Willdat?

Nice one - yeah the Escape needed a little rock positioning to get over it, but it's not a real 4WD + we don't really know what we're doing! In a proper 4WD there's sooooo much exploring that could be done through that area.

Yeah it's not bad eh, Jollies Pass has one rut that will be a little interesting for the support vehicles with trailers, but well within their abilities. The riding will be awesome. 4 1/2 hours from Nelson to Hanmer at no more than 50km/h on the gravel. The gate keeper was super keen on us going through together at the toll gate, but I guess that will depend on the pace.

I have accommodation for Auckland crew for whenever they can get through in Nelson if needed xox

Awesome, we might take you up on that, aim for the Mirages?!

I see judging goes on at 145, does the event carry on after that?

Just clicked I'll be in Hanmer tonight...

Yep - plus loose gravel with serious drop offs in places. Coldest place is likely to be over Island Pass on the Rainbow - it's 1370m... https://www.dangerousroads.org/australia-and-oceania/new-zealand/4191-island-saddle.html

It looks like I'll be doing a Rainbow recce the weekend before too so should be able to do a conditions update, going through with a group of mates who have old ford escapes/mazda tributes...

Good to see it's starting to work out, should be a walk on the park compared to your expertise!

@avengertigerI'm not sure if any of this number are your crew?

A 400 maybe cheating (but no more than my 250!) it will be good to have you on the team.

He's actually looking at refining it this year, I'm encouraging him to document it so that others could follow the recipe if they were interested. To be honest the technology curriculum is set up for prototyping rather than making a final polished product. He's also making the CNC plasma I mentioned in @ThePogs thread.

If that's OK I'd definitely like to organise it ASAP. There will probably be some hard core fan boi-ing as they don't get a real engineer for a teacher! I'll figure out how many students have vehicles etc. and be in touch.

That would be amazing! Let me know how you get on.

We've got a student making us a full sheet cnc plasma this year based around a regular boc handset and running Linux CNC so I might have to be in touch...

It looks like there has been ~500 views of my Google map for each day. Possibly a lot of foam, but also this could be quite the large event. I'm intrigued to find out the number of actual entries too. @DoBro Jesusidea of the Maitai is a goodie. And probably where I would recommend. @RUNAMUCK where are you staying in Blenheim you tease?

Good idea - we'll try and get a hustle going by telling everyone it's going to be first in first served...our major limitation to be honest is space for gear in support vehicles.

Yeah I'm in Richmond, definitely a bit closer than Renwick. I'll be in touch closer to the time to get it sorted.

Hopefully @avengertiger will have space, but when are you planning on heading down/coming back?

Day one is not technical at all, but still ~200km. A regular 50 should easily do it in 5 hours riding time. Having not done anything similar I'm not sure on the timing, but I reckon you're on the right track.

Is there anyone heading down via Nelson with a trailer? As capable as the bike is I'd be happier trailering down on Thurs afternoon/night and back to town on Sunday night in a perfect world. I'd also be happy for the bike to travel down/back with a GC, and I'll drive down after work on a Thurs/back Sunday. It's not quite as simple for teachers to take annual leave as regular folk. I'll get Bart to write a note to my boss otherwise...

Nah - bring him along too.

Not at all, I'll be on the WR250R which is cheating heaps. But happy to be bullied for being a slow boomer.

I'm pretty sure it's privately owned so DOC don't have a say. Their Facebook page looks like it's days or weeks rather than months until it reopens.

It's right where you left it, so you're welcome.