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Day two in Hawkes Bay – ZL1/HB-096

Our second day in the Hawkes Bay started out with a full day planned on three hill tops and Tourere was our first stop.   The day started with a quick stop to pick up Warrens radio friend, Dave ZL2DW at 8am and off we headed from Hastings off to the summit.   Dave offered to join us for the day to spend some time hilltopping and checking out some of the commercial radio sites he maintains. It was great to have his company for the day.

Tourere is situated on farm land near Ormondville and Dave had gained prior permission to access the site for us.  The farmer met us at the bottom where he was doing some stock work and took us most of the way up opening the gates for us on his motorbike.  A short drive up the hill and we made it to the summit.

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Conditions on the summit for playing radio were not the best, however having Dave along with us played out well.  He made himself useful and made good use of the hand held radio to round up local contacts for Warren to reach on the air.  Thanks to those who made contact with Warren.  Dave also made a pretty good make shift aerial support and stood holding it to help things along.   Thanks Dave!

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Despite the challenge in the conditions for radio activation on the air, Warren managed to make 5 contacts from this hill, all to locals on  7 MHz.

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The dipole antenna was swung between a tree and a fence post so was low but was enough to get the 2 points for the activation log.

Summit Information

Tourere ZL1/HB-096

Summit height – 648 m

Access from Tourere Road.

Nominal time to summit – 15 minute drive from the roadside.

Summit marker – none. GPS required.

Land access permission – permission from the farm manager who lives near the track start is required.