Road Trip

[nztimb]

With the crossing of the Cook Strait we moved up country to Masterton where Gameco has its NZ branch. Gameco is where I get most of my knife steel from so it was good to meet in person with Kerry who I have dealt with on the phone.

While it may not look big in terms of US business's but there are not that many knifemakers here in NZ. There is an imediate supply of the commonly used steels with a lot of other components as well including forge and grinder needs but they have a shipment come from the parent company in Australia every week so there is never any hold up should something be needed that is not on the shelves.

Once out of there I needed to make calls to the insurance co to start claims for the light collision with a little suzuki city car who did sustain a fully crumpled front wing where there was hardly any damage to my vehicle.

Leaving Masterton we passed through a town called Bulls so I had to get a picture of the town entrance and one of the exit displays.

Then it was on to Stratford where I had expected the Magnum Sports shop to be the last gunshop to see on the trip so instead of just taking orders so I could maintain my sample supply I sold him the knives he wanted and took orders for others as he wanted more than one of some models.

 

[rinehart0050]

Great report @Von Gruff! Glad to hear your trip was fruitful.

Seeing your photos reminds me of our own road trip around New Zealand last June. We were just on the north island. NZ has such wonderful countryside and majestic geography, that a road trip is the perfect way to take it all in.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Beautiful countryside.

 

[nztimb]

Great report @Von Gruff! Glad to hear your trip was fruitful.

Seeing your photos reminds me of our own road trip around New Zealand last June. We were just on the north island. NZ has such wonderful countryside and majestic geography, that a road trip is the perfect way to take it all in.

Did you drive the Forgotten World Highway as that is where the next few pictures were taken. Calling it a highway was a bit of a cheeky overstatement though as it winds it way up and down steep ridges with so many switchbacks at times that it was rare to get past 10 to 20 mph for quite some dstances.

 

[rinehart0050]

Did you drive the Forgotten World Highway as that is where the next few pictures were taken. Calling it a highway was a bit of a cheeky overstatement though as it winds it way up and down steep ridges with so many switchbacks at times that it was rare to get past 10 to 20 mph for quite some dstances.

We kind of followed our own route based off map recon and destinations we wanted to visit.

We landed in Auckland, drove north to Warkworth and drove to all kinds of beaches up there, then drove south to waitomo caves, east to Taupo, north to Rotorua, and then over to the east coast and Napier. Final leg was up to Gisborne where we hunted.

Next time we hope to visit the south island and drive all over there.

 

[nztimb]

The forgotten world highway passes through this country. I still cant post video so this is the few stills I took.

The trip has a nice eatery at the Whangamomona hotel which is the most remote country hotel in the country. A really good open steak sandwich made for a filling and tasty lunch

There is a quite spectacular old hand cut tunnel on the road that is single lane and 180 meters long.

There was a sence of reief when we were almost at the end of this "highway and back onto regional roads again. It was a long drive even though it was not so much in miles but very slow with about 8 mile still gravel surface.

There was a lot of wild goat on the roads and paddocks as they grazed out of the scrub where they live. This was only one of the little mobs we saw. There were about a dozen on the hillside.

 

[nztimb]

spending a few days at Murapara with a couple of day trips Lynettes brother showed us a hidden pond witha delightful waterfall that had a lot of visits in the summer. You will have t excuse all the selfies as it was a new thing to try and was a bit of a novelty so was undoubtably overused.

On a drive into the tribal area of the Tuhoe in the Ureweras country there were hundreds of wild horses roaming the roads and townships.

This was a in interesting rock formation that showed the rapid layering of a massive ammount of silt as would have been produced in the biblical flood

Old swing bridges made for great views on the rivers.

This was one of the more traditional Marae or meeting house which is the center of these communities.

 

[nztimb]

Leaving this area behind we mooved on to Katikati where we stayed for another couple of days and we went into Tauranga where I met with the final gunshop owners of the trip and put more orders in the book.

It was also where the editer of the NZ G&H magazine is so we spent a very pleasant morning with Nic who took a lot more photos of the some of the remaining knives which fortunately included all the ones that might be of interest to the NZ hunter for the upcoming review article. I am going to send him a coupl of knives for the oct nov competition and gift sugestion issue

 

[nztimb]

By this time I was ready to start the homeward trip with a stop in Rotorua where there is a redwood treetops walk.
There were a lot of very informative plates round the walk but first this is a couple of vids

 

[nztimb]

A few stills from the walk and first up is a recipe for beer for those who indulge in homebrewing thier own

A few random pics of the walk

 

[Shootist43]

Even though your road trip is behind you, I'll wager that you and Lynette speak of it often. BTW spectacular countryside. How old are those Redwood trees? I was surprised to hear that you have them in NZ.

 

[nztimb]

Even though your road trip is behind you, I'll wager that you and Lynette speak of it often. BTW spectacular countryside. How old are those Redwood trees? I was surprised to hear that you have them in NZ.

From this plaque it says they were planted in 1901

And this one explains the reason why they grow so well here

This one explained the reason why New Zealand government decided to explore faster growing trees in the Whakarewarewa (pronounced foka ray wa ray wa)

 

[nztimb]

Tonight I will upload some from the NZ Military museam in Waiouru.

 

[nztimb]

These next posts are a tribute to all the fighting men and women who have served in the fight against tyrany. There are a great many picturs but having been to this museam before and taken none, this time I wanted to record as much as possible and while some of the information boards may be NZ specific they are a reflection of the sacrifice of all service personal everywhere so I post them with great pride in what our men and women have done and continue to do with a deep seated belief in the rightness of what they are fighting for. Standing proudly outside the building is a fighting machine covered in the red poppy of Flanders in France (WW1)that has become the symbol of the sacrifice that binds our past and present together.

 

[nztimb]

There are a great many displays so these next pics are a selection of them starting with the Moari wars.

There were many more but the lighting was subdued and the pics were not up to posting.
This next one is to show the size correlation between the moari speer and the Magazine Lee Enfield although the rifles used in the moari wars was the .577 Snider.

 

[nztimb]

The Boer war had some nice displays as well.

This old Magazine Lee Enfield has some spectacular carving done on the forestock

 

[geoff rath]

we're praying for a safe, enjoyable and profitable trip for you both. If you can get the "live" support from outlets in ENZED like you have on this site, you'll be on a winner for sure .

 

[nztimb]

we're praying for a safe, enjoyable and profitable trip for you both. If you can get the "live" support from outlets in ENZED like you have on this site, you'll be on a winner for sure .

Thanks Geoff. Have been home for over a week now and it was a very good trip knife wise so am busy getting the first batch finished at the moment. Still have plenty of time to keep any orders from the good people of Africa Hunting as my first priority.

 

[nztimb]

More from the Waiouru museam
1914-18 war or as it is now known the first word war and NZ and Australia were very young countries as far as european settlement and and national spirit was concerned and with both countries sending thier first military contingents to fight for the empire they both were initially sent to Gollipoli where the ANZAC spirit was borne (ANZAC Australia New Zealand Army Corps)

 

[nztimb]

After the disaster of Gollipoli which was a result of PPP (piss poor planning)and the almost suicidal approach of the turks the atempt to compromise the Dardenells was abandoned and the ANZAC's were sent to France where even more disasterous events unfolded. The machine gun, mud and the unwavering stupidity on the part of those making decissions caused the deaths of thousands of brave young men.

This is a display of what much of the battlefield looked like with the reality of dead men half burried in mood and horses dead and dying all round. Less graphic than it was in so many instances as they have showed the horse and man still in one piece which was so very often not the case.