THE MINI MAG. Volume 2 No.11 / 12
  November / December 2000

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The Hastings Point Cruise.
26th November 2000

I should have changed the heading to “Kingscliff Cruise” as that is where we ended up. The organiser, who shall remain anonymous, failed his geography exam and thought that Kingscliff was in fact Hastings Point. Never the less, except for a couple of casualties along the way, a great day was the end result.

The day started at Garden City where 27 cars gathered to be briefed and receive the written notes on the day’s run. For a change everyone must have been paying attention as they got the first instruction right and turned left out of the car park and not right and headed for the Freeway. A lot quicker than waiting for the lights at the Logan & Kessels Road intersection which allows about 3 cars to turn right on a Sunday morning.

Casualty number one was just as we left the car park. One over heating Mini resulted in the quick removal of the stuck shut thermostat by many helping hands and he was on his way to catch up with the main bunch which were waiting at the first re-grouping stop at Waterford. Thanks to the members who got their hands dirty.

We hit Tamborine Village where we were joined by another 5 cars at the Bearded Dragon Hotel. While most of us headed for the big swap meet some of the ladies headed to check out the craft markets. The swap site was heaven to Holden & Ford nuts, but not a lot for us Mini nuts. Although the President did pick up a Mk2 Brake Booster for $10, Dave Perkins found a spare grille in perfect condition and Andrew Wright a spare binnacle complete with gauges. Dave also tried to buy a 1275 head but the seller thought it was gold plated and the price matched.

Time to hit the road again and while 3 cars had to return to Brisbane the remaining 30 headed for what we thought was Hastings Point. The cruise through the back roads and on to the Motorway was a great run all the way to the Tweed Coast turn-off. I must say that this was the first time that we had 99% of the cars stay together on a run with most observing the “keep an eye on the car behind” rule.

Casualty number two as we stopped to regroup. Alex Davis had smoke pouring from under the bonnet from what he thought was an oil leak, but on inspection it was soon revealed that the engine had well and truly over heated. Ian White, one of our Northern NSW members who lived just down the road, soon had a tow rope hitched to his Moke and took the crippled car to his house to wait for the tow truck. I hope the damage is not too great Alex.

With all cars accounted for we headed off to Hastings Point, (well, Kingscliff if you can read a map), where the new club Minivan was unloaded and BBQ set up for a much needed lunch. About an hour after we arrived we were joined by another 10 cars from the Northern NSW & Gold Coast group who had been waiting at Hastings Point for us. At this point we realised that Hastings Point had not moved 10k’s north. We sorted out our mapping skills, had a chat about every thing Mini, drew the raffle, packed up the van and headed back home.

Casualty number three was as we approached Nerang on the Motorway. The Mini van ran out of petrol. I won’t name the driver as I do not want to embarrass Andrew Wright, but at least he found out just how accurate the fuel gauge is. As luck would have it, our expert when it comes to running out of fuel, (it runs in the family), Tom McQuilken, was in the group behind and we knew that he now keeps a spare 5 litres in the boot. I stood there like a traffic cop with a radar gun and waved him down from the centre lane of the four lane Motorway. Gee, those Cooper S brakes work well. So do the ones on the Holdens and Jap cars following.

All was fixed and we headed for home after what was another successful Mini Owners Club outing and I now know that Kingscliff is where it has always been and Hastings Point is to the south.

John Heselwood.