Five a.m.

And I struggle out of bed. Outside it's freezing. Last night I got things ready. Jeans and workshirt hang in the hot water cupboard beside the hot water cylinder, boots on top so everything is nice and warm when I throw it on, so at least that's a feel good thing.

Stir up the fire and throw some wood on to get the room a little warmer. Had a shower last night because it impossible in the morning, the cold water pipes are frozen. Only hot water to be had. That's OK, enough for a hot flannel over the face and a coffee. Make lunch, fill the thermos and out the door to the car.

The morning is filled with stars, 5:40 it's still dark. The sky is clear like crystal, it seems like there isn't a Star in the universe that you can't see. The grass is crisp and frozen and the air tingles your airways like sparkling ice water on your tongue.. The old Merc's V8 objects to being rudely awakened but it obligingly ferries me to the yard. The S-Line doesn't worry about icy early mornings and she grumbles to life with barely a flick of the key. Every morning the ritual is the same Oil - water - Hubmeter. Wander up and down kicking 22 tyres hoping against hope that nothing has gone down overnight. Nothing worse than changing a tyre first thing on a frosty morning. Lastly, Logbook to keep the Godsquad Happy.

Today the job is hauling softrock from our quarry to a Dairy farm for a new feed pad construction. The haul is going to take us past the Waipapa Dam on the Waikato river, then up into the hills and down towards the top-end of the King Country. The gotcha for the morning is the descent off the Arohena plateau down to Waipapa, the road is a steep, low gear descent and often icy when there is heavy frosts. 44 tonnes all up with a full load can get a little exciting if the traction disappears. Not too much of a hassle tho, three truck and trailers on the job today and about 90 years of combined driving experience, just requires a little extra care. The bonus today is that we have a loader driver, the job is fairly short haul, about an hour and a bit turn-around and the boss wants as much done before the weather turns again. John, the the guy who drives the 21 tonne digger makes his machine dance in a graceful ballet that belies the power that he controls. The teeth on the bucket tear at the rock, ripping it out of the quarry face before picking it up and depositing it gently in the truck and trailer. A beep on the digger's horn tells me that the requisite 26 tonnes of rock has been carefully distributed over the truck and trailer. The distribution is important, a badly loaded truck is an unstable and difficult to control beast, especially with the hoist up. A good driver takes extreme care over how the load is put on his truck, a good loader Operator makes life a dream. John is one of those Good Loader Operators

With the load on, the S-Line's work really starts. The road up out of the quarry is winding narrow metal and steep in places. Up till now I've used maybe 5 or 6 of the available 15 gears . On highway with a load I'll use ten. The five gears in the low box, often called deep-bottom-under, are usually only brought into play in difficult circumstance. We start off in 6th or 7th, the chassis twists, the nose rises, as the clutch bites and the 400 horses strain to pull 44 tonne out of the quarry. Climbing up to the main road will require 30 or more gear changes and the truck will only occasionally get over 30kph before I get to the seal. Once on the main road the run is fast, the initial part is gentle downhill before getting to the steep drop to the Waipapa Dam. We're doing a hundred K as we approach the top, we change down 4 gears using the Jacobs Engine brake to slow the truck fast as we come over the top and start rapidly descending through the first cuttuing. Sure enough the telltale glisten of ice on the road shows in the light of the just rising sun. Ease on the foot brakes, it's important to spread the braking over all the wheels while not allowing lockup especially of the steerers. For many years is was standard practice to disable the brakes on the front axles of trucks that travelled the desert road in winter. As long as your front wheels were still turning you still had steering.

The climb up from the Waikato river before turning off the seal toward Waitete is winding and slow and usually means a couple of cars stuck in behind the truck. Locals are no problem they just accept it like Aucklanders accept traffic jams, but often someone takes stupid risks to get past. After about half an hour and more climbing along another winding metal road you come up over the top of the Waitete block and the vista that is spread out before makes you realise why you love getting up at 5 am and getting out here. The sun has risen on a beautiful clearskied day. There is a dazzling white coating on everything. It's just gorgeous.

I reach into my bag to get my Digital Camera so I can put this stunning pic on my blog....and the bloody batteries are flat. Bugger!

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