside in the garden so a ride with Harry for the morning would be nice.

I woke early with the alarms going off (we were supposed to meet in Matamata at 9.00am) and had a cuppa. After the alarm-going-off countless times and Harry pushing the snooze button, I decided that enough was enough and at 7.30am he needed to be up for some breakfast so we could get there in time. “We still needed to fill up on fuel” he said, so he had less than hour.

Needless to say we were late…

Once in Matamata Kevin loaded the sawn off poles into the three trailers with a forklift. Steve and Harry helped ‘direct’ the poles so that they would sit well in the trailers.

We travelled up to Paeroa, through the Karangahake Gorge and up past the Waitawheta turnoff.

Memories of primary school camps for the cherubs came to mind as we drove past the Waitawheta
Camp.

Well it seemed that we were going a lot further than just up from Paeroa but as I said it was nice to go for a drive and I had my latest knitting project with me so I was happy. It was getting chilly but we had the Isuzu’s heater blasting to keep us warm and to cool the engine down as it was struggling a little with the load in the trailer as we wound up and around, the now dirt track, to our destination.

When we arrived there was the digger or “dig” as Harry referred to it. It was unloaded from its trailer and proceeded to unload each trailer of poles stacking them for when they would be used.

The South Waikato Four Wheel Drive Club (SW4WDC) had volunteered to help with an issue arisen with work on the Waitawheta 4WD track.

There has been a lot of misuse of the track and it was getting worse. The Department of Conservation (DOC) closes the track from 1st May to the Friday before Labour weekend but someone (or a group) have been breaking the locked gate and using the track.

DOC have been trying for some time, to keep the track locked but the culprit keeps breaking in and the track is getting worse with huge ruts filling with water after rain and just getting bigger and making the track quite impassable.

With DOC saying, if it doesn’t stop they will close the track completely, the club decided to help as they like to use it when it is open for its allocated season.

The SW4WDC are putting the concrete poles into the track path to stop vehicles going past and will help fill the huge ruts in the track so that by the spring/summer season the track will be usable for all.

This is all well and good but I didn’t know that this little exercise was going to take, what I would call, (I hear echo’s from Miranda) all day!

I would have at least brought the thermos of hot water and makings for a cuppa and a bite to eat. All we had were some lollies in a bag and the glove-box and by 12.30 we were in to them.

As it now seemed we were here for the day I joined the guys and the “dig” as it dug and graded dirt to fill some of the first rut and then finally insert the posts, ducking for cover as a couple of squally showers passed over us.

We finally made our way off the hill at 4.00pm calling in at the Joker Café for some well over due lunch.

So…

The following is a little entry of what the big boys do when the big toys come out

or

an exercise in good citizenship towards the environment.