The fact that rally special stages held on (closed) public roads or on private roads (typically in forestry blocks) means the route of an event can be reasonably easily changed from year-to-year. However, on the Otago Rally there are some special stages that are so good the event includes them almost every year. This cache highlights one of them: Whare Flat.
This stage is right on Dunedin’s back doorstep so is often a magnet for spectators. The stage starts at the entrance to the private forestry road off of Three Mile Hill Road. It winds through the forest before emerging onto the public Flagstaff – Whare Flat Road. The stage then follows the road up to what is known locally as “The Bull Ring” (the car park at the bottom of the Pineapple Track) before turning back onto private forestry roads. This takes the competitors back into the forest briefly before they reach the finish which is close to where the private road re-emerges onto Flagstaff – Whare Flat Road just above where the seal starts. The cache is located close to the start time control. BYOP. Small snaplock.
A word of caution:
Poaching (illegal hunting) and rustling (stealing livestock) is sadly on the increase in NZ. Consequently, you can’t really blame rural folk for being alert to suspicious behaviour near their farms and forest blocks. And you can’t get much more suspicious-looking than geocaching! Take care not to attract attention to yourself in this area, especially if caching at night.
Tall trees at GZ may interfere with GPS accuracy. Cache is in an obvious and straightforward place.
Rally Fact:
The Otago Rally has become three events in one. There is the National Championship event for modern cars, the Allcomers event for those not running in the national championship and the classic event for older rally cars. Many spectators will tell you that it is the classics that they have come to see. The Otago Sports Car Club, which runs the rally, has done a magnificent job of attracting some top names from the rallying world to compete in the classic event in recent times. Former World Rally Champions that have competed in the classic event at Otago include the late Bjorn Waldegard of Sweden (the first- 1979 - world rally champion), Ari Vatanen of Finland (1981 champion), Hannu Mikkola of Finland (1983 champion), Juha Kankkunen of Finland (four times world champion - '86, '87, '91 and '93), Miki Biasion of Italy (1988 and ’89 champion) and Didier Auriol of France (world champion in 1994). With competitors like these, the Otago Classic Rally has received wide coverage in the international motorsport press. In fact, more people outside New Zealand have probably heard about Otago because of its classic rally than its Highlanders rugby team. That may be a bitter pill for rugby followers to accept but it’s true- internationally, motorsport is vastly more popular than rugby.
In the nineteen rallies since the start of the Classic event in 1997 (and up to 2015) it has been won 14 times by Ford Escorts of various models. Other classic cars to score victories have been a Porsche 911 RS, a Triumph TR7, Toyota Celica (twice) and a Mazda RX7. New Zealand's Derek Ayson has been the most successful driver (three wins). Overseas winners of the Classic event have included Pasi Hagstrom of Finland and Neal Bates of Australia (both two-times winners).