Cantus in Memoriam Ute (Almost)

Sometimes, one has no choice other than to be philosophical in the face of undesirable circumstances. I pondered this with admirable stoicism as I looked upon David taking a visual record (with a little too much alacrity) of what we presumed could have been the end of 13 years with my faithful Toyota Hilux (which had just overheated on the Brynderwyns). We had plenty of time to reflect upon this event as we waited for David’s girlfriend to pick us up from Waipu, with pizza and beer to make the best of a bad situation. Luckily, this turned out not to be the case, and one cooling system later, the ute subsequently returned to service.

At a later stage, it was David’s turn to almost lose a ute to the cause, as his former vehicle (which he had borrowed from his brother) overheated in a similarly inauspicious patch of road to the previous Northland incident. As we ascended the steep section of road leading to the Flora Carpark at Mt Arthur, David was paying sufficient attention to the temperature gauge, and called a halt to proceedings before ‘Vernacular’ claimed a second victim. Thankfully, in the end (as in the case of the Hilux), no requiem was required.