Rotorua to Waiouru – Day One

A good run with a bone shaking 7am start in the dark. All MV’s made it to 1st gear start time because that’s who we are and that’s how we roll!

We headed off for a pretty cool drive to Wairaki and most of us stopped at the Huka Falls for a leg stretch. The lunch stop was the wonderful Taupo waterfront. How could this be better? Especially with no-one broken or busted.

With that pleasantly full feeling we pushed on towards Waiouru. On the Desert Road Ken and Mark had an ignition coil issue (or at least their Jeep did. We think their personal ignition coils are working fine). Then it was a good run over the summit and down into Waiouru.

The Army put us up at the Sports Complex and the Base Commander came along to welcome us. Profuse apologies were offered for not being able to host us on site due to a massive influx of deployments and untold thousands of soldier’s onsite. John Subritzky mistakenly checked himself into the Base thinking that we were in the Gym onsite. After finding zero evidence of vintage military vehicles he contacted Haigh to discover that we were off Base.

We settled into the wonderfully warm hall and as the evening fell into darkness gunfire resonated around the hills as massive training battles were fought. In camp there were equally loud explosions of snoring. We woke in the morning to heavy machinegun fire. Good morning Waiouru! We love the smell of gunpowder in the air!

The group toured both the Museum and the Back Lots private tour. We managed 4 of the 6 back lots sheds so that was cool. The interaction between the Convoy and NZ Defence has taken NZMVC Rallies to a whole new level. Magnificent!