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And then it was south again along lake Taupo. It was windy and cool with rain showers so stopped for coffee and continued to Tongariro village for night. Got the best restaurant meal of the trip with a venison pie and hard cider. Sublime. It was the restaurant with the big wooden kiwibird? outside, would definitely recommend. It was forecasted for 2 C and 80 km gusts up on the south crater on the Tongariro Alpine crossing with rain showers. I left the car at the car park and figured on turning around whenever it got bad or I got tired. Went up 7km and the visibility was about 30m so didn't stay long. Walked over to Soda spring on the way back and also visited the hut at the bottom. It had cleared up a bit on the way down but was sprinkling by the time I got in the car. Was still very enjoyable
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Also stopped at Waiotapo mud pools, lovely. Seriously . There's something intriguing about bubbling plooping mud. More hot pools, some very distinct and vivid colors
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From Coromandel I drove south, stopped at a gas station to take a dump and had volunteer firefighter yarns with the counter guy as I was wearing a tee shirt from my local station. There was the remains of a steam powered tractor? Drove to Rotorua that evening, stayed at a campsite by a lake just outside of town. Drank Fireball and read till dark. This was parked at the lake, sounded healthy upon leaving. Next morning was raining slightly, stopped at Waimangu and walked down the valley. Many sweet little geysers and pools there
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Excellent stuff, looks idyllic. Mind you, as I was scrolling through your update my OH looked across and asked why I was looking at semi naked hairy blokes on the internet My apologies, won't happen again ;-) đŸ™ˆ
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Cool, are you doing both islands or just staying on the North? The drive up 90 mile beach is pretty cool if you are going further north and Piha and the bay if Islands area is picturesque, dive the rainbow warrior or poor knights islands if you are into scuba. I'm back already. Did north and south islands tho only scratched the surface I'm afraid, didn't get north of Auckland.
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Couple more beach shots it was beautiful country To be continued.....
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Well well a trip report. First a big thanks to all the Oldschool.co.nz members who offered hospitality along the way, would have liked to meet more OSGC along the way but glad it worked to meet a few. was meant to leave home around 6 am ish but woke up around 3 and decided to just leave. Pass was already like this and forecasted to get worse Had lots of time tho so found a used book store an stocked up. We left Seattle late and by the time we farted around unloading in LA pretty much just walked onto the big plane. And big it was, 787 Dreamliner 9 seats across and curse word all leg room. Sat by two kiwi chicks who were on there way home from London, they knew how to travel and whipped on the eye blockers and popped sleeping pills. Food was good, had a jack an coke with dinner and fruit for breakfast. Customs was smooth tho all new to me. Collected my Mitsubishi and plugged in the gps Oldschool member Tortron had offered beer, ice cream, yarns and a bed in Auckland so figured that was prolly a good idea before setting off. Had time tho so hit McDonald's for wifi and a burger and The Warehouse for a couple big water bottles and sunscreen then drove up north until I hit the ocean. It was a rocky beach so just walked awhile then decided to cut across the hill back to the car. Was a good introduction to gorse, tho I made it in the end. This pic from a tree halfway up the hill is one of my favorites for some reason Made my way back to Tortrons and he even threw some venison supper into the bargain. Many thanks. Was up early for a cup of tea and I was off to the Coromandel peninsula where I had my first pie (bacon and egg) which was excellent. Nobody had been exaggerating about the roads either, narrow and curvy, like 25 km rated corners every little bit on a road with a 100 km speed limit. Half the time there wasn't even enough room for the white line. This was along the road to, didn't realize at the time it was common
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Well tomorrow's the day. At least to pack up and finish all my last minute projects and let the journey begin, I've got a 5 hr drive to Seattle Wednesday morning. They're forecasting snow in Seattle which has a paralyzing effect on traffic so probably leave early. A late evening flight, short jaunt to Los Angles and then the big flight west, hope I get some sleep somewhere. We had snow last night and wind which is unusual. I'm not sure how much snow because it kinda rearranged itself And folks basement door
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Well going to be a boring update I'm afraid. It seems I've made a tactical mistake at work by volunteering to work part time when trucks are broken, been off for almost two weeks now. I've ended up quite lazy. Worked on house plans some, want to build a old time farmhouse. I built the barn we live in with the intention of living here 5 yrs and we're about to 8yrs. Just got everything paid up in full so kinda enjoying that right now. I drew up my house ideas in google sketchup, a very simple free 3D drawing program. It's sweet to be able to change roof pitches and window sizes fairly easily and visualize everything. It's all to scale. I haven't finished all the windows and details yet but that's pretty close. If I have a good year farming I might build next winter. New Zealand trips getting close I fly out the 8th of February and hit Auckland the morning of the 10th their time, its close to 22 hrs I think travel time. I don't know if I'll post anything while there but sure will once home.
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Jan 24, 2017 20:26:04 GMT
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Sounds quite tropical George, -28 C on our haul route last week. Even the diesel wanted to freeze. Yesterday was up to freezing and some rain made for a bit of ice. Enjoying the yarns as always, opened YouTube the other day an guess who was in suggested video? Yep Manila's most famous Brit
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So that was definitely a Monday. First off it's 2 Fahrenheit, not a big deal. While drinking coffee at 3:30 am got a fire tone from the next district over of a house fire, ended up being someone I knew. Couldn't go cause was headed to work. One of the guys almost slid over a 100' bank, like front tires in open air. Very slow speed. Waited 20 min or so while he got pulled out then got loaded, 30 min down the road was a wreck where a car hit a pole and knocked a guy wire down over the pavement 1.5 hr wait. Ended up with all the trucks lined up on both sides of the wreck most loaded but 8 or so empty. Had like a 12 truck convoy to unload more waiting. Roads were ice all day got three loads in somehow and was headed back to the shop and one a the other guys blew his motor up on a steep slick hill. They were guna try to pull him up with a loader it was dark an 7 degrees by then. Glad I'm just the new guy and payed hourly. Got 12 hrs in and 2 commuting
luke
planet earth
out
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Length of drawbars would be because the weight allowed per axle is based on the distance between axles. This is a government rule and would have nothing to do with the axles actual manufactures rating. They have several different styles of trailers the one I pull is like that one ^^^, four axles and the front and rear steer. They don't move much there's just a big stabilizer and some springs and a lock for reverse. Some of the trailers the front axle lifts off the ground when empty also the trucks have a lift axle in front of the drives. to dump you jackknife the trailer and dump over the tongue, all the air and electrical lines run inside the drawbar
Would be interesting to stop in Manila but it not part of the plan now flight is Seattle-Los Angeles-Auckland. City's scare me tbh
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Dec 30, 2016 19:13:35 GMT
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Loading
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Dec 30, 2016 19:11:24 GMT
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Couple of videos, click to play I think. This was the white truck, there's probably more deer in the road than cars
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Dec 30, 2016 19:04:59 GMT
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This truck is a 2014 Peterbilt, it's the boss's truck but I drove it a couple of days Mine is a 2010. They are all 600hp Cummins with 18 speeds and 3 stage jakes. Amazing how they can handle 105,000#. Heaviest I've been is 111,000# but legal limit is 105,500. Keep forgetting to get a whole truck pic of mine but here's the front And the cockpit The ore pile where we dump, it looks like plain ol rocks to me. It runs somewhere around 1-3 oz of gold per ton of rock. $30,000-$100,000 per truckload, math is fun! They've taken well over a million oz out in the last 8 years We've had one really cold spell where it hit -10 Fahrenheit for a couple of mornings, the brake shoes like to freeze to the drums so have to beat on the drums with a big hammer in the morning to pop them loose. There are 20-25 trucks running so lots of cb chatter and advice when needed. The haul road is marked every half mile and we announce our location at every marker. There's a couple of sharp corners and tight spots so we try not to meet there and it's always nice to know what's coming, I've been sideways a couple of times when going a little to fast. Actually slid around more going up as I try to keep up the momentum around corners, I drive 30-35 mph up and 25-30 down.
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Dec 30, 2016 18:29:55 GMT
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Thanks all for the kind words! Yes that was a impressive pile of mowers. Not only do I have a new tractor and shop I have a new job for the winter hauling gold ore actually. It's a 50 mile haul with 8 miles of dirt road at 8% grade, we're driving late model peterbilt dump trucks with drop axles and four axle pup trailers. It's interesting working for a company with time cards and a health and safety dept, been a long time. Currently doing 3 days of mine safety training before I get turned loose. Guna be a long snowy winter, mine is at 5000' elevation and the whole area gets a fair amount of snow. Also have a 50 mile commute to the truck yard. Pics when I get going. The light at the end of the tunnel is I'm going to New Zealand in February for TWO WEEKS. Planning on dropping in on Yoeddynz and sleeping on the beach the rest of the time. Guna be lush. Got two mates going with me never done anything like this so really looking forward to it, h£ll ive been dreaming about it every night
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Still planning on coming in February, pot might be boiled dry by then. Took the kids sledding yesterday got a couple snowboard runs
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