Trip Report

26 - 28th May
SHANE
75 SERIES
SIMON & ANDREW
75 SERIES WITH BIKES
ROB, DANNI & EMMA
75 SERIES
CRAIG & NERI
55 SERIES
BRAD, NICKY & TRAVIS 80 SERIES

The trip started with myself arriving at Frenchman's Creek campsite on Friday evening. With rain looming I set up a tarp and headed out to get wood while it was still dry and then spent the next 1 1/2 hours trying to get a fire going.
After falling asleep for an hour or two I was awoken by Danni & Rob speaking to Craig and Neri on the radio while they were making their way to the campsite. Once they had arrived and set up camp we had a chat around the campfire and a couple of drinks then went to bed.
With Simon and Andrew arriving early the next morning they brought news of snow up on the Marysville - Woods Point Road.
With this news we all fired up and went for a drive and ride in search of snow - which we did find. Drove around for the rest of the day, only finding snow on trees.
Arrived back at camp had a feed and settled in for a night around the campfire.
Managed to stay awake long enough to welcome Brad, Nicky and Travis at around 11.00pm. Couldn't stay awake much longer after that and went to bed, with Brad, Nicky and Travis spending their first night in their double swag.
Awoke the next morning to the sound of snow falling on our swags, with this everybody got up in anticipation of what was to come.
We decided to head out towards Lake Mountain in search of deep snow to drive in. Finding 6inch deep snow on the roads at an altitude of 800 metres we ventured on further. Once the snow was bull bar height we decided to leave the main road and look for a more challenging track.
After two river crossings a hill was conquered by myself and Brad with Craig and Rob having trouble which resulted in Craig having to put snow chains on the rear tyres which proved to be handy later on.
With Myself and Brad having to wait 30 minutes for Rob and Craig we decided to have a beer and make a VAT snowman.
Once the others arrived we only drove 5 minutes up the road before we had to spend the next 1 1/2 hours trying to get past a 500 metre stretch of the road with a lot of recovery work, and techniques, being called upon. After we finally got moving again we headed off back towards camp.
After removing countless amounts of trees of the track and temporally getting lost along the way we made our way back to camp only to find it being snowed under.
We casually started to pack up camp when a limb in a tree above fell in the campsite narrowly missing the 80series with Travis inside. This caused mayhem with everybody's gear being thrown into the vehicles in no particular way. This was only the tip of the iceberg (snowberg).
We safely made our way out to the Woods Point Road only to find snow again. With the snowplough having cleared the road about 30 minutes earlier we decided to follow its tracks and head for Marysville.
After driving around, over and through about 15 trees in two klms we were stopped by a group of trees that were too large to be moved, cut or driven over. After talking to the snow plough operators on the other side of the trees who said that we wouldn't get to Marysville as they had the snow plough bogged we decided to turn around and head back to Cumberland Junction.
While trying to turn around a tree fell on the 80series making us move faster and causing Craig to get his vehicle stuck in a drain. After sending Simon, Andrew and the bikes back to the junction, we attempted to snatch Craig's vehicle out backwards, which proved unsuccessful.
With trees still falling on us including one on Robs back and the roof of Craig's car we sent a hysterical Nicky and the 80series to the junction to wait with Simon.
Rob managed to snatch Craig's vehicle out by attaching the snatch to his bull bar and spinning the vehicle 180 degrees. With Craig's vehicle back on the road we continued our way back to the junction crashing through even more trees than we had passed just that short time earlier.
Once we were all at the junction safely we headed off down the Reefton spur with the driver of a Range Rover clearing trees off the road as he went.
We all managed to make our way down to the bottom of the spur with only Simon running off the road once. We all gathered at the bottom of the spur and chatted about the previous few hours of life threatening four wheel drive experiences (even on bitumen) and then headed off for a safe trip home taking care on the wet roads especially on the corners - Hey Simon!!! Maybe next time it would be good to avoid going to the snow on the first weekend with such heavy snow falls predicted.
Shane.
Damage report -
Bent 80 series bullbar and pride - done in campsite
Broken Snorkel
Cracked roll bar - that still works (It held up on the annual trip)
55 series roof
Robs back
Overheated 80 series in the snow
Smashed mirror