Good run yesterday fellas! Was truly epic.
Basic rundown of the run:
- met in airport np station early, left a bit late for stragglers
- passed through lopinot road and went all the way up the road till we reach the trail
- went up and through the lopinot trail, which is basically up and through the northern range, until we reach blanchi main road. Had a couple of scary hill climbs, saw a donkey and a monkey on the way, but it was a bess trail!!! Not too hard, but not too easy either
- reach spring bridge, waited for the stragglers. Cuddles battery died, had to swap batteries from a next frontier. Started up and headed into blanchi trail
- trail was bess! Good, hard surface with one slushy mud pit, the big ruts were ok now.
- walked to blanchi beach. That narrow section we talked about was truly too narrow for a hilux or landie to pass. Blanchi beach was besss!!! Very nice scenery, lots of rocks to climb plus soothing rock-pools to dip in.
- on the way out, had our first casualty, civicminded sprained his ankle. Got out my brand new field-surgery kit and amputated his leg........... Just kidding!!! Gave him a painkiller and wrapped his ankle up. He had to go home afterwards.
- on the way back out, I got stuck in the slushy pit and started to slide towards the drain (and the 20-foot drop to the ocean!). Had to drop into 4LO to lock the front and back diffs of the navara (4H still had too much slip for the lsd's) and 2nd gear.... And powered out of that pit like a BOSS!! The scorpions dug down and found a bite in the hard gravel underneath... And sting up the trail!!
- and then onto las cuevas, where the fun really began. First half of the group went in and to the beach, then jeremy got stuck in the second mud hole. He made it pretty far but his diffs got hung up. The jimny on 35's came and pulled him out, then a 2.2L TAY hilux tried (on 33" super swampers, I belive) and got stuck badly too. 3stage had to winch him out from behind.
- another jimny came along ad got stuck like a real @ss. First he came from behind and tried to go around the stuck hilux, and he got stuck. Jumped out and tried to lock his front diffs, but he couldn't engage 4WD. So he was spinning his 35" tractor tyres in the mud like a real fool - and he wouldn't listen to our instructions and tried to go brave like a real kant. He stick real good and the other jimny tried to tow him out but either his tow hook snapped or the bolt on the shackle sheared. He got out eventually.
- we all went to cuevas beach, some bathed, me and a few others went and did donuts on the beach. Limed for a while, then most of us were ready to go home. Unfortunately some of Rutless Tiida's ride-alongs got separated from the group, had a bit of a panic while looking for them but found them eventually.
- 3stage, myself and a couple others went to get bake and shark and chilled on tyrico afterwards till sunset. Finally get to dip into the ocean, was really nice! Water was cool and extra clear that day.
- but wait, that's not all! We decided that the run was still on! (We still had 2 members of side-b, me and 3stage, so that was enough to continue the run). After tyrico, we discussed plans over the walkie talkies while driving out and decided to go for Haagen Das in ellerslie plaza..... Followed by Pirates Of The Caribbean 4, in movietowne POS.
Sat down in wet clothes in freezing movietheatre, to watch a mediocre movie with Johnny Depp running around for 1 1/2 hours.
Only after the movie did the run end, around 11pm
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So all in all, a fantastic run, we met all our goals, had lots of excitement, only one minor casualty, no damage to any vehicles, and we all had a blast.
** this is a special point here, since it's the FIRST TIME EVER that Side B ever made it to a beach on a run!! All the other times we had to turn back, mostly cuz of bad weather. It was a sweet victory to see that Blanchi beach, on the same trail where Side B was first formed or rather, "born", and my Navara was baptized!
So congrats to the guys and gals of Side B, we made it!
Pics to follow soon.
Keep On Truckin' !!!!
. If I remember correctly, someone said they had a water pump that they will be bringing? Don't forget to bring that please, I wanna take a quick borrow. Don't want to end up home looking like 3stagevtec did for the folks to see. Lol. They wouldn't dig no horrors if it is a 1cm thick layer of mud, but a whole 3inches coat of mud on the van can cause some problems. 
lmao
