Easter Rally 2013: Day 2

A misty start to the day at National Park Village gave the cars just a little more oomph on the run to Raetihi, where we met up with Warren and Bev from Napier, and organisers Pat and Sandra from Wanganui (along with their tail-end Charlie ring-ins, Woz and Richard).

First stop: Raetihi

We progressed from there away from the State Highway and down to the Wanganui River Rd. Some twisty and windy travelling later we pulled in to Jeruselum to view the century old church and convent. A little further on we checked out the historic Kawana flour mill, followed by a stop in Matahiwi for morning tea.

At Jeruselum Church

From here, we drove on over the final hill, joined the main highway and finished up at Pat and Sandra's place for lunch. A relaxing afternoon and dinner followed before turning in for the night.

Last hill of the day ...

... with this view of the Whanganui River

Easter Rally 2013: Day 1

Rally start: 7am BP Service Centre, Southern Motorway, Auckland

An early start from Auckland had us travelling to Morrinsville to pick up more members, and then on to Te Awamutu.

Gearbox removal in progress

Chris required a gearbox change due to losing 2nd gear. Fortunately Steve, a local member had a spare (and a workshop) and so a replacement was quickly slotted in to enable him to get back on the road.

Further misdemeanours, in the form of a petrol shortage (no names to protect the guilty) resulted in another short stop, but we progressed on through Te Kuiti and Taumaranui, to end the day at National Park Village.

Gavin arriving at National Park Village, with Mt Ruapehu in the background.

Relaxing at the end of the day.

Concours 2013

An amazingly hot and sunny day meant the crowds were out. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our cars, with only two examples on show - Bud and Thelma's Prefect, and Chris and Jo's Y.

As our usual site has no shelter from the sun, we moved about halfway through the day to a shady spot under the trees. Thanks to the American Muscle Car Club for allowing us to steal some of their space.

AGM Report

The committee and a number of members turned up on a sunny day to discuss the past year and consider actions for the future.

After the passing of the previous meetings minutes, John thanked those members attending and spoke about the good runs we'd had this year, the donations we've gratefully received from past members and that overall it had been a good year for the club.

Karen summarised the financial position of the club, and led the meeting through the report prepared by the club's auditor.

The current executive and committee then retired and elections were held. The executive were re-elected unchanged with John as President, Martin as Vice President, Thelma as Secretary and Karen as Treasurer.

There was some discussion concerning the non-appointment of positions (ie. Editor, Building Manager, Spares) at the meeting, this was explained to now be in line with the constitution (updated at the previous AGM) which allows the committee as a whole to allocate these positions as it sees fit. This allows members of the committee to 'play to their strengths' and allows a degree of flexibility that was in the past not available.

Bob then spoke on the remits presented in the agenda regarding fostering closer relations with the South Island club, expanding club membership and participation, and the upcoming Warrant of Fitness changes. These remits were all agreed with, and the incoming committee was charged with progressing these further.

In general business, a remit was tabled that the newsletter needs more articles and information, but that it was not necessarily the job of the Editor to generate every piece of information. All members present agreed. There was then some discussion around newsletter creation (email vs. paper), with Ant briefly detailing the benefits and shortcomings of each. The committee was generally tasked with actioning this in the future.

The meeting was then closed, and the members present took the opportunity to chat with each other whilst enjoying the coffee, tea, and food provided.

During the first committee meeting held on Sunday 2 September, the positions of Building Manager, Editor and Parts Manager were assigned to Bob, Ant, and Stephen respectively.

John & Jan's Rally

Despite being an overcast and dreary looking day, we had quite a turnout at the Papakura RSA for the start of John & Jan's Rally with eight club cars, two  moderns, and a ring-in.

After a quick "Hi, how's it going", Jan began handing out our instructions and with it starting to rain we headed off. We quickly navigated south out of Papakura, through Ararimu and Paparata into Mangatawhiri on old State Highway 2. It's so quiet along there now that the highway has bypassed this section.

We navigated out toward the Miranda coast, then back inland to cross State Highways 25 and 2 in a roundabout route to our destination: Woodlands Cafe, where we met Andrew who had travelled in from Morrinsville.

Woodlands Cafe sits on State Highway 2 just after the turn towards Ngatea and is one of Karen's favourites, with quite a range of tasty food and good coffee. We all ordered our food and coffee (Martin ordering his standard breakfast of fare of bacon, eggs, hash and a beer - or so he tells me) and proceeded to eat, drink and wonder where Harvey had got to. Although cool outside, we were well cosy sitting in the room with the heat pump blasting out warm air.

Being well-fed and watered we all headed off (some to Pokeno for ice-cream, some to mother-in-law duty).

A fantastic outing, organised by John & Jan (Prefect Ute), Bob & Scott(?) (Prefect / modern), Brian & Bev (7Y), Steve (Prefect), Martin (Y), Chris & Jo (Prefect), Andrew (Anglia), Roy (Lanchester), Harvey & Irene, and Ant & Karen.