Wicked fun

In Ashburton parts of the river bed are dry leaving plenty of room for playing in 4x4s, traversing the shallower (or deep if you’re Steve) parts of the river as you go.

The morning, as I’d imagine any river racing experience, didn’t go without its mishaps. Steve managed to get his truck stuck on his second exit from the river – and that was just the beginning!

We were soon of ploughing through the water, waves crashing over the bonnet, being jolted and bumped around as we powered over ridges and steep river banks in and out of the water.

James, rather bravely, let me drive. I was nervous, I knew as soon as I got stuck – an inevitability – the lads would laugh at me. But there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity. Watching was fun. Driving had to be even better.

As expected I sunk the wheels deep into shingle and got stuck on my second river crossing. James maneuvered the truck free, without the aid of a tow rope. After my initial mishap I was off and loving it, proving I was completely capable of driving through some of the deeper river crossings!

Stick it in first. Foot flat to the floor and don’t let off the gas. Exactly the kind of driving I like!

But when the truck started having problems and loosing power on exiting the water (not my fault), James took the controls once more.

Steve headed off on a mission to drive down the middle of the river, despite the broken truck James followed. This was a mistake, with a cough and splutter the truck stopped in the middle of the river. Oops.

A bit of poking around under the bonnet ensued but the engine was totally dead. The only option was to be towed the rest of the way back to Ashburton.

The first river crossing on a tow rope took us down a small but steep incline into the water. It was an interesting experience. It’s not nice knowing your driver had little control over the direction you are headed in. Especially with a nutter like Steve, with a penchant for driving down the centre of the river, at the helm of the vehicle in front!

Luckily shortly afterwards James remembered what could be wrong, plugged the earth back in and the truck started again.

Heading back to town, we hit some deep patches of water. James stopped and we surveyed the river looking for a shallower place to cross. Steve ploughed in! We watched as his truck floated down river, clouds of smoke bellowing out the exhaust. Amazingly he managed to float until his wheels hit the bottom and drove out of the river.

Shortly afterwards, and just before the end of the trip, James decided to see how much water his truck could hold. As we traversed a section of river the exit was much deeper than expected. We attempted to power up the bank but the back wheels were stuck fast and the truck was submerging fast! The water poured in and was soon at seat height. Steve was soon on hand with a tow rope and pulled the truck, water and all, out of the river.

This was the last of the river racing excitement but our journey around New Zealand’s South Island was just about to begin.

* Posted by j150vsc on 10/01/2009.