Christchurch - Kaikoura to Hanmer Sprints Road Trip

On Saturday 21st March, some members of the Christchurch contingency ventured forth on a great road trip. Initially there were two MkIIs and one MkI, with another MkII joining us later in Kaikoura.

After meeting Lawrence & Jill (MkII NA) and Richard (MkII Turbo) at the rendezvous point, Rex’s and my car (MkI NA) developed a problem with the electric windows, and the passenger window was stuck halfway down for the whole trip. It was a windy trip for me.

After clearing the Belfast speed camera, we were off, some like a rocket. Richard (who lead most of the way) wasn’t shy about putting his foot down and we all had a close view of him overtaking a line of cars going into a blind corner.

It was great to get a feel for what the cars can really do! I think we all pushed ourselves a little further than normal, and the cars were probably thankful when we paused for a break in little Dommett. After some light refreshment, it was off again, next stop Kaikoura!

After settling into the motel, we had about half an hour to fit in lunch before going seal swimming. As we headed, three in a row, to the town centre, a red MkII coming the other way flashed a hello. After passing us, he turned around and followed us into the car park area. It turned out Julian had just bought his MR2 the previous weekend, and he was quite pleased to discover there was a club! We did the obvious and arranged to send him a membership form. It was only a pity that he had to work and couldn’t hang out with us.

The seal swimming was a definite highlight. After being kitted out in full snorkelling gear, we headed for the sea. One of our number, who shall remain unnamed, to save face, was a little nervous about being in the sea, and had assumed that we’d be in nice shallow water near the shore. Whoops! We swam out a couple of hundred metres to well over our depth, where the seals were returning to the colony after eating. Everyone, however, loved the experience of floating on the top of the water, watching the seals dart about around us. They came very close, and Rex was lucky enough to touch one. It gave it a start, though, and it took off. The wetsuits made us very buoyant, so there was never any fear of drowning. To tell the truth, we couldn’t even dive in these things! It was a very exhausting experience, and it was great to get back to a hot shower and a rest in the motel.

Time to check out the cars! Well, we compared the engine of Richard’s MkII Turbo with our MkI NA. Richard decided to test his theory about the air filter damping his car’s power by removing the filter and going for a blat, with the claimed result being more power (Tim Taylor style power grunt).

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Next was dinner at a very nice little restaurant, recommended by Jill and Lawrence, called Hislops. The only thing we can fault them on is that they don’t stock Coke! (Heathens)

After dinner the wait was on for Craig and Raewyn (MkII Turbo) to arrive. Finally, three quarters of an hour after the agreed meeting time, they pulled into the driveway. Guess they had trouble finding the accelerator . . . Naturally, the first thing that happened was the appraisal of the car. We were quite surprised to see that they had a car we’d all seen around town and had been talking about earlier that day. The number plate was [I {heart} MR2]. Craig and Raewyn settled for takeaways for dinner and we converged on Richard’s, Rex’s and my unit for a good old fashioned chin wag.

After such a cool day and late night, most of us slept in on Sunday. We met up with Jill and Lawrence, who like to welcome the dawn, for a leisurely breakfast at the Why Not Cafe. After breakfast we headed for Waiau.

On the road to Waiau we encountered a snotty pair of tourists in a loaded down Suzuki Swift, who delighted in making it difficult to pass. What with stopping at turnoffs, and in Waiau, we actually passed this car three times!

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If these guys are your only hope, pray you never have a fire!
Lawrence, Rich, Rex, and Craig (I hope I got that right! - Ed)

Waiau is a small town, and our MkI has an equally small gas tank. We were running almost on empty, and the only petrol stations in town were closed on Sundays! Erk! Fortunately it was only 50k to Hanmer, so we decided to make a run for it, driving carefully. I don’t think “driving carefully” worked out that well. I was told I was not to criticise Rex for driving fast, for I wasn’t any better! I thought I’d kept to a moderate pace, except for overtaking.

We decided not to refuel until we left Hanmer, on the reasoning that if someone was going to steal our car (using the open window), they could bloody well pay for the fuel themselves!

After lunch and a dip in the hot pools it was time to head back to Christchurch. By general agreement, it was decided not to meet back in Christchurch, but to just head our separate ways. Unfortunately we passed Waipara just after the wine festival there ended, so the traffic into Christchurch was basically bumper to bumper. Being in the slowest car, we couldn’t keep pace with the others as they played leap-frog with the commuters.

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Richard does something strange to his engine.

The weekend seemed to be a success and I just hope we can get more people and cars involved next time.

Deb Webb