That's a very scenic journey. It will take a lot longer to get your bits for a Landie delivered to the West Coast. You'll need a good garage/workshop as well - you won't be able to do any work outside because it will be raining.

Only another day, if that. Things go slower over the hill anyway.

The budget includes provision for double garage and workshop, however great day today. Cannot wait to get installed over here, wife feels the same way.

Also on the lookout for a 2002 or later FL1, manual, TD4 ES or better. Of course it will have to cost less than $1500......
 
Only another day, if that. Things go slower over the hill anyway.

The budget includes provision for double garage and workshop, however great day today. Cannot wait to get installed over here, wife feels the same way.

Also on the lookout for a 2002 or later FL1, manual, TD4 ES or better. Of course it will have to cost less than $1500......
You seem to have made your minds up :)

You'd better get in quick with the F1 - the price they are listed at appears to be going up at the moment!
 
[QUOTE="GrumpyGel, post: 3930872, member: 106462"It'll be taking us to Mt Cook, down through your favorite hydro valley and down around coastal Otago over the next few days :)[/QUOTE]

How far south are you heading? I'm off to Papatowai in the Catlins - that's about 50km south of Owaka.
 
How far south are you heading? I'm off to Papatowai in the Catlins - that's about 50km south of Owaka.
That's a bit to far south for us on this trip. Based in Dunedin for a couple of nights with first time visitors to the area so probably won't go farther south than that.
 
Hi Grumpy - is it getting hot down there ??

Saw a story about CCH burning ????????????
Hiya, yeh, we've had some pretty impressive fires burning right along the southern edge of the city for the last 4 days. They've been burning out of control on the hill side there. Amazingly there's only been about a dozen houses lost, no fatalities from the fire - but 1 of the helicopters fighting the fire with monsoon buckets crashed killing the pilot.

I don't think Chch has ever seen fires like this before, its taken everyone by surprise.
 
Hiya, yeh, we've had some pretty impressive fires burning right along the southern edge of the city for the last 4 days. They've been burning out of control on the hill side there. Amazingly there's only been about a dozen houses lost, no fatalities from the fire - but 1 of the helicopters fighting the fire with monsoon buckets crashed killing the pilot.

I don't think Chch has ever seen fires like this before, its taken everyone by surprise.

In context, it is not a biggie in NZ and is miniscule by Aus standards.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/89489080/how-does-the-size-of-the-christchurch-fires-compare

However it is probably the biggest so far in NZ with up close media coverage.
 
Just got back from a couple of days away with the relies. Up to Mount Cook...

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Overnight in Twizel, down the Waitaki Valley, meander around Oamaru...

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Then on to Dunedin for a couple of nights.

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Then home again with picnic lunch at the Waikaki River and coffee stop in Temuka...

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With a couple of other day trips, we've cranked up over 2,000 kms and the old L Series Freelander has performed fantastically - again. We've taken in some serious climbs and been up and down the gears a LOT of times on this trip. We've gone from sea level to up in the clouds clinging to the side of hills on narrow twisty roads a number of times. The old girl has had a serious work-out over the last few days :)
 
Just got back from a couple of days away with the relies. Up to Mount Cook...

........We've gone from sea level to up in the clouds clinging to the side of hills on narrow twisty roads a number of times. The old girl has had a serious work-out over the last few days :)

Not sure you need to get into such intimate details of the relationship with your wife.

We just returned from a trip of the same distance in the Fiesta, but in the opposite direction to you. It also performed to spec, but it has now gone, replaced by a Subaru Forester (It is the wife's vehicle).
 
Not sure you need to get into such intimate details of the relationship with your wife.
Steady :)
We just returned from a trip of the same distance in the Fiesta, but in the opposite direction to you. It also performed to spec, but it has now gone, replaced by a Subaru Forester (It is the wife's vehicle).
Don't tell anyone, but I've always liked the Forester - nice package. That was a quick change, I bet you wish you had done the deal before your trip - it would have been a bit more comfortable.
 
Steady :)

Don't tell anyone, but I've always liked the Forester - nice package. That was a quick change, I bet you wish you had done the deal before your trip - it would have been a bit more comfortable.

It would have been a great deal more comfortable. Just completed a trip to Blenheim and back in it.

If it was not for a bloody quake it should have taken 3 hours one way. But current scheduled time through the Lewis Pass is 6 hours. Two days ago it took 8 hours of very tiring driving.

First it was this, which delayed our start...
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It took about 10 Km at 30 KPH to get through it. Then we had to cope a day's backlog of traffic due to the above. And then road rebuilding took many more hours at 30KPH.

On the way back yesterday we were confronted with this... http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/900...tate-highway-63-near-st-arnaud-in-marlborough

Fortunately no one hurt.

Tomorrow we look at our last potential house buy.

Listed our current property last week and accepted an offer 8 days later. Better find a place soon to store my LR bits.

Oh, and a bed would be good too.
 
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It would have been a great deal more comfortable. Just completed a trip to Blenheim and back in it.

If it was not for a bloody quake it should have taken 2 hours one way. But current scheduled time through the Lewis Pass is 6 hours. Two days ago it took 8 hours of very tiring driving.

First it was this, which delayed our start...
View attachment 118663

It took about 10 Km at 30 KPH to get through it. Then we had to cope a day's backlog of traffic due to the above. And then road rebuilding took many more hours at 30KPH.

On the way back yesterday we were confronted with this... http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/900...tate-highway-63-near-st-arnaud-in-marlborough

Fortunately no one hurt.

Tomorrow we look at our last potential house buy.

Listed our current property last week and accepted an offer 8 days later. Better find a place soon to store my LR bits.

Oh, and a bed would be good too.
lol quite an eventful trip!

Those Foresters are even better than I thought if the normal Chch-Blenhiem time in them is 2 hours :eek:

Afraid all beds occupied here, but I'll look after your Landies bits for you :)

Great that the sale went through quick - hope you find somewhere to buy quickly. I know the pressure you're under after we sold our last place at auction and couldn't find anywhere we liked - until this place popped up at the 11th hour.
 
If it was just me in the Freelander, I recon I could do Chch-Blenheim in 3 hours - but I'd be averaging about 34mpg and there'd have to be no police on the road! I take your point about the driving times, once its reopened nobody will ever moan about anything to do with that road ever again! It is really missed. It rather screwed up the recent visit of our relies. We were hoping to do a 'top of the island' road trip, but the added driving time just made it non-viable. The trip to Cook and Dunedin was great, but we were looking forward to getting up to the Sounds and then across.



Last week between Waipara and Culverden I passed 4 cop cars!
 
This weekend I did a trip with the NZ Land Rover Forums group up to Kaikoura. A dozen cars went on the trip an S1, 2xS3, a 110, a Defender 90, a Defender 110, 2xP38, an L322, a D1, a D4 and a Freelander :) A real cross section of Landies. The weather was rather poor with quite a bit of rain, but it didn't scupper the enjoyment. The trip was put together to do our bit to put some cash into the coffers of the businesses affected by the quake back in November. Kaikoura is a tourist town and its been semi cut-off since the quake. It has 1 road in from the north, which has been closed due to slips and 2 roads from the south - so its now a 4 hour return trip rather than a town that is passed through on the tourist route. The main road south is also closed between 8pm and 7am.

We met up at 9am on Saturday in north Christchurch and headed north. First stop was the Waipara Hiils winery for a wine sampling or coffee...

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From there is was through the Weka pass en route to Waiau. The Waiau Tavern was crippled by the quake and has been closed since. They are building a "temporary pub" that's not finished yet, but the publican was please to put a on a BBQ lunch and open a temporary bar for us...

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After lunch we took the "Inland Road" up to Kaikoura. Its a lovely scenic road through the Kaikoura Ranges past the Mt Lyford village and ski field. There are at least 10 single lane bridges as the road criss-crosses streams and rivers. Some of the bridges were out and temporary bridges in place while they are rebuilt, lots of slips being rectified etc, but its still a leasure to drive the road...

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Once into Kaikoura I pitched my accommodation, most had cabins on the site, the S1 couple slept in a made-up bed in the car and one guy had a tent on the back of his 110 flat-deck. Time for a few of the car to have a play on the Kowhai River. Fish an chip supper at the site, a few drinks and lots of chat among the group....

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This video is best played with the sound turned down because of the wind, but the old girl does sound great :)



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After breakfast at the camp and a coffee at the Encounter Cafe, we stopped off to see some of the local wildlife at the seal coloney and then on to Donegal House for lunch. After lunch we took a drive up to the harbour to see how work is getting on dredging it - the quake lifted the seabed and the boats can't use it fully until is been fixed up...

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Then it was home along the coast road. The mountains run right up to the coast and there are sheer cliffs in places that the road (and railway) has somehow been cut into. Unfortunately, the quake bought large parts of the cliffs down and parts of the road that wasn't covered has slipped. There's lots of work going on with it and its only single lane under the control of lights in places, but it is passable. During bad weather it is closed as it brings down more rubble and huge chunks or rock...

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Love the pic's - looks like you had a great weekend.
Yeh it was. Another bonus - following that old SIII for so long at 80kmh - I averaged over 40mpg for the first time in 6 years of ownership :)

It was only a splash in Kaikoura once we got there (wanted to know I had as much fuel as possible being in the middle of a quake zone! ) but it was 14 liters and 215kms - so that works out at 43mpg. Only a small sample, but even if I'd squeezed in another liter that would still be over 40 :)
 

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