Hanging Rock Cruise 20th Feb 2005 : Z32s in the Mist.

Noxter6


First and foremost I would like to thank all those members and some non members who participated in the cruise and for having made it a resounding success. Without your attendance the cruise could not have taken place. The cut off number for the event was five vehicles and had made 21 copies of the route map, which I thought was too plenty. But to my pleasant surprise a total of 21 Zeds turned up for the day, 19 met up at the initial meeting point at Brimbank Park with Hoeman and 300ZXChick joining us at the Memorial Cross. :thumbsup:

Brimbank Park Lookout. Noxter3


A panoramic lens would have been handy to join these two shots together. Noxter4


With the benefit of hindsight, there could easily have been 25 vehicles on the day, I won't mention the names of those who opted out at the last minute but Ben, Pete, Mark and Maciek will have to make an extra effort to attend the next cruise. Tongue in cheek here fellas, I know you had your legitimate reasons.

Now a geological fact about Hanging Rock, you will be surprised to learn that the rock formation there is the only one of its kind outside of the two Nordic countries of Norway and Sweden. The volcanic features that you see at Hanging Rock are known geologically as "mamelons", this is derived from the French meaning "nipples", yes you read correctly. Since we are not a French speaking nation and for the purposes of this write up, Hanging Rock will be known as The Nipples from hence forth. I've discounted suggestions of names such as "Hanging Nipples", "Nipples Hanging", "Rock Nipples" and "Nipples Rock" as alternatives.

The Nipples monolith. Macedon Shire Council


Contrary to popular belief Brimbank Park is not the local sewerage dump. Nextz and Sead were the first to rock up followed by Cletus in his "200SX green" Z32TT. A short lull separated the first group and the herd from the "far east side" of town namely Max, RedZedMikey, zxtt-1, BigCol and ENuffZ. Soon there were 19 Zeds gathered at the lookout ready to roll with Dan the last to make an appearance.

Ready to rumble. Noxter1


Lets roll. Noxter2


RobertBarr


Toy300's big 18 inchers. BigCol


9:30am signaled the departure of the 19 Zed convoy onto the Calder Hwy and as Murphy's law would have it, the rain clouds started to amass, just my luck. The showery conditions allowed us the opportunity to drive with our head and fog lites on, which was quite a site to see from the head of the pack.

Shots from BigCol's NA beast. BigCol


BigCol


RobertBarr clocking 110kms at just under 3000revs. RobertBarr


From the highway we deviated onto Mt. Macedon road and for this part of the trip, I was hoping that the inclement weather would clear up...wishful thinking, it got bloody worse! :wacko:

The Mt. Macedon road turn off (C322). RobertBarr


Z32s in the mist. RobertBarr


For the other 18 targa tops, it was warm and cosy inside, whereas I was coping it sweet. At this point however, I must thank the Nissan engineers who designed the convertible, because as wet and miserable as it was outside, inside the cabin it was nice and dry. This was not the case when the car came to a stop as the rain came straight in! Mount Macedon road itself was littered with debris which had fallen from the tree tops from the drenching that Melbourne had a few weeks back. This area of Victoria is also the exclusive retreat of some of Melbourne's richest families eg. Lindsay Fox and Bob Jane, just to name a couple, in fact we drove past these residences as we made our way up the mountain.

Mt. Macedon road. RobertBarr


Our first destination was the Memorial Cross, at which we met up with 300ZXChick who had traveled from Bendigo to join us on the cruise, great effort. :thumbsup: As soon as I got into the Memorial Cross car park, the canvas roof was on in a snap, I wasn't risking the leather getting wet, not to mention the on board TV and the neons!

Memorial Cross car park. RobertBarr


DSCM was disrobing for a dip in the crisp mountain air. :LOL: Noxter5


From there it was a short stroll to the Cross itself and a perfect Melbourne Summers' day afforded us a photo opportunity of the group and the scenery or on this day, lack of scenery. :thumbsdown: The fickle weather caught a few of the members by surprise as they were dressed only in shorts and flimsy tanktops.

Pathway to the cross. RobertBarr


All using the base as a wind break. RobertBarr


Where do you want to go today? RobertBarr


There is a lookout in amongst all that, trust me. RobertBarr


The group shot. Noxter7


From here we headed off to the quaint Magnetic Hill with HoeMan finally finding us in amongst all the mist.

The second destination was Magnetic Hill on Straws Lane. Having not read the map properly, red32 and Tecktrader missed the turn off and went on to Woodend instead!

Magnetic Hill. BigCol


At the bottom of the hill. Noxter8


At the top of the hill. Noxter9


Noxter10


RobertBarr


The Hill on that day, wasn't behaving itself as my car didn't roll up the hill, believe me it was meant to, Sead had to give me a push before it started to roll. The scientific explanation is that it's an optical illusion, the road with the hill side surroundings make it appear as though things are rolling up the hill.

RedZedMikey and I meet half way. RobertBarr


The start line at which things should start rolling! :wacko: RobertBarr


There she goes, it's rolling up the hill, I told ya it would. RobertBarr


The third port of call was Woodend to taste test the famed vanilla slices. The usually quiet town was momentarily invaded by the rumbling of 21 zeds trying to pinch any parking space that was available.

Woodend shops. Noxter32


Bourkies Café was the place to grab a slice which was available in three different flavours, traditional, strawberry and passionfruit. I must say tho, at $2.40 per slice, the price was a bit rich, with that I could of bought 5 slices at my old primary school! :angry:

Bourkies Café. Red32


I managed to pinch a spot right next to Bourkies. Noxter12


A passionfruit vanilla slice on the canvas roof. Noxter11


Angus, Nadine and a few of the blokes giving us their trade mark smiles. The smirk on Tektrader's and BigCol's faces are priceless! :LOL: Noxter13


Our last destination was The Nipples and by then the weather had cleared up nicely, just perfect for photos. :thumbsup:

The Nipples car park. Noxter14


Noxter15


Red32's mobile Looney Tunes Zoo. Red32


Before that tho, most of us had a bite to eat at the café which served up really enticing dishes.

The group had to pinch 3 tables to accommodate everyone. Noxter16


ENuffZ and Michelle shamed us all by climbing the Rock, in fact I think they were the only ones from the group to do the climb, well done. :thumbsup: Thanks to Sead for asking the Ranger for permission to use the oval as the stage for our photos and of course the Nipples provided the perfect back drop for the photos you see below.

The red mob. Noxter17


Mikey's cropped shot of the red mob. From L to R : DSCM, Tektrader69, Max's Z, RedZedMikey, BigCol, red32. RedZedMikey


The white mob, with four shades of white. From L to R : Datzboy, Baroo, Noxter69, RobertBarr. Noxter23


Protruding noses. RobertBarr


Another angle of the group. Noxter20


The group from the callers' tower. Noxter19


Mikey's cropped version. RedZedMikey


The 21 zeds in unison. Noxter18


The 21 Zeds with their drivers. Noxter24


Their rear ends. Noxter21


Zed invasion. Noxter26


Close encounters of the Zed kind. This formation reminds me of the tacky Space Invaders game of the 80's, with Tektrader close to gazumping the player. Noxter27


Mikey's cropped version of Zed Invaders. RedZedMikey


The rears. RobertBarr


The convertible under the Nipples. :zlove: Noxter22


After the photo shoot on the stretch, everyone made their own way home.

Zeds all lined up on the stretch. Reminds me of a slug. Noxter28


Two more slug shots. Noxter30


Noxter31


I hope everyone had enjoyed themselves and although in driving terms the day was short, it enabled us to visit some of the more unique locations in Victoria. I'm sure that future cruises will be more distant and will let those wanting a lengthier drive to participate.
Thanks again for your co-operation on the day.

Credits in order of appearance :

Noxter69 - Ngoc
MickJ - Michael
nextz - Michael
Sead - Sead
Cletus - John
red32 - Doug
Baroo - Tim
Tektrader69 - Graham
BigCol - Colin
DSCM - Grant
ENuffZ - Adrew
Max's Z - Max
RedZedMikey - Mike
RobertBarr - Robert
zxtt-1 - Jack
Datzboy - Rodd
Toy300 - as himself (sorry matey, I didn't get your name).
rom-vg30dett - Chris
Dan - Dan
300ZX Chick - Renee
HoeMan - Ryan

Thanks to Colin, Doug, Mike and Robert for the use of their pics in this write up. :thumbsup:
Please note that I have resized the original images for dial up friendly viewing, hence there may be some distortion.
I'm happy to email members any of my original pics that you see here, just email me the picture number and I will reply with the attachment. Make sure that you have enough room in your in boxes as these are in excess of 3mb per file. You can enlarge them to poster size, well not quite poster size, but certainly "Playboy Pin Up" size and use it as your napkin, on your toilet seat cover or anything else for that matter.

Out takes:

Callers for the Z32 Handicap. I'm sure the callers' tower wasn't built for that many people on it at once! RobertBarr


Nadine bearing Angus. He is waaaaaay cute, what a pooch. I bet he's popular with the chick pooches. Red32


Guess who this belongs to??? What a ripper. :LOL: :LOL: RobertBarr


Alfa engine bay. RedZedMikey


Until next time, catch you all. :thumbsup:

 

wow

Those are some absolutly fantastic shots.

I'm kicking myself that i couldn't make it.
nex time...
plus my z will be magnifico in a week!

can someone advise of the next likely cruise?

HINT, make it sooner rather than later, the weather isn't going to hold out too muhc longer.

rik

 

Wow...what a write up

I think you guys will need to come over here and organise a cruise like that. it's hard enough to get people to park near each other, let alone in an order.

Great Job...

Paul

 

Well done, great writeup and super pics!

 

What a superb effort - well done to the Noxter

That gives us all something to aspire to. Just loved the 4 seasons in one day theme.:LOL::thumbsup::zlove:

Cliff

 

Noxter, you have really surpassed yourself

That was great and has thrown down the gauntlet for other cruise organizers.

Great write up, great pics, well done.

I would like a CD of all the full rez pictures, I will send over some money to cover the disk and postage.

Thanks

 

Hey Ngoc,

Fantastic write up! Thanks for organising the cruise, it was a job well done. And lastly, perhaps we can measure age in vanilla slices - when I was in high school, $2.40 would have bought you 48 vanilla slices at the canteen price of 5¢ each! Guess I'm older than you :wacko:.

 

Damn...that took 16 refreshes on dial-up to load all pics...

but boy was it worth it! Good job on the write-up, good job on the cruise, and good job co-ordinating all the cars for the pics. Excellent!

 

Awesome writeup Ngoc....

Vanilla Slices were still around the $1.80 mark when I was at school

 

Great write up Ngoc :thumbsup:

And all those who contributed to with the photos:thumbsup: Thanks for organising the cruise Ngoc it was alot of fun, its always good to catch up with old faces and also new faces.

Looking forward to the next cruise:thumbsup:

Max:thumbsup:

P.S. I like the photos with the red zeds, the 1st pics has "red" zeds the 2nd pic has "orange zeds"

Max:thumbsup:

 

Me too!

Good idea Graham

Max:thumbsup:

 

That's the problem with QLD weather, Cliff...

Perfect one day, same bloody thing the next!:thumbsup:

 

Brilliant end to a brilliant day, Noxter

 

Excellent write up great pics, we only had porridge at

school and only allowed one helping.

 

great shots guys - looks like it was a fun day

 

Top right up Noxter :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Would have taken you friggin ages, anyway top effort bro, still spewing i wasnt able to make it.. this right up just made me :angry:.. damn being a full time student and no money from gov, makes me a broke ass stooge but with a nice car :LOL:
Anyway be there for sure on the next one.

CheerZ, Maciek :thumbsup:

 

Who did the Canary belong too?

 

excellent

good stuff dude, excellent writeup... Spewin I couldnt make it..

 

Absolutely stirling effort that Noxter!

Thanks to all the pic takers too, looked to be a really nice cruise to be amongst. Looking forward to doing it myself at Goulburn. :thumbsup:

Cheers!

 

Thanks for a great day Ngoc,

That vanilla slice apparently was the 'traditional' variety. Was about time Vic zedders showed their true force and make those interstaters jealous, particular the weather only down south can produce.
Thinkin we just might have needed to leave Grant (DSCM) up on that mountain though, just ask Max.
And Cletus, regarding the granny driving, well i had been a bad boy.

Keep on zedding:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: