The race was on… well sort of…ish. We hit the servo at Wanaka to fill up and grab a medicinal pie then set off towards Lake Hawea and over the Haast Pass arriving just before 9.00pm. I rang the Hard Antler Pub and they said they were closing the kitchen, so a quick phone order and Neil and I dashed down to the pub for a beer and a feed – which was just awesome. I hadn’t been to the Hard Antler for more than six months, since the Barn Bay trip, and it was great to be back and we were made very welcome.

Tuesday 6 April

Plan ‘A’ was to do the south coast on Monday, but we toured Macetown instead, so we had lost a day off the plan, but gained a great day out. Most of the crew had watched my video on Youtube: Kevz110 on our trip to Barn Bay and the Jackson River six months earlier and were keen to see as much of it as possible for themselves, so we packed up and hit the south coast road, but not before we lost Leon Zwetsloot’s vehicle to some clutch issues. Fortunately, Neil MacDonald had trailered his Series 2 to Wanaka and over the pass, so it was a simple choice to swap the vehicles over and Leon to drive Neil’s vehicle back north.

Life is old here. No one tames ‘the Coast’. You adapt. The dark-green dripping forest boasts one of the highest annual rainfalls in the world. It is a mysterious, gloomy place. Day is a semi-darkness beneath the trees as they fight for the light above while holding on to a thin veneer of soil atop a solid granite slab. Streamers of green lichen and moss decorate the trees, hanging there in the silence like rows of Druid beards. This is the naturally occurring special effect used for the Lord of the Rings. The south coast road to Jackson Bay is like no other.

We crossed the double span bridge of the Arawhata and turned left up the Jackson River Road and pulled into a turn-round area, while I went ahead to look for the great photo opportunity I found on our Jackson River trip back in October. I found the turnoff and drove down the bank across a tributary of the Jackson – and discovered that it had scoured out a tad in the intervening months as the Defender gurgled down to bonnet depth before popping out on the opposite bank. Quick U-turn, and back across a bit further down at ‘Series 1 depth’ and back to the road in time to flag the team into the track.

My instructions were to keep to the left and go straight – which most ignored and did exactly what I did – straight for a bit then head for the nearest bank – and all gurgling down to bonnet depth – as their eyes widened. How no one stalled, I have no idea, but it was very entertaining all the same.

Time for tea. Some great photos taken and shared of the line of Land Rovers with ‘Mirk-wood’ behind. Back across the tributary and heading south on the Jackson Road, Mike Andrews driving his 1955 Series 1 station wagon was stopped by a chap in a Navara and asked where we were heading. He turned out to be one of the managers of the Cascade and said that the gate wasn’t locked. We could carry on through to the Cascade if we wanted to.

This was a massive opportunity, because this area is usually accessed by written permission only, so we continued through to the railway iron gate and drove through. Fortunately, I had downloaded my GPS tracking from the Barn Bay trip in October 2020 to my phone, so I was able to retrace our steps out to the Cascade. The confluence of the Martyr and Cascade River is a vast, changing area of storm-washed river pebbles interwoven with peat swamps. A trap for the inattentive. The wrong route would result in a major recovery event for vehicles that are not set up for heavy recovery.

I guided the team safely to the edge of the Cascade River through some decent puddles, all of which had firm bases, and we posed for the obligatory photographs. One of the chaps had phoned ahead to the Jackson Bay Café, ‘The Cray Pot’ and given them a heads-up that a large group was heading their way for lunch. Most of the team turned around at this point and started heading back out.

Allen Hosking was keen to visit the point of the Cascade River where we had floated a three tonne 4WD downstream in the current, so I led the remainder further down the Cascade until we reached an area where I suggested we either turn around or start airing down the tyres and preparing for some serious stuff. At this point, according to my tracker App, we were about 100m away from the crossing, so everyone was happy that we made the best of the opportunity and the unusually fine weather.

As we turned around a couple of jetboats roared past and gave us a wave. The significance of this became apparent the following day outside a pub in Hokitika.

We headed back out of the Cascade, down the Jackson Road and out to the settlement of Jackson Bay for lunch.

There was time for a quick cruise around Neils Beach before driving through to Fox Glacier for the night, arriving just after 7:00pm.

Wednesday 7 April

The weather was still picture-postcard perfect, so I convinced the team that a visit to Lake Matheson would be worthwhile – and it was.  Lake Matheson is just west of the Fox Glacier township and nestled in the foot hills, so sheltered to allow a mirror reflection of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman behind.

From Fox Glacier we did a quick stop at Franz Josef Glacier before moving on for morning tea at Ōkārito Lagoon – an iconic coastal gold field, where gold is still extracted straight off the beach.

On Tuesday, as the group headed down the coast through Hannah’s Clearing to Jackson Bay, Leon recalled an article in Classic Car magazine about a Series II fire truck that was (at that time) still in the NZ Fire Service based at Hannah’s Clearing. Some research revealed that it had the same chassis number as another Series 2 fire truck.

When we called into the old open cast mine next to SH6 at Ross for a lunch stop, Neil wandered over to a couple of chaps working on a Chinese Shrine next to the lake. Neil asked them if they happened to know what happened to the Series 2 Fire tender from Hannah’s Clearing – and you guessed it: they “think it might be in the Hokitika Industrial Museum up by the airport.” 

That’s it – lunch over – let’s go.

Time for a photo outside the Mahinapua Pub and on to Hokitika.

We got to the Museum up by the Hokitika Airport just before they closed, but they were happy to show us around their collection – including the elusive Hannah’s Clearing fire tender.

A few of the party were heading up the coast, while the rest of us were heading in through Reefton on our way to the ferry so we met at ‘Stomper’ Bar for a farewell dinner. When we left the bar later that night we bumped into the chaps from the jetboat the day before on the Cascade. They had recognised Allen’s Series III parked across the street.

Thursday 8 April

The target today was to get as close to the ferry terminal in Picton as possible for our night stop to prevent ‘Mr Murphy and his law’ from disrupting our plans of making the 2.00pm sailing across Cook Strait. We did have to make some stops along the way.

I had spent some time in the area of late – so I was tour guide again. First stop was the Kowhitirangi Memorial. On 8 and 9 October 1941 Stanley Graham, a deranged local farmer, opened fire on police and other locals. Seven men were killed or later died of their injuries.

I had seen the film Bad Blood and read the book Manhunt. The book described a memorial to the shooting located in Kaniere which I found years ago. On a visit to the area three years ago, I had not been able to locate it. On my way out to the Hokitika Gorge, I came across a massive memorial opposite the Kowhitirangi Hall – and outside the old Graham house. This memorial to the victims was unveiled on 8 October 2004 and was created using a large boulder from nearby Diedrichs Creek. Each person who died is commemorated by a bronze plaque. Those killed were: Sergeant William Cooper, Constable Ted Best, Constable Percy Tulloch, Constable Fred Jordan, George Ridley, Gregory Hutchison, and Richard Coulson.

Our next stop was the stunning Hokitika Gorge with its teal blue glacial water and steep granite cliff faces. Last time I was here the walk only went as far as the first beach access but it now has an amazing second suspension bridge creating a return path to the car park. It was near the second suspension bridge that I bumped into my neighbours from Clevedon on an escorted bike tour of the coastal bike routes. What are the chances?

Time for a quick loop road tour via Dorothy Falls and Lake Kaniere and then we headed north to Greymouth. Inland to Stillwater to visit ‘Dutchy’s’ Land Rover Graveyard.

Paul Furkert and Allen Hosking left the team at Stillwater to continue up the west coast to Nelson via Punakaiki and Westport - the rest of us headed east to Reefton, Inangahua, St. Arnaud,  down the Wairau, and through to Havelock for the night.

Friday 9 April

Home time. Fortunately, an uneventful day. We received a text message to say the ferry had been delayed, so we went and caught up with Ian Butcher around at Whatamango Bay to check out his amazing Land Rover collection, including a well fitted out Land Rover 2B forward control camper before scampering back to Picton to catch the delayed ferry across to Wellington, arriving at 9:00pm.

From there I just hit the road – arriving back home in Auckland around 04:30am Saturday morning.