Keen to do your own big trip? Regular NZ4WD contributor Gary Cooper offers his thoughts
Having just returned from a 19-day 4WD adventure to the South Island (or rather the ‘Mainland’ as we were often told), I thought it would be worthwhile sharing how we went about planning the trip and getting permission for access where required.
So here are some key learnings to help anyone else planning such an adventure.
From small acorns
Like a lot of things in life it all started at the pub one afternoon over a couple of beers. A mate and I had been discussing a longer 4WD camping trip to the South Island for a while and we finally reached the point of saying ‘OK let’s just book the ferry, lock in some dates and start planning.’
Smart phones were deployed, the ferry was booked…..now we just had to tell our better halves. My only advice here is perhaps tell them first!
Next step was to get hold of some 4WD guide books and do some online searching for tracks and routes. We soon had a list of tracks, far more than we could possibly drive with our limited time so we created a draft itinerary to get some idea of what was possible in the time frame.
Another lesson learned was that planning to do more than one track a day even if they were close proved optimistic as delays happen or traversing tracks takes longer than you expect; especially if you end up getting stuck a few times, want to explore, or if your campsite is fantastic why rush off to the next place – simply enjoy the moment.
Some R&R along the way
You can’t avoid the tarmac all together but our plan was to try and get off road as often as possible even if it meant a longer and slower route. Again, one of the many lessons I learned from doing the big lap around Australia a few years back was that making camp and moving the next day every day can quickly get very tiresome and become more like work than a holiday.
So the key is to factor in some breaks for relaxing, reading, fishing, hunting, walking etc. basically whatever takes your fancy to ensure you have a holiday and some R&R along the way.
Even if this means you have to see less or concentrate on a smaller area, your trip will be much better for it plus this will allow for the ‘Local knowledge’ factor. For instance, we were often told about a track or camping spot by locals and had the flexibility to take advantage of this local knowledge.
To that end we found that the local sports, hunting or fishing shops in the small towns were very helpful so we made a few changes on route to incorporate this new information.
High season
We timed our trip so we could still drive the Molesworth and Rainbow station roads before they closed as normally the Molesworth is open from the Saturday of Labour Weekend to Easter Monday or the second Sunday in April, whichever is the later date. As part of your planning make sure you are aware of any planned road closures.
We also leveraged our network and met with a couple of people that had recently done a very similar trip and asked for their advice on track gradings, which ones were better etc. This also proved very helpful and we appreciated them taking the time to meet us.
A number of the tracks we wanted to drive required local consent or payment of an access fee to cross private land. Where we had this information we made contact before we left to make sure we had all the facts and were doing everything with the appropriate permission.
These local contacts proved invaluable as we ended up doing our trip during Cyclone Cook, and local knowledge on river levels was critical as a couple of our planned routes needed to be changed due to the very real risk of flash flooding or impassable rivers leaving us stranded.
Ask first
For access if you are in any doubt ASK first, treat it as part of the adventure and allow time for this exploring, be polite and flexible if required. Respect any signage saying private property even if your map shows the road is public - always check first. Sometimes we had to go to two or three station houses or find some shed in the back paddock to talk to the owner and only once we were denied access, every other time we were simply given permission.
On a couple of occasions, in fact, the farmer jumped in his 4WD and showed us the way, plus you get to meet some interesting characters! Of course it goes without saying that you need to respect the fact you are on a working farm or private property by leaving all gates as you find them and by staying on the designated track; basically tread as lightly as possible so as not to ruin access for anyone else in the future.
I hope this gives you some inspiration to plan a longer 4WD trip. It’s a great adventure and as much about the people you meet as it is about the tracks you drive.
Books.
Find old copies of the following as many of these tracks are still available;
- 4WD South. By Mark Wilson. 115 Off Road Adventures (This is available new)
- Spot X – Off-Roading. 150 Tracks
- 4WD South Island. By Ken Sibly & Mark Wilson. Two publications available
Maps.
New Zealand TOPO Maps.
It is extremely handy to download NZ TOPO50 maps onto a GPS-capable device so you can access your desired maps off line i.e. preload them onto an iPAD or Tablet so you can see all the tracks you are planning on driving and your progress in real time. This should make it very hard to get lost as quite often tracks have multiple options or paths and identifying the correct one can be difficult.
The Topo50 map series (1:50,000 scale) provides the most current Topo50 map information released by LINZ (Land Information New Zealand). This enabled us to identify different route options on the fly rather than relying on lots of paper based maps. We could simple see a track, gain permission to drive it if required and make a detour on route to our destination.
You can also download these maps onto your smart phone but I personally find phone screens too small to be helpful especially whilst driving.
I have a Tablet holder that I attach to the windscreen, so I can have the Tablet sitting on the dash where it doesn’t restrict my vision (by resting on the dash it also can’t fall off when 4WDing).
I use the following app on my Samsung Tablet but many different options are available.
On-line
Lots of information is available if you spend a few hours on-line, here are some starting points.
- www.doc.govt.nz The Department of Conservation has a guide to Off Road Driving in the South and North Island including 44 tracks that are accessible.
This site is also good for knowing where all the DOC campsites are on route.
For a list of local clubs that belong to New Zealand Four Wheel Drive Association, I reached out to a few clubs in local areas and they were all very helpful with local information and contact details.
Some South Island clubs have formed an association, this site has their contact details.
Is a NZ 4WD Forum, which might have useful information.
- www.adventureriding.co.nz This is based around dirt bike riding but has a lot of information that is relevant and helpful.
- www.wikiloc.com/trails/offroading/new-zealand
Facebook. Try “NZ Off Roader” or “NZ4Wheeling”
Once you know the names of the tracks in the various areas you are heading search for them specifically as many 4WD clubs and private people publish reports or newsletters and these are often available on-line.
Be aware that Roads/Tracks can have a couple of different names so it’s a good idea to know these when talking to locals for more information.
To read every story in the October 2017 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (Sept 22) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
