Desert Defenders - Winter Woolies trip

The DDORC held their annual "Winter Woolies" tour this weekend.  The NZDF land at Waiouru is opened up and we were allowed to play.  We drove down to Taupo on Friday afternoon, and had a great evening.  The trip down was quite wet and so we were not really sure what the day would bring.  It was an early start, we had to be at the domain for 7:30 and so we had to leave Taupo before 6:00.  Breakfast was an on the road affair and we arrived for check in and scrutineering  at 7:50 so we made good time.

We pulled up behind a nice red 110 Defender and a new 90 pulled up behind us.  The paddock was full of vehicles of all shapes and sizes, some of them were really tough trucks.  We soon learned that we were in the tough truck group and had to move over into the shiny column.

The NZDF gave us a briefing on spent ordinance and what to look out for.  It was a sobering moment, we were playing on a military firing range after all.  The day was basically a tag along tour.  With lots of fun along the way.  The mounain's brooding presence was implied and felt, but seldom seen, the day was marked by low clouds and drizzle, a complete contrast to my last visit earlier in the year.

Despite the rain and perhaps because of it we had a lot of fun.  I decided to defend the Defender's honour by trying to negotiate the bog and inevitably got stuck!  Obviously I have no images of that!  However, "Big Red" did the hill climb challenge and we opted out of that.  I really must get a compressor so that I too can lower my tyre pressure when off road.

Below is a selection of images from the day.  Will we be back?  Most definitely.  We started the weekend a shiny and returned a grimy!  You can follow me on Instagram and see all the images of Land Rovers that I take as I see them around and about.