We left Auckland late the night before, stopping in at Rotorua for the night. Next morning we got up early to get to scrutineering at the designated time. Sometimes its nice to have a V8 - we passed quite a bit of slower traffic in our effort to be on time.

We gassed up at the last pumps for a few days and filled the spare jerrycans (now I have two fuel tanks! We would need it.  Then we were onto the scrutineering and start.

The East Cape Safari is a nice relaxed affair, using backroads and private land over the interior of East Cape. Local station and forestry owners open their land for the Safari as it benefits the school. This provides access to areas that would otherwise be off-limits, and also gives a great community feel to the event - every night there is a dinner (and sometimes dance) in a local woolshed or marae.