|
We were looking
forward to this trip, despite the fact that it was hard on the heels
of Christmas festivities. It was a delight to be contemplating
a final 2003 run in the Victor to bring our club adventures to a
close for the year of Vauxhall's Centennial.
With the presents past we set to sorting the gear required for a few days away and gave the car a last flick with the duster. Departures don’t generally come much more leisurely than ours so, to those who know us, it will be no surprise to learn that we didn’t take-off on the 27th until 1355 ! It was a lovely afternoon and, with the sun over the yard-arm and behind our backs, perfect for the run south-east. Traffic was initially heavier than anticipated and down to a crawl for a while but, once south of the Thames turn off from S.H.27 and continuing along S.H.2, across the Hauraki Plains, we had the road almost to ourselves. There was a tail wind too, so even the FB was feeling laid back and barrelled along purring like next door’s cat…
Reaching Paeroa, and finding gas advertised at 103.9¢ & 98.9¢ for the cheap stuff, it was deemed prudent to top up.
|
Whilst doing so a tourist from Tahiti admired our two-tone colour scheme and commented “Your car is brand-new ?” - “Oui”’ I replied “Brand-new forty-one years old !” - I believe he got the joke too… Wishing him Bon Voyage for his trip to ‘Kristchurch’ we tootled on up the hill, through Mackaytown and wound our way through the scenic Karangahake Gorge. The excellent and so smooth seal on that section made it an easy glide and we were soon into Waihi’s grand palm lined approach en route to Athenree Gorge and Katikati’s mural adorned main street. It’s noticeable how this area has developed, even since we went through on our week-end away trip earlier this year. Obviously more and more people are moving into these parts and keeping the Real Estate people very happy thank you 1 Nearing Tauranga, Te Puna, also seems to have sprouted many new or upgraded businesses and looks to be booming. If you want to migrate to the coast the message would have to be ‘ Do it soon - while you can afford it ! ‘ As Mark Twain famously said ‘Buy land. They ain’t making any more’.
Here - wouldn’t you know it - we found gas was even cheaper than at
Paeroa ! |
Litres being 98.9¢ and 93.9¢ respectively. It’s times like that I wish I’d brought a tanker !! We reached destination Papamoa at 1645, just in time to toot a farewell to our host’s son and his wife as they drove down the road back to Auckland and were greeted by Pa & Ma before they could conveniently exit the doorstep - Great timing, they couldn’t pretend they were out ...!Sunday 28 December The day dawned somewhat cloudy and overcast - however, at least dry. We had to be in position between 0700 and 0930 so we aimed for the median of 0815 before heading off to the Bay Park Stadium venue. We were welcomed and directed by BOP VCC marshals into lane where I envisaged the vehicles being arranged around the centre of the grassed arena in the stadium itself. Instead we were marshalled into the fully concreted competitors preparation section., actually behind the stadium. We followed a vintage motorcycle and, at the gate, were asked our entry number and given a ‘goodie bag’. Handed on from there to other marshals we were eventually pointed to the last slot in the sixth or eighth row.
Next... |