How well do you know the famous MG Auckland Far North excursion.  Take this simple quiz and see if you can match the club’s finest on their annual outing to the winterless north.

 

1. You come across a camper van parked at the side of the road with a sign saying CHECK leaning against its back bumper.  Do you stop and -

a) Ask the driver for a double cone Whippy    with nuts?

b) Hand the driver your Far North drivers card with a $10 note attached and let him fill in your arrival time?

c) Assume the driver is an Eastern European tourist wanting to make contact with fellow countrymen, and accelerate away?

 

2. Certain types of vehicles are allowed to proceed carefully through red lights.  What are they –

a) Fire engines answering an emergency?

b) White MGA’s participating in the Far North rally?

c) Aucklanders in Queen St

 

3. You are picnicking at the South Hokianga Head reserve, holding your sandwiches tightly in the vicious wind whipping off the Tasman.  You see a man wearing a fur hat even though it is early summer.  Is he –

a) Russian spy carrying radioactive substances?

b) A bald headed man who forgot his toupee?

c) President of the MG Car Club Auckland who has driven top down from Kaitaia at speeds which introduce severe wind chill to the top of the head?

 

4. At the Whangaroa pub, surrounded by stuffed marlin on the walls – you want to order something that will not reveal you are an Aucklander.  You ask  for -

a) Lion Red?

b) Monteith’s summer ale?

c) A cocktail made with colourful mixers and fruit  in a stemmed glass?

5. You are on the Far North rally.  You and a couple of other cars arrive first at Opua for the morning tea stop on Saturday.  Do you  -

a) Make sure you take up seats at the front of the café so your friends arriving later can see you and join you for camaraderie and conversation?

b) Park your car as a decoy and take the ferry to Russell?

c) Sit in the sun out of sight at the rear of the café so your fellow travellers don’t see you and end up with take-away coffee and a pie eaten at the kerbside instead of nice café food?

 

6. You arrive at the northern side of the harbour 10 seconds late for the ferry across the Hokianga Harbour at Rawene. Do the friendly northerners –

a) See you are in a sporty MG Midget and come back immediately?

b) Wave to you in friendly manner with fingers extended and keep on sailing away?

c) Keep to their regular schedule and return to the northern side at least 45 minutes later, by which time your MG mates on the first sailing have eaten the yummiest cakes at the Boatshed café in Rawene?

 

7. The trial instructions indicate the average speed for a section is 31.2 mph.  To achieve that, what speed is needed on any straight stretch of road you encounter –

a) Approximately double the average speed

b) Just above the average speed but without dropping below it at any time (including red lights & corners)

c) If on a gravel road, and if the letters C& R appear on your birth certificate, drive the road twice at twice the target speed to achieve the correct average?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. You are driving through Kaeo as lead car in Far North when a local reverses straight out into your path.  Do you -

a) Take evasive action and silently curse under your breath?

b) Take no evasive action and prang your nice MG into a tired Japper?

c) While your driver takes evasive action, loudly give the other car a piece of your mind (with the top off so you can be heard by all of Kaeo), so said other car follows you with interest and retaliates by removing the next check sign you erect?

 

9. When deciding which route option (gravel or sealed road) to do, do you -

a) Consult the driver to find out whether they want seal or gravel?

b) Note the new paint job on the left front and assume the driver would prefer the seal option?

Note the new paint job on the left front and assume that it needs a few stone chips to match the rest of the car so you direct him down the gravel option?

c) None of the above, don’t notice there are options, do the gravel one cos it’s there first and chip the paint anyway?

 

10. You are an exchange student from the Netherlands, where hills and gravel roads are unheard of.   Do you -

a) Navigate for someone who prefers the straight sealed roads you are used to?

b) Try a new experience by navigating for someone who does all the dirt roads?

c) Enhance that experience by going with a nutter in a rocket-ship Midget?

d) Learn about CR and conclude he obviously is not Dutch and wonder why a driver would actively avoid sealed roads?

 

11. Similarly, you are from England, another place where gravel public roads are unheard of.   Do you -

a) Stick to tried and familiar sealed roads?

b) Note that your TC has been everywhere and gravel roads are no obstacle?

c) Decide that you haven’t yet had enough gravel roads and plan to find more when at the next pre-56 rally?

 

12. You are the driver of an MG Midget (just a little faster than the average one).    At one stage you find an earth bank in front of you.   Do you

a) Wonder how it got there?

b) Apply a bit of correction and avoid it?

c) Decide that as the car is so used to bouncing off banks in hillclimbs that another one won’t make any difference, keep quiet, hope the majority shareholder doesn’t see the clay and grass hanging underneath and buy shareholder a beer at Whangaroa pub (see Q4)?

 

13. Once upon a time when you were young and on your OE, you purchase a brand new MGC.   Misguidedly, after enjoying it around Europe, you sell it, but many years later you come across the very same car and buy it!   Do you -

a) Leave it in the garage as a shrine to your youth?

b) Dream about using it but never get round to it?

c) Take it on Far North and rediscover what a great touring car it is, and make a mental note to come again next year?

 

14. Who had the worst dose of sunburn of Far North:

a) Metro drivers in their singlets?

b) Rob the red-nosed MGB driver?

c) The nutter Midget driver who forgot the sunblock?

d) The mad Dutchman student who doesn’t listen to his exchange-mum?

e) Past president of the club who forgot that ears stick out beyond baseball caps?

 

15. You hail from Taupo.   Northland is a long way away.   On the Friday morning before the first weekend in December, do you -

a) Turn over and go back to sleep?

b) Think about Far North but not quite get round to it?

c) Point your MGA northwards, endure SH1, and then have a great weekend joining in the fun on the minimal traffic roads of Northland?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16. You wear contact lenses.   How do you cope with reading instructions and road signs alternately?

a) Wear short range contacts so you can read the instructions?

b) Wear long range contacts so you can read the road signs on the basis that the driver doesn’t take any notice of what you say from the instructions anyway?

c) Use one of each in different eyes so you can multi-task because you are a woman?

d) Leave the road signs to the driver? (Are you kidding?   He’s a male!)

 

17. The wonderfully detailed Far North instructions on the ‘rally route’ advise you to “keep going left at intersections unless over-ridden by other instructions”.  Following this after the lunchtime stop at Kerikeri you realise that you have driven around the same block three times. Do you  -

a) Trust the person who wrote the instructions and keep going around the block until dark?

b) Retrace you route by doing right turns only until you are back at the start and risk divorce by telling the navigator to do better job as you restart the section?

c) Say ‘Bugger this for a game of soldiers’ and head straight to the Whangaroa pub? (see Q 4)

 

18. Following the route instructions you find yourself driving up what looks suspiciously like a farm driveway.  A large dog appears who looks carefully at your right elbow resting on the door of the MGB.  Do you –

a) Wish the B had electric windows to quickly put a piece of glass between your skin & the dog’s teeth?

b) Tell the dog that Paul has plotted this route and ask ‘has the dog seen a check sign?

c) Ignore the route instruction and reverse carefully away and go straight to Whangaroa pub? (see Q 4)

 

19. Having scored well in this quiz, you make a mental note to –

a) Keep well away from gravel roads north of Whangarei on the first weekend of December 2007?

b) Book several places on this fantastic event as soon as it is advertised next year?

c) Defer any repainting of your beloved MG until after the first weekend of December 2007? (see Q 9)

 

20. You are undertaking a 'simple' trial section, keeping left at all intersections, when you come across a small gravel roadside reserve. Do you -
a) Drive straight past (it can't possibly be an intersection and you don't want to be stuck behind that camper van again)

b) Turn left into the reserve, past a check sign and back onto the road (behind that camper van!)

c) Turn left into the reserve, left into a barely discernible grass track, u-turn, left into another track, u-turn, left onto the gravel through the
reserve, left back onto the road, left into another track (only negotiable by 4WD's on steroids & MG's) around the bushes behind the reserve, left back through the reserve and finally out onto the road (behind an altogether different camper van!)

 

21. To whom do we owe a vote of thanks for organising yet another MaGic Far North.  Is it –

a) Paul Walbran?

b) Bronwyn Walbran?

c) all of the above?