On the road: Showdown in Gumboot Alley

By TONY WALL

I think I've found a new calling in life - gumboot throwing. I knew I had to be good at something. Maybe I'll retire to Taihape to be a full-time gumboot tosser.

After an encounter with urban Wellington, it was up the Kapiti Coast and through Horowhenua, Manawatu and Rangitikei.

At sundown, we stopped at the Rangatira Golf Course, which has a clifftop cablecar with a jaw-dropping view of the Rangitikei River valley.

Then on to Taihape, national farming capital and spiritual home of Fred Dagg.

Next morning, after a few warm-ups, I was handed a pair of regulation size 8 men's gumboots and shown Taihape's new gumboot-throwing lane, a 26m-long grass track between two wire fences.

Mark Mitchell preferred a discus-throwing style. I think my underarm, softball technique was best.

Like golf, this is all about timing. You can have a huge run-up, scream and give it your all, only to see the boot flop like a disabled seagull and land 10m away.

But if you relax, make sure the boot is facing forwards and release it with a fluid swing of your arm, it will fly with the grace of an eagle. I am proud to say that my best effort did just that, sailing past the end of the lane to about 28m.

That would have got me second place at last year's World Champs in Taihape, but would have been 10m short of local lad Campbell Grant's winning effort in the New Zealand Champs the day before.

Overseas, where the sport is known as Wellie Wanging, huge distances have been recorded. Teppo Luoma threw a world record 63.98m in Finland in 1996.

The Gumboot Day festival began in 1985, when local businesspeople seized on the success John Clarke's Fred Dagg persona was having with the Gumboot Song and his references to graduating from the "University of Taihape."

It was seen as a way of pumping life into the town when the removal of Government farming subsidies and the downsizing of the railways had led to hard times. The population had fallen from 3500 in the 1960s to about 1800.

Today the town has a vibrant air, with a number of new businesses, such as the Venison Kitchen, which cooks homegrown venison in every way imaginable and sells velvet pills for those seeking to pep up their sex lives.

We left Taihape and headed north into the interior - up through the Desert Road to Turangi.

This is the farthest inland State Highway 1 goes. You can feel the land stretching away for kilometre after kilometre to the sea.

The scenery is similar to much of the South Island. When you stand in the tussock along the Desert Road, you feel you're in an ancient land. Peter Jackson found it a perfect setting to film parts of Lord of the Rings.

Near Turangi is a sober reminder that travelling along SH1 is not all free-wheeling fun - a memorial to the Oprea family, killed by a logging truck in 1994.

Besides the dangers of snow and ice in winter, Turangi tow truck operator Len Millar warns of a phenomenoncalled "summer ice." Diesel spilt from trucks on hot days settles into the road, then rises to the surface after rain, making for slippery, treacherous driving.

The elements along the Desert Road are as basic as New Zealand gets. Fire, ice, wind and bare earth.

Feature: On the road with Tony and Mark