Targa

Hi all,

Well here we are at Stratford Holiday Park again, Poko's crew, Jamie's crew and mine Dale is over in Tauramunui - ready to time SS10 at Ohura late tomorrow morning

But to start at the beginning. It was only 3 deg C at Duckcreek when I left on Tues morn, but I am delighted to confirm that EVERYONE arrived where they were expected on time.That is 11 am in Hamilton

Dale and his crew, Jamie and his crew and, of course mine. Meanwhile Poko and her crew got to New Plymoiuth to collect the 'gear' for her crew and Rallysafe gear for all of us!

After checking in to our various accommodation in Waitomo I drove to Awakina to collect our Rallysafe gear from Poko, (and then back of course - about a 3 hr round trip)

After a good night's sleep, Poko and Jamie did SS1, Dale did SS2 Start and we did SS3 Finish.

Once cleared we headed for our overnight stops

For our part - having an a leisurely out the out time of 0930 this morning we are back to reality with an out the gate time of 6.45 a,m, tomorrow. But at least that gives us an early

finish.

Tomorrow night my crew (and Dales) are staying at Autolodge New Plymouth an establishment well known to lots of my friends and relations !

Till then

Hi all (again),

Here we are at Autolodge New Plymouth where I used to work some 30 years ago, yes Pete it MIGHT be only 28 - some people truly are pedantic !!

It is still as good as ever (albeit a bit expensive), but being realistic it is probably the last time I will get here, so that has to be worth something!!

I do find it a little strange though that some younger members of our crews decided they would prefer Burger King or similar rather than Juliana's Restaurant here - oh well

As planned Ben arrived at Stratford last night, bringing our own crew up to full strength - Thanks Ben

A bit of a shock to the system this morning - out the gate at Stratford at 6.45 AM, still dark, a bit foggy etc,etc

But we made it !!

Timed our stage SS 7 -' Inglewood Jumps', with Ben on FF, Rachael on Road, Alex on Cards and myself Log writing. A total of 58 cars, with no problems. An advantage of an early start was,of course, an early finish. So we were here nice and early!!

Tomorrow we have an out the gate time of 7.30AM, which although still 'early' is not TOO bad.

We have two stages to time tomorrow, SS 13 (locally) then SS17 another hour or so away. Then another 2 hours or so drive to Taihape where we stay the night!

Till then,

That did not go well!

I have just spent almost an hour on this writeup and it has disappeared - the chances of my remembering what I said is pretty much non existant.

I does seem that my mail list purge has not worked as it should and for this I do apologise - I'm still working on this

However

As explained last night, we stayed atAutolodge New Plymouth - somewhere most of you will be familiar with.

After a good night's sleep in my KING SIZE bed we made our Out the gate time of 7.45 AM, went and refuelled the cars and timed SS13- not too far out of New Plymouth. It was only after that, that we discovered one of our crew had left important belongings back at the motel. Shades of Mr left behind !!!!!!

This made us a smigeon late for our next stage "Insane Eltham" a bit ove ran hour away. Here we had Ben on FF, Alex doing Cards, Rachael writing the logs and criss-cross, with myself doing road. I also took the opportunity to do a Mini Board for competitors.

Once cleared we set out on the 3 hr trek to Taihape - our 1st stage tomorrow is at Waioruru Here we are staying at Gretna where I used to stay when I was 'on the road' over 50 years ago. Yep you could say I am in a nostaglia trip.

What we have found is that 2 stages and something over 4 hrs driving is not as much fun as you might think !!!

Anyway another note tomorrow night by which time we should be in Napier!

Hi all (again)

Here we are at Napier Beach Holiday Park, More about that in due course.

We stayed in Taihape last night at Gretna hotel where I used to stay some 50 years ago.

I did manage to catch the Crusaders game whilst in the bar and had a couple to drinks whilst there! Taihape is not quite Waiouru, (where our first stage of the day was) but it was certainly chilly- Certainly for those of us from the warmer climes of Auckland, Coromandel etc. Fancy having to warm up all the vehicles in the morning. The stage finish itself was no problem, but we Had to 'Do a Zac' and drive the whole stage to get into position.but once there and I actually got good Fleetlink radio covereage too. Just as well as cellphone reception was virtually non existent. Ben on FF, Rachael on Road, Alex again doing cards and myself writing logs. By now we are actually becoming quite an accomplished team - well done that man and woman.

We did know that getting to our next stage (Gentle Annie 1) was going to be a mission as we had zero time to get there, and remember we had to drive though our 1st stage to even get there. Sound familiar David or Toby????

We were of course late (and the stage could not start without us) well after road closure in fact.

But Rachael had FF set up in less than 5 mins and the others did FC in less than two !!!

Well done you lot we only delayed the stage by about 15 mins.

Once cleared we joined the convoy and proceeded to Napier arriving some 3 hrs later.

As promised, I shouted my crew a meal out at Restaurant Indonesia as a personal thanks for all their work. I do have some photos.

We do not have any stages tomorrow (Sunday) although Dale, Poko and Jamie all do, so my crew are heading home late morning and I shall probably follow suite about lunchtime.

Epilogue (including my analysis of accommodation providers) in a few days.

'Tis me again !!

Targa 2021 is done and dusted.

Once more we fulfilled ALL our obligations, despite having one crew member going AWOL at the worst possible moment.

To recap a little, the Northern People, under Dale, Jamie an Wazza all met at Hamilton at the due time Tues morning, Poko and Leiton meanwhile collected everyone's rallysafe gear from NewPlymouth and took it to Awakino

where Wazza collected what we needed.

We all did our thing Wed then

Jamie, Poko and Wazza (with their respective crews) headed for Stratford. Dale's crew went to Tauramuni to be close to their stage Thurs morn.

Again, we all did our stuff Thurs. Dale's crew and Wazza's crew stayed at Autolodge New Plymouth Thurs night, the others back to Stratford. More stages on Friday then on to Taihape. Poko and Jamie's crew at Rusty Nail, Dale's and Wazza's at Gretna Hotel. We all timed our stages Sat, in our case Waiouru, then Gentle Annie (1). Here we managed to set up our finish in approx 2 mins - well done team!!

A nice meal at Restaurant Indonesia for us that night then the well documented disaster which befell us Sunday morning. It was indeed fortunate that 2 stages did not have to be abandoned

Needless to say we coped though.

Now a couple of thoughts.

My crew consisted of

Alex - a well respected and experienced guy

Ben as above Rachael - Alex's partner - a real cracker Wazza = our "Senior Advisor" !!!

I cannot comment too much on the other crews as we did not see all that much of them ,MY TEAM, HOWEVER, WAS REALLY AMAZING - thank you all again

Now a final comment Money is always tight (how's that for an understatement) which is why we always have to seek out the cheapest accommodation- often at holiday parks, backpackers etc.

I have done some analysis this time and thought the following might be of interest

all were booked on the basis of 4 singles, but sometime only 3 were needed.

1.TUES Glow Worm Motel Waitomo Cost 180 Quite nice not new but so what - a double bed in lounge, full sized kitchen, shower , toilet etc and another 4 singles in the bedroom.

Top 10 Holiday Park Cost 138 Perfectly adequate as I understand it

Awakino Hotel Cost Not sure

2.Wed

Stratford Holiday park. Cost 135 (for 4) 3 units each sleeping 4 - communal facilities but quite nice nevertheless

3 THURS. Stratford as above. New Plymouth Autolodge Cost 192 Yes only $192 for 4 One of the most upmarket establishments in New Plymouth, each DS room (each crew had 2) boasted a king size bed and a double.With all the facilities you would expect in a 4 or 5 star hotel.

4.FRI Rusty Nail Backpackers where we often stay Cost 138 Typical backpackers, dorm rooms, communal facilities etc.

Gretna Hotel - Cost $50 per double room an older typical pub bar and restaurant (with 60" tv) downstairs, rooms upstairs shared facilities.

5.SAT Napier Beach Holiday Park Cost $216 (for 4) We all stayed here as we have done several times before, but probably never again. Not only were they the most expensive but (unlike all the rest) they demanded payment in full at least a month in advance!!! Furthermore as their reception closes at 6 p.m. sharp they were hounding us (while we were up on the Gentle Annie road,) for the rego numbers of all our cars - or we would not be allowed in. Customer service at its worst.

The crews this time were

WAZZA Alex Rachael Ben

DALE Bruce Dione Steven

POKO Leiton Paige Jahzaiah

JAMIE Rimu Mabel Viv (sort of)

Our next event is Far North Rally July 2nd, we need between 12 and 15 bods. I am seeking volunteers !!!!!!!!