Christmas Function - 5th December 2010
Started out at the Lodge where we had roped off an area in the carpark for members - there was apparently some feminist movement meeting going on taking up all the parks!!
This year in order to space out the cars going on the car trail we had a bit of a golf competition - one ball, one hit (no tee), winner being the one who got closest to the hole (which by the way could hardly be seen from the tee!).
It was then onto the car trial (9 cars entered) which took us out to Waimumu way - which is where we hit our first ah, stuff up... the general consensus was that there wasn't enough "right turns" on the instructions! However Lurch sorted us out and waved anyone on that was tempted to go the wrong way.
We ended up at the Three Rivers Hotel in Wyndham for a quick beer via the back roads, then out past Mataura heading towards Clinton then back to Gore. Some of the directions through Gore were a bit confusing with a lot of people taking different routes but we all ended up back at the Lodge at a reasonable time. Also on the instructions was a quiz which we had to answer during the run.
Once back the kids were kept well entertained by Amy Barnett, (thanks heaps Amy, from all reports the kids thoroughly enjoyed it!). Then out came Santa with a heap of presents for the kids.
Prizes were given out for the Closest to the hole, then the car trail was scored based on your mileage and the quiz questions.
Lurch (Blue HQ Prem) not only took out the Closest to the hole, he also came in 1st on the Car trial, 2nd was Shady (Maroon VJ), followed by Brad (Blue VK Wagon) in 3rd.
Jack also had a couple of booby prizes (beer coolers) to give out, one going to Steve (White VJ Pacer) for his rather large burn out as he left the lodge which also resulted in some rather large noises coming from his clutch!! (Good on ya Steve, always one to keep us entertained!!). And another one went to Derek (Blue HT Monaro) for having the worst golf shot!!
BBQ was next, which was cooked by the good people at the Lodge, followed by a 'few' beers.
A big thanks to Craig Abo who organised the Car Trial even though he mucked up a little... (and just to note Blitzen is a bloody raindeer!!), a fantastic day out with great company and great cars. Bring on 2011!!
Mystery Poker Run - 30th October 2010
We could not have asked for a better day for a car run, 23°!
8 cars meet up at the Lodge, 5 from our club and 3 from the Falcon club. We grabbed a beer then purchased our first card for our poker hands and were given the route. You may not have picked it but 3 of the committee members were driving! (last bloody time though!!).
Our first port of call was the Commerical Hotel in Waikaia, we were all set to head off in convoy but Peter (the head honcho of the Ford club) had locked his keys in the car! Luckily being such a hot day the sunroof was still open and after a couple of failed attempts (see the photos) Dwayne came to his rescue with his long arms and managed to unlock it - though I'm not sure the roof liked it much!
After that it was a leisurely cruise through to Waikaia with the windows down and the music up! Once out there, the second cards were handed out then it was out to the garden bar to 'tell a few lies' over a few beers. By this stage another member of the SFFC had caught up in his XY.
Next we were off to The Royal Hotel in Waikaka. Same deal here - received our next card, then sat outside enjoying the sunshine and having a few laughs.
Forest Lodge Hotel in Tapanui was our next destination, so we headed off with Grumball's car leading the way. Unfortunatley their driver missed the turn off and like good convoy keeping members we are, we all followed. Of course this gave the opportunity to ummm... turn around, which resulted in one particular XR8 Falcon playing in the grass verge... a couple of times...
Anyway we all turned up at the pub after a quick re-group and another card was handed out. By this stage things were getting tense, everyone had 4 cards in their hands with a few cursing and swearing about crap shuffling skills and others trying to do their best poker face! A few more drinks were comsumed then it was back home to the Lodge for the final card and prize giving.
We made it back to Gore around 7ish. The final hands were handed in and checked and we also had a raffle draw for the $100 bar tab and a few other crap prizes that Jack found in the back of his Monaro! After the prize giving it was back into the socialising which for some went well into Sunday morning.
An absolutley brilliant day and I'm sure everyone had as much of an enjoyable time as I did! (even though I was driving!).
Click here for the photos... and here for the route we took...
Results:
Best Hand: |
Anne-Marie (in Terry Lynch's carload) |
Set of 6x9" Car Audio Speakers |
2nd Place: |
Murray Gerken |
12" Subwoofer |
3rd Place: |
Brent Grumball |
Set of 6" Car Audio Speakers |
Hard Luck: |
Peter Herrick (For locking his keys in his car) |
Socket Set |
Publicans Choice: |
|
|
Waikaia: |
Aaron Stevenson - HX Monaro |
Bottle of Wine |
Waikaka: |
Matt Hall - XY Falcon (red) |
Bottle of Port (which was demolised in about 20mins!) |
Tapanui: |
Steven Stewart - VJ Ranger |
Speights Handle |
Raffles: |
|
|
$100 Bar Tab |
Terry Lynch |
|
Crappy T-shirt |
Brent Grumball |
(I'm sure there were other raffle prizes but I'd lost |
Equally crappy Motor-up |
Cam Craig |
interest due to being such a sore loser) |
Combined Car Run with the SFFC - 29th August 2010
We had 5 cars meet at the lodge for our combined run with the Southland Ford Falcon Club to Fortrose. It wasn’t the nicest of days but sure beats lying on the couch with a bucket of KFC watching DVD’s on a big screen (well maybe).
It was Blakes first outing in the Valiant and he must of enjoyed it as he didn’t say to much, not that his mother gives him much of a chance.
We meet up with the 7-8 cars from the Falcon club at Edendale for a snap handle before venturing off to Fortrose for Lunch. The lunch was great & a colouring competition was held for the kids. There was no clear winner so they all got prizes.
After lunch and a couple of beers the Falcon club headed towards home as to did we but had to make a quick pitt stop at Wyndham with the Stevensons and Grumballs for a quick beer.
Overall a good day (not the weather) and good company from the Falcon Club.
Cheers, Shady. Click here for Photos...
Go Kart Challenge - 15th August 2010
We had a great turn out for this one, with about 11 cars and about 35 people - 25 of those taking part in the Kart Racing!
We actually left on time for once at 10:25am and made it to Kart City with plenty of time to spare. After sorting out the teams of 4, we were given a safety briefing and then we were off racing. We had to do a driver swap on every 10th lap and basically it was foot to the floor straight out of the gate.
After around an hours racing the winner was decided by the fastest lap times minus the penalty points for bad overtaking, not doing a driver change at the right time (sorry to my team but I was in the zone), ramming and whatever else the marshalls' decided to pull us up on. There had been a fairly serious competition going on between Derek, Doug, Marshall and Spoon with the fastest lap times constantly changing between them, but in the end - actually the very end (like second to last lap) Johnny came in with a blistering fast lap! But it was too little too late and the winning team was Derek, Doug, Lofty and Daryl.
After the racing we headed down to the Speights Ale House for a delicious lunch and a few beers.
Mark Quertier then took us for an interesting tour of a workshop containing a heap of race cars, go karts and other machines. A huge thanks to Mark and co. for letting us have a wander through, there was some cool stuff hiding in there!
Once again we hit the road and it was off to Woodlands Pub for another quick beer or two, then we headed through to Wyndham Pub before heading back to Gore.
I know I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and I hope you guys did too!
Cheers, Brad.
Lots of photos here, (huge thanks to Tena for taking them!).
Aussie Crawl - 19th/20th June 2010
This year the entry rules for Aussie Crawl have changed, being that you now have to be a club member of one of the following Club - The Southland Ford Falcon Club, The Rivera Touring Car Club, The Southland Holden Enthusiasts Club or Southern Aussie Muscle Car Club. Since this change came about, myself along with Trumpet & Shady decided to make the trip down from Upper Charlton.
A minor hiccup from the start with the speedo cable becoming stuck to extractor, needing the Kiwi Zip Tie to fix. We duly arrived in time for the 10.15 departure from the Feldwick Gates, Invercargill at 10am, where before leaving introductions were done and proceedings for the day explained.
Each carload getting presented with a Goodie Bag containing Panadol, Lollies, Adult Balloons, Chips, Coke and a Stubby cooler. They selected a lead car and 1st stop was Wallacetown & some liquid refreshments to start the day. At each pub there was a Publican’s Choice Award for the following categories Best Ford, Best Holden & Best Valiant which was a large glass pint with the Aussie Crawl Logo engraved into it.
Then onto Otautau for lunch which was a buffet, very good selection and the publican was very welcoming, we spent about 2 hours here. From there it was onto Mossburn this route seemed to remind a few of a Bathurst event! A nice straight bit of road to stretch the legs, we had the 265 stretched right to the max.
More refreshments (of course) once we stopped at Mossburn, though the conversation by this stage is starting to deteroiate - not enough refreshments maybe? Some local Queenstown idiots were highly entertaining trying to purchase some unique old man type knitted cardigan but alas it could not be bought for any money.
It was then onto the Te Anau Town & Country Club & just for a change more refreshments – liquid of course! From here the next & final stop was Manapouri Hotel. Everyone arrived safely & sorted out their accommodation details. And as per normal some did not make the evening event. The Manapouri Pub put on band & I believe rugby was once again on sometime during the night.
Due to alcohol intake arm wrestling seemed to be the go. A few finishing early in the night & making quite a habit of it to just quietly (maybe fatherhood is a hard job after all Shady?), the night finished at some stage………. Sunday morning we travelled back to Te Anau Town & Country Club for breakfast & prize giving and raffle draws.
Having finally attended this much talked about event, I encourage you all to think about coming along next year it is a very well event, and have no doubt you would all thoroughly enjoy it.
Cheers, Aaron.
Overnighter to Omakau - 12th/13th June 2010
We left Gore around 11am with 8 cars in convoy. Probably would've been earlier but as always there were some late comers to the Lodge... myself included! The weather forecast was supposed to be rubbish but by the time we got to Tapanui it was looking to be an absolute ripper of a day. Unfortunately it seemed to be the day that every farmer had their tractors out dirtying up the roads, so most of the cars were covered in shit by the time we got to Miller's Flat Pub. Then it was on to Ettrick Tavern. By this stage Kev and Muscle's carloads had caught up. Publican's choice went to Creig Anderson (VG Sedan).
Next on our agenda was lunch at the Top Pub in Alexandra. Was a great cruise through to Alex with the beers flowing nicely, the music cranked and the sun beaming in through the windows. Once again the Top Pub put on an excellent feed and the publican's choice went to Derek Ayson (HT Monaro) and Gary Weir (VF Coupe). We also had a raffle for a set of Pioneer car audio speakers which went to Leanne Adams.
Once our belly's were full we boosted out to the Dam Pub in Clyde for a cold one and then onto the Clyde Dam for a couple of photos. We lost a couple of carloads here as they were heading back that night.
Chatto Creek was next on the list, couple more photo's and a few more beers - then onto our final destination, Omakau.
Once all our accommodation was sorted and the cars parked up for the night it was time to get down to business - drinking, talking about cars, talking about more cars, drinking, occasionally listening to the women folk talk about splitends (or whatever it is they talk about), drinking and more talking shit, pretty sure the rugby was on at some stage too. After the rugby the Irish Rover, a one-man band, started playing and keeping us entertained for the duration of the night. So the night went off without any drama's, well apart from a little sibling rivalry and a few rugby heads trying to start something with the president.
The next morning the sun was shining but there had been a fresh dumping of snow around the hills and the cars were frozen solid. After a good feed we headed into the bar for a few laughs and a couple of beers. A few took off up to Ranfurly and Middlemarch while the rest of us headed to the Shingle Creek Pub. We got the fire going and a few carloads had lunch there. After a few beers we headed to Roxburgh for some fish & chips and then it was a lonesome trip home back to Gore and to the reality that the weekend was now over...
An absolutely brilliant weekend, lots of laughs, great company and as always awesome cars. Thanks to everyone that attended.
Cheers, Brad. Click here for some photo's.
Mystery Car Run - 7th March 2010
Our mystery run was well supported with 7 cars, we headed through to Waikaia lead by Lofty via the Balfour Tavern.
Lunch at Waikaia Hotel followed by some backyard cricket with the kids across the road.
One of the cars had some visiting Aussie Boys who strugged to come to grips with our 'crate and a pace glass' - they couldn't quite get the theory of it and wondered why you can't just have a bottle each!
We also had a prospective new member join us for the day - Derek Ayson and his refurbished Monaro that handles surprise corners very well!
We stopped off at the Riversdale Hotel on the way home.
Good day out and a great turnout of kids too! Check out the photos.
Classic Car Show at the A & P Show - 6th February 2010
Another awesome turnout again this year with 51 Classic Cars on display. There was a huge variety of cars and it seemed that most of the crowd were very impressed with the talent. The weather was very hot, but luckily we had our Marque strategically placed next to the beer tent and also some dude on a guitar who keep us entertained for the duration of the day.
We also had a handful of cars show up from the Otago Early Ford & Fairlane Car Club.
There was a battle for the people's choice with Grumball's VF Pacer just beating out the purple XY GT Rep by only one vote!
A big thanks to the judges, Nathan Abo for waffling on into the loud speaker during the grand parade and of course to everyone that made the effort to bring their classic vehicles down. We hope you enjoyed your day! Heaps of photos here.
Results:
Best Ford: |
XC Fairmont Coupe |
Tena McCarthy |
Best Holden: |
HX Premier |
Mike Rodgers |
Best Chrysler: |
AP6 Valiant |
Chris Labes |
Best American: |
'57 Belair 2dr |
Craig Barclay |
Best Europeon: |
'60 MKII Jaguar |
Donald & Karen Ramsay |
Best Japanese: |
Datsun 240Z |
Garry Inder |
People's Choice: |
VF Pacer |
Brent Grumball |
Raffle draw: (Polo Shirt) |
Harry Swain |
|
Cromwell Classic Car & Hot Rod Festival - 23rd January 2010
We left Gore on Saturday Morning at 9.00am with a convoy of 7 cars, before meeting up with another 2 in Tapanui. It was a good cruise on the way up as we managed to keep the convoy all the way to Cromwell.
There were no problems on the way up apart from a farmer that had just moved his sheep about 2km up the main road, by the time we hit Cromwell the sheep shit was well & truly baked on.
We arrived in Cromwell to an absolutely scorching day with temperatures reaching 28deg. We quickly set up camp with the clubs flags & tent and the beers were quickly opened so that we didn’t de-hyrate in the ever increasing heat! We were then joined by another couple of members (and the club photographer in a jappa!) to bring the total to 11 cars.
The show was very well organized (well done to the Falcon Club) & had a very good variety of cars (about 450).
Once the show had finished, half the crews left for home while the other half hung around enjoying the sun & a fews drinks before venturing back to the camping ground where a group of 5 cars were staying. It was a very enjoyable night just sitting around telling a few yarns.
Next morning we awoke to a very sick sounding Ford cruisng round the camping ground & a very grumpy looking Kev, but not a biggy just a loose lead. The majority of the crew were well the next morning apart from one local businessman who was a bit worse for wear (have a look at the photos & see if you can identify him).
Overall a very enjoyable weekend & a very good show to attend.
Hayden.
Check out the photos here.