Ah, finally the day dawned fine and we set off with mixed expectations for the Economy run. The premise is that it is possible to drive any car economically, as measured by the number of kilometres per litre of fuel, with some handicap for the weight of the car and passengers. The car had been cleaned to improve its aerodynamics and there was much discussion about the economic impact of going “top down”!
It turned out that our preparations were of limited use. Aerodynamics didn’t feature in Graeme’s idea of an economy run.
A small group, their dogs and our youngest family member Penelope (6 weeks) gathered at Craigavon Park in Green Bay. Graeme set us off at staggered times, armed with instructions, questions to answer along the way and a detailed questionnaire on our cars’ and passengers’ specs.
First stop the petrol station to fill up to the 2nd click, and then we doubled back, went around the block and came out by the petrol station! Ignoring the temptation to fill up again we headed by a windy route to Wood Bay and on to French Bay – each of which were accessed by steep hills. Coming back up the drivers were tempted to plant foot, not good for economy.
Next w
e wound around some more narrow roads and went down South Titirangi Road to take another look at the Manakau Harbour. Then back up to Titirangi proper and onto Huia Road. We checked out the Lower Nihotupu Dam, the Huia Point lookout (to observe the bar) before coming to the end of the road at Little Huia.
Heading back we discovered that the signage on Huia Road is one sided – only good if you are coming from town. We missed the sign for Kaitarakihi Bay and it seems most of us had to double back to find the Pine Avenue entrance to Cornwallis Beach. Spencer messaged to say they were picnicking while we were again re-tracing our route, only for him to turn up after we had parked – wrong part of the beach. Russell ate his sandwich in splendid isolation somewhere but the rest of us managed to come together for our picnic lunch, where we counted our u-turns and railed about Graeme’s route, in his absence.
As it was 
now mid-afternoon the group agreed we were heading straight back to the end point at Alexandra Park, via the closest petrol station. We completed our paperwork and handed it over. We headed home not knowing who had been most economical, or least, but we can now reveal that the winner was … Russell Clarke. He managed to travel the least distance which might have been a factor!
As Graeme noted “the distances traveled vary so much so that a true comparison cannot really be made as the terrain traveled varied”. Stephen disqualified himself because he dropped his dogs at home in Titirangi but I don’t think it would have made much difference to his overall result.
Despite the grumbling, we had a grand day out. Ken and I did go top down, so that is our excuse! Thank you Graeme and thank you everyone for your company.
For those of an analytical frame of mind the full analysis and results are here.
Philippa West
Click here to view more photos on our Gallery page
