Epilogue: the morning after

The rally highlights video is here.

Breakfast, the day after the well lubricated awards knees-up in Christchurch. Rita and Mario: "So what now for the MG you bought on day four?" Peter and Penny: "Well we've got until tea time to sort something out before we have to head off to the airport". It was soon done. Rosie had a new home with a discerning dealer across town who'd seen through the layers of road dust and some gravel rash to recognise a thoroughbred classic. And let's face it, it was a buyer's market. Meanwhile, Mario had run Daphne round to the shipping warehouse to hand her over to the tender hands of CARS Europe for her journey home. And so to lunch, and a chance to reflect on four spectacular weeks. The roads have been awesome, the scenery epic, but it's been the people - competitors and ERA event team, and Kiwis who so generously and spontaneously helped us out along the way - who distilled the true spirit of the rally. Haere ra, New Zealand.

Day 23 - Chequered flag

Two last-ditch regularities on glorious Kiwi gravel, with four time checks, on the last morning. Insouciantly despatched by our steely eyed navs and acquiring a paltry nine seconds total penalties between both crews. But would the duo of British everyman sports cars, combined age 106, continue to give their hearts for the final 200 kilometers to the finish? It was never in doubt. An interminable string of traffic lights into Christchurch gave the opportunity for a stately, triumphal (small T) procession through the roaring crowds to the finish. Well there were some friends and family to welcome us in the hotel car park anyway. The worthy winners submitted to their champagne shower, then we all went off to find the bar. Quietly happy with not being last. Peter and Penny had posted very creditable peformances in the MG, which despite being completely non-prepped for rallying failed to deposit any of its British Leyland entrails onto the route. And a late-stage tripmeter upgrade gave Penny a deserved chance to show her reg timing mettle in the last few days. TR4 Daphne continued her mechanical flounces to the end but still provided the platform for SuperMario and Rita to chalk up an eleventh place, on their maiden ERA rally.

Day 22 - Full throttle towards the finish

Hordes of foul Orcs surveyed us malevolently from the hilltop tors, but we were too quick for them, even the Warg riders. Dauntless we plunged on into the maw of even greater peril: no fewer than five regularities interspaced with brisk road dashes throughout a long day. Still, by lunchtime Penny and Peter had accumulated a confection of three lollipops (zero penalties). After lunch we tackled the gnarly and sometimes vertiginous Dancey’s Pass with pale knuckles but little damage to our scores, before some reversion to basic errors on the last reg of the day; however others had fared worse, missing sneakily placed checkpoints. But all consoled by the majestic backdrop of Mount Cook as we dropped down to Lake Tekapo for our penultimate evening. An awesome day’s rallying.

Day 21 - Rally Fever

The third and final rest day, before the last 48 hour push to the finish. We spent our free time in Dunedin city and tempted further afield down the Otago peninsula - yep more driving - to see the albatrosses nesting and the sea lions.squabbling on the beach. Penelope and Rita meanwhile could spare only half an eye for the wildlife, having contracted severe cases  of Rally Fever and now spending every spare moment debating the comparative merits of Monits, Brantzes and Terratrips, with all the fervour applied three weeks ago to Kathmandu, Craghoppers and Macpac. They may never recover, hope PP and Mario.

Day 20 - Southern comfort

A glorious 385 km hack around the southern tip of South Island, breaking into a working canter and sometimes a full gallop for four regularities high and low. The route included a river crossing on a hand operated cable ferry that looked like something the Top Gear production team had dreamed up but dropped as being too daft. Our circus finally ended up in Dunedin for a gin facilitated post-mortem on the day in which several of the results table places had changed due to route errors and an uncharacteristic suspension failure of the barnstorming 1959 Volvo PV. Teams Rosie and Daphne were quietly satisfied with their performances. Rita Regularity is living up to her moniker with her new-and-improved timing system, which however can’t eliminate the risk of missing a routing slot when under pressure; Mario helpfully counselled the simple imperative of: Not Screwing Up.

Day 18 and 19 - Milford Sound

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On Tuesday morning the rally road wound through a version of Scotland, with village names like Atholl and Mossburn, ending up in a Southern Hemisphere edition of Norway: into Milford Sound, a fissure of ocean between 1,600 metre peaks. Rain forest clinging to cliff faces, and cascading torrents. Slartibartfast would have glowed with pride. And penguins! An overnight cruise including small boat and kayak sorties to the shoreline... well those sandflies gotta eat. A coach breakdown on the way out of the valley (closed to cars since recent flooding) meant a truncated Day 19 of rallying but still allowed the track test stage at Teratonga Park - part outer circuit blast and part cones gymkhana - where Peter managed a blistering 2:15 lap in Rosie, humbling some of the rally exotica.

Day 17 - Rest day but the adrenalin keeps flowing

A rest day in Queenstown although not especially restful. We took the option of a 100 kph jet boat ride across the lake and up the almost dry Shotover river, the driver drifting it through the bends like a Subaru Impreza that he’d just nicked. Both our cars got some R&R too, limited to basic checks and air filters cleaned for the MG but Daphne once again found herself hoisted into the air, this time by a willing team at Alpine Autos of Queenstown, to have the remains of two spring bushes extracted like rotten teeth and replaced with fresh ones delivered from Auckland by the marvellous TR Register NZ club.

Day 16 - Stuttgart supreme

Table leader: the Gillis’s impeccably prepared, piloted and navigated 911 Targa

This morning was really a stunning scenic drive through the Southern Alps rather than a rally section, although not at a typical Sunday driver pace. After a tricky afternoon regularity two of the 1970s Porsches are starting to pull away from the pack in the results table, they really are in a class of their own. The day ended with a couple of highly entertaining laps, non-competitive fortunately although it seemed nobody had told a couple of the drivers that, at the Highlands motor racing circuit. We checked into our rest day hotel in Queenstown where laundry infrastructure was quickly reconnoitred before a descent to the lakeside for a glass or two of the amber nectar.