First day of Auckland Anniversary Weekend (regional anniversary holiday). I headed an hour east to Whakatane to do the annual safety compliance checks on four race cars at Tim's truck repair workshop. His daughter and his neighbor's son race Kiwitrucks (Trophy Karts). Another local's daughter will start racing a Kiwitruck this year as well. The other vehicle I checked was a Class 8 - Open Truck. This is a 4wd truck powered by a 406 Donovan sprint car engine. It has been on the dyno this week and now makes 400hp at the wheels, about 500hp at the flywheel.
Each end of the truck classes 500hp vs 9hp.
Forklift makes inspecting Kiwitrucks a piece of cake.
Tim employs three truck mechanics and has just put a mobile hydraulic hose repair truck on the road. His original workshop is timber frame and timber truss.
The new section is steel frame.
Tim's Mazda BT-50 work ute
Smoked Jemfish from one of the father's.
Because I was in the area I stopped at three Whakatane Airport, as you do, and recognised this type.
It is a Grumman AA5-A and I recognised the registration. It belongs to the guy that used to own Air Gisborne, who I learnt to fly with and he did my flight test for my license. He was taking a break from fish spotting (tuna) at the aero club. I haven't seen him, to talk to, for twenty years so it was good to catch up with him.
Whakatane Airport has an interesting terminal building, built in the 1970's, the brief was to come up with a "distinctive design to contribute to a distinctive regional identity." See
https://www.whakatane.info/news/whakat%C4%81ne-airport-terminal-listed-category-1-historic-place
Stopped at Blueberry Corner for a healthy lunch, blueberry and raspberry fresh yogurt cone.
Then stopped at Thornton, the outlet to the Rangitati River, somewhere I've never actually visited before.
The last stop before heading home for a nap was to visit one of the guys I worked with at Gisborne District Council in the late 90s and now lives outside Whakatane. He, and his wife, who also worked at the Council, I at least catch up with evey few years.
