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Published: December 17th 2012
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Cape Reinga
Photo by Christof Citroen 2CV’s take on the Roads Less Travelled in the Far North
More 2CV Adventure.....
After our Shadow of the Andes Expedition earlier in the year and enjoying the little cars so much, it was time to share some of it’s capabilities with other owners, so in consultation with Paul Absolum, in Auckland, we hatched this Raid on the Far North. The plan was to get to the Cape and back by the roads less travelled and keep as far away from main routes and tar seal as possible.
After sending out the invitation for 2CV owners to join us on the Far North Raid, we
received a very positive response and by start day we had Paul and Melean Absolum, who
had joined me on the Shadow of the Andes Expedition to Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and
Peru in March / April, in their bright Yellow 2CV, along with Don and Rachel Sharp, 2CV,
Geoff and Christine Tyler, 2CV, Steve and Flos Wotton, DS23, Tony Baggaley, Dyane,
Charmaine Gaskill-Mills, 2CV, Christoff Colpi, Big 15 and me in our trusty 2CV.
I
must thank those of you who sent photos I have used in this publication. There
are always
far more photos than you can use in a blog like this.
A special thanks to Christoff for the Cape photo - I have been to the Cape many times and
have many photos, but he got the right one on the day. Thanks also to Melean, for the photos on the road.....
Raewyn and I enjoyed hosting you at our place and I got a buzz taking you to places you
would never think of going to for no reason - there are many more places we never had
time for, so maybe another time.......A big thanks to Steve, at Co Pilot Distributors for the
wine for daily prizes, sometimes it was hard to find a winner! but we enjoyed the wine
anyway, even though he doesn’t sell to plebs like us!!
Thanks to all you Raiders for putting your faith in me and joining in the fun.
After a hearty breakfast, and with introductions all round and briefing of how we will look out for each other, by utilising the ‘Corner Man System’ (CMS) we headed outa town...You will have noticed that we had two ‘Gate Crashers’ amongst us, but at least
they were both White! being a DS 23, driven by Steve and a Traction Avant Big 15, driven by Christoff, but they did manage to keep up!!
We left the Riverhead Cafe and headed North to Port Albert for a morning coffee and to be sure that we all understood CMS. The fact that we all arrived for coffee gave me the confidence that we all understood the plan.
Port Albert is one of those places that you were ‘Always going to visit’ but in fact never do.
Leaving Port Albert we bypassed the Brynderwyn Hill and headed inland to take Golden Stairs Road onto
Waipu Caves. It was too wet to venture into the caves, so that can be another time. By this time lunch was
calling and we needed to get to ‘The Office’.....
After our overnight stay in Russell, we took the time and checked out Pompallier House along the Russell waterfront, and tried to get photos of the cars in front of the huge French flag that was flying.
We took the original metal road to Kawakawa where Roger Crowden was kind enough to let us into his museum and he
Kawakawa
Gabriel still runs up the main street had even fired up his old steam engine the day before to make sure he had a head of steam so he could move her out for us.
The Power of Stream....
Roger has a very eclectic collection of mostly Sunbeam motorcycles, with the odd old Triumph thrown in. He also has a collection of old printing machinery, that he still uses for display printing.He is a Book Binder by trade, and is kept busy with restoring archival books for libraries and museums, plus he runs classes to teach others this dying trade. Most of the guys found all this very interesting, not so from the female camp,they were wondering where the shops were!! - Kawakawa here we come!
The town of Kawakawa is trying very hard to be noticed, and they are doing a pretty good job of it. It is really great to see a steam train puffing down the main street and the cafe’s are pretty good as are the famous toilets.
After a very pleasant lunch at the Marsden Estate Winery, where we were joined by Steve and Jan from Paihia and Rhys, a friend of Tony’s from Kerikeri, we headed off
into the Puketi Forrest to check out the Kauri trees and the board walk, and then a visit to Brad and Nancy Topp’s place to view his restorations.
The Real Far North.....
We left Brad and Nancy and proceeded through Kaeo to take roads less travelled up through Fern Flat, and more roads less travelled towards our home for the night.
For various reasons, including the BP at Awanui running out of gas, we had to back track to Kaitaia for fuel, so we got to our place just on dusk.
Raewyn had cooked up a treat for the night, so by the time we had eaten, drunk a few wines, there was not a lot of rocking to get to sleep that night.
After another hearty breakfast which included a good helping of ostrich egg, I noticed that Don was checking out I was eating mine, before he got stuck in!!
Mid morning, we headed for CapeReinga and the light house. The road to the cape is now sealed allthe way, but it is still a very nice drive.
Always a pleasure to come to the Cape, it was a fine day,
but with a good strong wind from the South.
We had to cover the Nissan with Don and Rachel’s French flag for the photo shoot.
Returning from Cape Reinga we had a Coffee break at Touputaputa Bay, then we headed South to Awanui and the Ancient Kauri Kingdom for lunch. The parked cars were photographed by many tourists and locals alike.
On our way, we stopped at the Rangiahua Railway Station to check out a bit of history to , which of course is not there anymore, afterwards we drove onto Horeke, where we stayed the night.
Our overnight stop was in Horeke, where Diane and Ross looked after us in their beautifully restored Riverhead Guest House. This Kauri villa was built in 1871, in Kaiwaka and transported here in 1979
After another hearty breakfast we visited the Wairere Boulders, we then called into the Pukerata Marae at Otua and checked out the magnificent Ngapuhi Waka. We then took more roads less travelled to Dargaville for lunch.
Here, I kidnaped Petrice, a reporter for the local Dargaville paper and took her with me to Matakohe and back. With 1,033 kilometres on the clock and
the farewell coffee at Matakohe, we all went our separate ways.
It was my pleasure to spend the time with such great people and I managed to give away all the wine supplied by my good friend, Steve, from Co Pilot Distributors, who doen’t sell to plebs like us!!
So until the next Blog and our High Andes Motocycle Adventure in March/April 2013.
Cheers, Rosco
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Dave Duirs
non-member comment
wow!
Why didnt I have a 2CV?? Great trip. Have been talking of doing something similar with Pug club which is struggling.............must do it! Dave D