Tree Deliveries

There is  logistical process in delivering trees to the planting site which started in the morning loading the vehicle with trees - usually before the work force arrived. This turned out to my task and to take them out on to the planting site.

The efficiency of the planting job depended to some extent in have trees available to the planters without them having to walk far to fill their planting bags. So on occasion, I would do that by carrying them on my back - but more often, using a vehicle of some sort.

Here we have an A2 Bedford and an old K Bedford, The K Bedford was a gang transport and the A2 was used [among other things] for tree deliveries and for going to the Milton nursery to collect trees. One load was really a day's work because in the early days we were using puddled bundles. So they had to be unloaded 'on the hill', rather than in a shed as we would later with cartoned trees.

We inherited an old Commer, a cast-off from Naesby Forest - of course she was yellow and had an aluminum canopy. She also had a crash gearbox so you had to double the clutch each time you changed gear - not everyone could manage her. Generally she was slow but the low gear was a crawler gear really and as long as I had reasonable traction, she could climb steep slopes. Many a time though Mick had to retrieve me with the Cat D6. He would also tow me using the truck as a trailer to get trees into the site. Sometimes the situations were tricky though.

A frost plug at the back of the motor rusted badly and was deemed irreparable, so the old Commer was taken from me - well I delivered her to Conical Hill 'for disposal'.

So to replace her I was provided with a Yamaha motorbike and some wet weather gear [a fairly unfriendly act I would say]. It was not really a lot of use for what we required, so a 72 tooth rear sprocket was installed - great on the hill, but screamed on the open road! Robert Hutton built a frame to hook a trailer to and he built a trailer so I could tow a load. Well it was ok, but heavy loads of trees took control sometimes and we would tip over on occasion. Our Mechanical overseer guy, Bob Williams did not appreciate the towing frame being added, nor did he like the trailer as such a thing was a 'unit'. He undid the thing and took it away with the trailer. Luckily after the planting season. The bike and I parted company at the back of Trig J and she rolled down the steep hill until some Manuka bushes held her up. The repair bill had to go to District Office, which is why [after the please explain] I was awarded the Suzuki LJ 50.

Jimmy was a three cylinder two stroke little power-horse and valuable on the forest. For tree deliveries, I would take the trees from their carton, [they were in plastic bags of 100] and carefully stack them in the back and on the passenger seat. Out on the hill I would have to cover them and be mindful of tree care, but the system worked well. One time though, I had trees laid out and there was heavy snow, so I went out on my own to recover the trees. The landscape and tracks changed with the snow and really it was dangerous - compounded by being on my own out there. Happily all was well and the task was completed - if with the odd tricky moment.

As the programme became bigger we received a big, red Nissan Patrol, short wheelbase with a 4 litre petrol engine. This was luxury plus for me and, I always thought a bit over the top.
The vehicle was brilliant for pulling the fire trailer as it had all this power.
At Trotters Gorge [Kemp's] the roading crew were a bit slow and planting was well ahead of them. I ferried the planting gang into the planting area - in the morning the track was hard with frost and in the
 afternoon, greasy with the thaw! But I had created 'rail tracks' during the afternoon trips that were so deep, I just had to follow them.
We had a huge tandem trailer and I would daily go into Oamaru where there would be a wagon load of trees. I could fit the whole load on the trailer and haul it up to the planting site.
Trailers upset your stability and I recall one instance where I was trying to climb a steep, narrow ridge to deliver trees, but despite the forward gear, we were sledging backwards - I'm not quite sure how I kept the trailer straight.
Rather than abandon the idea, I put tyre chains on the front wheels but still could not get up that ridge. So I strapped a big bundle of heavy Manuka planting poles to the bull-bar and that gave me enough traction to deliver the trees.
Those very trees have now been harvested.