Words and photos courtesy Peter Vahry
Sadly, on Thursday 17 May we learned of the sudden death of Steve McMinn, or as many knew him... Duk… while in Invercargill to attend the New Zealand Four Wheel Drive Association (NZFWDA) AGM over that coming weekend.
Steve and his wife, Barbara, were on a grand tour of the South Island in their recently acquired comfortable off-road style caravan.
Duk was a member of the Auckland 4WD Club since 1973, a founding member of the Wilderness Ridge Riders 4WD Club and was made a Life Member of the NZFWDA in 2017.
Much of his early four wheeling was as a serious competitor in the NZFWDA rallys (now known as trials) in both Suzukis and Haflingers, often with Barbara as co-driver. Touring was important too and with his friends from the Wilderness Club, a lot of exploring of NZ was done with many journeys to the South Island’s West Coast and the East Cape region of the North Island.
Oh… the nickname Duk… from his general reluctance to wear shoes and his insistence on walking through water holes on competition courses to get a feel of the water depth and the mud on the bottom.
Steve also had an uncanny ability to spot unformed legal roads and an equal ability to build relationships with rural landowners, for which we are still indebted to today for access in many parts of the country.
The first big 4WD touring event in the North Island was the Coast to Coast put together by Steve and Barbara in 1995. It ran across from Kariotahi Beach in the west to Onemana Beach in the east over three days of almost complete off-road travel.
His experience was recognised by the vehicle industry and Steve was involved with many 4WD training efforts by vehicle distributors, including many years involvement with the Jeep brand that included identifying locations for their then popular ‘Jamborees’ and managing the four wheeling during those events.
Stories abound of Duk’s competitive streak and his ability to debate matters like the wordings of rules, very often successfully, while also being able to quickly move on in life as if a discussion had never occurred.
Steve had always enjoyed the outdoors and hunting from a young age and in the years when all the Woodhill Forest was a 4WD playground, he was often heard on the CB radio exclaiming he’d seen some deer while driving.
While doing a reconnoitre with Barbara for an event in Woodhill some years ago, he spotted a large pig on the edge of the track ahead and duly chased it with his vehicle along the track, caught it up and pinned it under the front bumper, then duly dispatched it with a knife. Into the back and cut up at home there was a lot of meat.
A few days later he heard that the forestry staff at Woodhill were looking for one of their pet pigs that had escaped; they never did find that pig.
One of life’s great characters who will be greatly missed.
To read every story in the July 2018 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (June 15) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
