Targa Hawke’s Bay

Here we go.

Just a 2 day event this yeat (but in the middle of winter!)

Later today (Fri 3rd July) we head towards Napier where we will stay tonight ready for our stages over the next two days.

Ezra and Wazza will leave Duck Creek by 10 a.m. in Chalkie and Goldie, dropping Goldie at Thames for Aidan and Finn to use to get to Napier once Finn finishes work.

We then proceed to Tirau where we collect Josh and all proceed to Napier.

Meanwhile Kevin goes to Bruce in Thames and they too head for Tirau before heading to Napier too. Dale collects Viv and Steve once school is finished for the term and so if all goes well, weather and road closures permitting we should all be at Napier early evening.

Tomorrow morning (Sat) we time SS3 and have the afternoon 'off'

Sunday we do SS7 in the morning then SS10 (the last stage of the event) then all head home ' tired but happy'.

Let's see how we go !!

More tomorrow night.

Hi all.

Well we arrived pretty much as planned- Bruce and Kevin about 3 p.m. Josh, Ezra and Wazza about 4 p.m. Then Dale, Viv and Steve just after dark We did have SMALL problem with Aidan and Finn they were a bit later because surprise, surprise Goldie decided toblow most of its water out. Nevertheless it lools like all was to be well THEN we discovered that there wasn't enough Rallysafe gear for us - no tablet or even a silly little three line display - but we have coped !

Josh, Ezea and Wazza went to dinner at Hot Chick then got organised for our first stgae today SS3. Our out the gate time of 7.30 a.m, was met - gingerly nursing Goldie!

Once cleared we had a Tiki Tour of Napier (as we did not have another stage this afternoon) this included 'doing the steps'. Lots of previous crew members will well remember the chore

Tonight we had dinner at Restaurant Indonesia- probably my favourite eating place in Napier!

The boys are out entertaining themselves at the moment but have been made well aware of our 'out the gate time 'of 6.30 a.m. which will have us all out of bed by 6 a.m.

We time two stages tomorrow SS7, then the last of the event SS10 tomorrow afternoon.

More then !!

. Hi all. A reminder that if these emails annoy you just left me know so I can remove your name from the mailing lists

Firstly an OOPS. I notice that my Day 1 email was full of typos, and spelling mistakes – these will be fixed before being – put up on the website. I am taking steps to see that future

ones are forced through a special spell checker before being released. BUT in defense ( no I wasn't drunk) but typing with one finger and the laptop perched precariously on one knee in our holiday park accommodation is not really ideal !!

The evening (well late night really) did not bode well

After our meal at Restaurant Indonesia the youngsters (not teenagers any more either ) wanted to go tomcatting in Napier.

Once Ezra went and brought them home in the 'early' hours of the morning they insisted on continuing to drink, smoke and generally yahoo - carrying on in a completely unacceptable fashion.

This continued even after the 'old fellow got up, donned his dressing gown and slippers and read them the riot act in words of no more than one syllable (they could not have understood any longer words anyway). It made not one iota of difference. Needless to say rousing them an hour or so later at 6 a.m. was a mission in itself. I can, however

report that we did make our 'out the gate time' of 6.45 a.m. heading for SS7 a bit over an hour away!

But here is where it gets VERY interesting. I was driving Goldie, but had no GPS, or official maps but 'no problem' , yeah right , I had had a look at the enlarged official map the night before, worked out exactly where to go and noted that it was indeed a stage we had timed a few years back. So what could possibly go wrong!!!! Year right again.

Down SH2 towards Waipawa, but left through Otane (yes Trish I remembered you) then meet at Patengata pub - no problem - yeah right again. We got to an intersection (turns out to be less than 5 mins from our regroup point) rang Ezra but 2 degrees has no coverage so somewhat cast we took the decision to turn right, not left - bad choice!

So once more heading for Waipawa we get a 'where are you' on Aidan's Spark mobile we explained in detail but the crew in Chalkie our 'mother ship' were not really able to help AT ALL.

So we eventually got into Waipawa, 'mother ship' staff still no help so we went and fuelled Goldie

( It was getting VERY low on fuel with all this peregrinating - a car triallist's term for wandering around aimlessly) andI spoke to a very helpful young lady behind the counter who after expressing some surprise that we were lost already, explained that we should drive back for two minutes, turn right, drive for another 15 then turn left that would take us straight to where you need to be. "Shall I write it down for you?" Yes please.

She would make a wonderful triallist!!! This we did, but of course VERY late by now - phone calls (Spark) from several Targa Officials - most embarrassing.

We passed the infamous intersection and realised that a left turn not a right turn would have had us on site early, not nearly an hour late. I guess one could say it was 'entirely' 2 degrees fault.

BUT I am delighted to say that the stage was able to be started ALMOST on time despite our extra 45 mins driving.

Once cleared we returned to thank the lady (again) for her assistance

pies for 5 etc,etc. Also topped up Goldie water.

We were determined not to repeat this performance for the final SS10 so we went in convoy arriving over an hour early - from the sublime to the ridiculous!

Our only problem here was that the competitors road book had FF at house 421 but the FF mark on the road was at 467 - having time up our sleeve as it were we were happy to try the beam at both places and take our instructions from base - thanks Barney..

Once cleared we once more checked Goldie water level dropped gear back at hotel then headed home.

Hastings to Napier, Napier to Taupo, Taupo to Tirau ( fuel for cars and bodies at Tokoroa) Dropped Josh at Tirau, then Finn and Aidan to Thames and Ezra and Wazza back to Duck Creek - in the rain. We arrived a bit before midnight - a warm milky drink then off to bed. I'll check Goldie water later but it got me home safe and well.

EPILOGUE in a couple of days!

Well we did it (again)

Fulfilled all our obligations, met pretty much all our 'out the gate' times.

Arrived home 'tired but happy' just before midnight on Sunday night.

Timeline:

1, Wed 1st July Collected both sets of gear from Targa, dropped Dale's start stuff with Bruce in Thames

3. Fri 3rd July Kevin and Bruce proceeded to Tirau then headed to Havelock North for Rallysafe gear. Dale collected Viv and Steve from Hamilton. Wazza and Ezra left Duck Creek at 10 a.m. in Chalkie and Goldie, leaving Goldie at Thames for Aidan and Finn to use once Finn finished work. Ezra and Wazza met Josh and Tirau and headed for Napier. All arriving pretty much as planned. Not having Rallysafe display at Finish Control was a pain but not disastrous.

The Flying Finish beam was fine ( master and slave now rather than a reflector). A meal at Hot Chick

4. Sat 4th July A reasonable out the gate time and the afternoon 'off'. Tiki Tour of Napier, including Bluff Hill Lookout and Middle Hill steps !!

Dinner that night at Restaurant Indonesia - photo attached! Some exceptionally bad behaviour from our younger members.

5. Sun 5th July An early start, getting lost, much peregrination, but late arrival at SS7 did not have really bad consequences! Early (very) at SS10, repositioned FF beam as instructed. Dropped gear at Havelock North - then drove home.

Teams this time

Start

Dale Bruce Kevin Viv Steve

Finish

Warwick Ezra Josh Aidan Finn

Our next Targa event is Main Targa in October, then Silver Fern in November.

Regards