For people leaving on Thursday PM and keen to drive up as a mini-convoy to Taupo Mega Meet, I thought we should work out and stick the details here rather than confusing those Aucklanders :P.

I'm thinking of leaving town around 4pm (but am flexible).
I think a good meet spot would be here at the mana shell/maccas carpark around 4:30 , unless anyone has a better idea...

http://maps.google.com/?ll=-41.090943,174....,231.67,,0,3.89

ya im keen to convoy up but i dont finish till around 5:00pm -5:30pm(work depo is in gracefield so add 20 mins to get to the mana MCD) so i dont know if that is to late for every one?

I am in Thorndon these days, so I don't mind meeting at Mana.

Jake, we try not to speed up, but we don't want to arrive too late. We could manage 5:30pm, but otherwise we'd be pushing it.

The office at the lodge where we're staying is due to close at 9:30pm. I've asked in the main discussion thread, if we can arrange late check-in :)

hmmm, leaving at 530 we'll be pushing it to be there by 930, considering its normally 4hrs to Ohakune.
I'd definitely be keen on getting away by 5 at the absolute latest(especially as that'll mean rush hour traffic.
maybe we should plan on meeting up further up the coast, Paraparam maybe?

hmmmm ok um ill ask tommorrow if i can leave work a little bit early. its just a new job so i dont know how lenient they are but ill find out.

I would be surprised if they said you couldn't leave early. Tell them you need to be in Taupo by 9:30pm to check-in.

OK, well it appears my passenger is in class until 4:30pm, so can't leave town before then (She's at Vic Uni).

I will try to make it to Mana by 5pm, but I reckon if we're not there at 5pm, to just get started, and catch-up further up the North Island. Maybe Bulls?

i can leave a bit early from work which is good.

so whats the desired time and place going to be ?

I'm OK with 5pm at Mana if you think you can both make it. Dagan I've got your cell no. (as long as it hasn't changed since last year). will PM you both my cell no anyway.

5pm in Mana, then we :rally: up to Taupo

:burnout:

excellent. I am without handbrake this trip so will definitely be packing the escort (although I'm still not planning on exceeding speed limits too much, will leave that to the track :) )

Handbrake? Escort? I am lost :P

Sorry, translation... Angie couldn't get time off work this weekend, and I'll be using my electronic Light amplification stimulated emission of radiation / radio detecting and ranging - early warning system (otherwise known as a radar detector) :D

so getting excited right now. Almost time to properly test my handling upgrades :woot:

And what Handling Upgrades these be Don ????

EDFC and MASSIVE CMR sway bars (32mm front and 19mm rear) :)
+ Znoelli SP500 pads and DDS front rotors (although I already know how much stoppage these give me :D )

you will love edfc!

I can highly recommend the Znoelli products :)

Will be keen to have a look at your setup Don!

yeah, I'm bloody impressed, especially at Nick's prices.
I'm really just keen on testing the new upgrades with my semi slicks. There's not exactly a plethora of opportunities around Ngaio :D

oh, and EDFC is friggin awesome. no more diving under plastic pannels to adjust dampening, simply push a button B)

I'll keep an eye out for you all passing through Bulls, and join up with you there. Am assuming it will be around 7pm, perhaps a bit earlier?

Will some of you have UHF radios?

We could stop at bulls for a feed, pm me your number and I'll txt you when we're close

I called and spoke to the lodge in Taupo, they said they will be waiting for us all to arrive, so provided we're not extremely late, we should be fine :)

Google Maps says about 4.5 hours travel from Mana to Taupo, so we'll see how we go

I talked to Nick, and asked if he could pick up our room keys, so we should be covered on all fronts :)