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This was a great day out organised by the Canterbury Jeep Club with some quite varied scenery from native scrub to wide open grasslands.
After figuring it was going to take about an hour and a half to get to the meeting point in Geraldine we headed off with a full tank of gas and supplies enough for lunch and snacks.
We were pretty much first to the meeting point with others soon to arrive with the news that the planned trip leader, Kevin was laid up crook but confidence was high that we could find the way without him!
This trip also provided the opportunity to try airing down the tires. This was a first for me, the ARB deflator is a nice bit of kit with machined brass fittings that allow you to extract the valve, keep it captive in the fitting and slide a collar backwards anad forwards to let the air out at a great rate. With the collar forward the air pressure can be read on the guage. I just dropped the tires form the standard 35psi to 25 and boy what a difference. The Jeep had never really been short on grip but the ride comfort was great with much less vibration and undoubtably less work for the shocks also.
Ironically the tracks seemed much better maintained on the first station ($10 fee) than the second ($20 fee) but this could have been due to the route we took or the more rocky terrain. All made for good driving and some nice shots. The old musterers' quarters were really interesting with thier ancient pots and pans, cobbled together draft stops, felt like I was visiting Shackleton's hut (an early Antarctic explorer whose preserved hut remains at the South Pole.)
Lunch was in a nice sheltered spot and a good chance to chat to everyone.
As mentioned the second farm had the more interesting tracks with some rocky sections and some ruts but nothing too challenging and the crossing of the Orari river at the end provided the perfect finish.
Once we had paid out second gate fee and dealt with a small fluid leak on one of the Cherokees (great having some mechanics along on the trip)it was time to air back up. The new ARB onboard compressor did a great job, taking roughly just 30 seconds to air each tire back up to 35psi.
All in all a great day and a chance to see some country not normally accessible to the general public.
More pictures from the day at:
http://s999.photobucket.com/albums/a...%2010/?start=0
After figuring it was going to take about an hour and a half to get to the meeting point in Geraldine we headed off with a full tank of gas and supplies enough for lunch and snacks.
We were pretty much first to the meeting point with others soon to arrive with the news that the planned trip leader, Kevin was laid up crook but confidence was high that we could find the way without him!
This trip also provided the opportunity to try airing down the tires. This was a first for me, the ARB deflator is a nice bit of kit with machined brass fittings that allow you to extract the valve, keep it captive in the fitting and slide a collar backwards anad forwards to let the air out at a great rate. With the collar forward the air pressure can be read on the guage. I just dropped the tires form the standard 35psi to 25 and boy what a difference. The Jeep had never really been short on grip but the ride comfort was great with much less vibration and undoubtably less work for the shocks also.
Ironically the tracks seemed much better maintained on the first station ($10 fee) than the second ($20 fee) but this could have been due to the route we took or the more rocky terrain. All made for good driving and some nice shots. The old musterers' quarters were really interesting with thier ancient pots and pans, cobbled together draft stops, felt like I was visiting Shackleton's hut (an early Antarctic explorer whose preserved hut remains at the South Pole.)
Lunch was in a nice sheltered spot and a good chance to chat to everyone.
As mentioned the second farm had the more interesting tracks with some rocky sections and some ruts but nothing too challenging and the crossing of the Orari river at the end provided the perfect finish.
Once we had paid out second gate fee and dealt with a small fluid leak on one of the Cherokees (great having some mechanics along on the trip)it was time to air back up. The new ARB onboard compressor did a great job, taking roughly just 30 seconds to air each tire back up to 35psi.
All in all a great day and a chance to see some country not normally accessible to the general public.
More pictures from the day at:
http://s999.photobucket.com/albums/a...%2010/?start=0
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