Auckland Monthly Drive to Kaiaua

6 September 1998

The first club run for spring didn’t feature any blossoms or baby lambs... just a bit more Auckland rain. We had eight cars at the top of Mt Eden. Five of them came on the drive. The roll call was, Paul and David in Turbos, Grant and Trent in SW-20 NAs, Brad and Rob in SCs and myself in my AW-11 NA. Tim from the Supra Owners Club also joined us at Mt Eden with his Supra... naturally. David Moran has only just bought his Turbo and although he usually spends his weekends racing a Group A Commodore he seemed impressed by the standard Toyota. Watch out for him and his Commodore in this years Targa NZ.

Our first stage of the drive took Trent, Paul, Grant, Brad and myself down the southern motorway and out SH2 to Maramarua. We resisted the temptation to drive the forestry roads that Carlos Sainz had blitzed six weeks earlier and called in at the Red Fox Tavern to check out the food situation. Pub food at Ponsonby prices convinced us to head up the coast to Kaiaua.

As we were south of the Bombay’s the weather had improved and the roads were mostly dry. Grant and I took advantage of the conditions and upped the pace for a few kilometres ... we were getting hungry.

76KB

The Kaiaua fish and chip shop was our next stop but it wasn’t to be a quick stop. The place was packed and a 40 min wait for our fast food was the only option... ‘drive on an empty stomach ?... I don’t think so’. Obviously the food did arrive, or we wouldn’t be alive to tell this tale, and to the credit of the Kaiaua fish shop, it was pretty good.

With our stomachs full the speed on the next stage was a bit more sedate but that didn’t stop Trent from taking an ‘alternative’ route. We parked at Clevedon for the photo shoot and while lining up noticed there were only four cars. ‘Hang on, better do a recount... nope, still only four... we’ve lost one’. Grant retraced our tracks (not that we left any tracks) but saw no sign of Trent’s red SW-20. Given that the road from Kaiaua to Clevedon has no major intersections we surmised that he must have taken a wrong turn at the roundabout only 100m from where we were parked. Nevermind, in this part of the country all roads led to Auckland... eventually.

The rest of us headed home and while waiting at another roundabout, just before Howick, the long lost SW-20 appeared in front of us. With much flashings of lights like primative morse code we reformed the convoy and headed for the city... where life is so much simpler and no one ever gets lost.

Malcolm Cambridge