Adventure NZ Ararimu Safari

An email pops up on my screen from the Manukau Four Wheel Drive Club (of which I was a member back pre-kid days) asking if I wanted to come and play in the wilds of Ararimu. In a postapocalyptic Covid detained Auckland I said: “Hell, yeah.”

Giant leap to the keyboard – filled out the forms and bought a ticket for the ride and within a few seconds I was hooked and booked.

I then set about helping the cause by posting on the ‘Land Rover Series 1 Enthusiasts’ Facebook page to see if any of the chaps wanted to come and play as well – but I needn’t have bothered – the whole trip was booked out in just over 24 hours. What does that tell you?

I contacted the Land Rover Owners Club Auckland (LROCA) to see if anyone was quick enough to get in and three others were – so we had a ‘Quad-Squad’ – so to speak.

You are either into these charity safaris or not. If you enjoy meeting up with like-minded folk for a guided scenic tour of farms and stations around the country you know not to procrastinate. Hit the ‘Buy-Now’ button as quick as you can, as these tours always sell out quick!

Unfortunately, a couple of the chaps had to pull out last minute, but no dramas. Due to an extensive ‘Wait-List’ they were refunded and another lucky 4WDer was in.

Ararimu is a beautiful valley just over the eastern ridge from Ramarama on SH1 –50km south of Auckland CBD – or in my case 30 minutes over the hill from home.

The last Ararimu Safari in 2016 was also hosted by the Manukau Four Wheel Drive Club and was a fund raiser for the Ararimu community swimming pool. This 2022 trip had been organised in conjunction with the Ararimu Residents and Ratepayers Association to raise more funding for the community pool.

The previous event was centred in the valley and ridges just south of Ararimu School before heading north-west to traverse the high ridge line above Stevenson’s Quarry high above Drury and Ramarama overlooking SH1 and away north to the distant skyline of Auckland city.

This year the event was based a little further south at a farm off Paparata Road traversing valleys and ridges in a series of loops before again heading north west after lunch in another loop of private farm tracks.

I managed to drag my daughter’s partner Myles Naley away from his house painting for a day out, and we met up with the shiny new Club President of the LROCA, Bruce Gibson and his son Leon in their Land Rover Discovery near the Bombay Hills at 7:45am on Saturday morning. We arrived a bit early and parked up – as convoys of ‘butty’ looking 4WDs roared past us - some tooting the horn as they recognised my vehicle.

Last Ararimu 4WD Safari my youngest daughter drove my Discovery for her first foray off-road. Following the great run up the East Cape in March with the Land Rover Series 1 group (and sorting the on-going distributer issues) I decided to treat Myles with a trip in the 1955 Series 1 Land Rover with the canvas top rolled up and door tops off.

The assembly point was on Paparata Road, which follows the ridge line of the southern defences for both pre and post European settlement for Auckland – commonly known as the ‘Bombay Hills’ and named after the ship ‘Bombay’, which landed in Auckland and brought settlers to the area, originally called Williamson’s Clearing, in 1863.

The drive got under way after a welcome speech from Sam Williams, Chairman of the Ararimu Residents and Ratepayers Association and a safety briefing from Richard Eyres and Tony Burgess. A special ‘shout-out’ to

Natasha Rivai from ‘The Property Group’ who ensured the trip complied with town planning and resource management requirements. The safari would not have been able to go ahead without her help.

The assembly and exit process was well thought out with four marked out rows, thus preventing any queuing back onto Paparata Road. The two rows of vehicles on the northern side followed Richard Eyres in ‘Scratch-Rover’ north straight out across the paddocks, while the two southern rows followed Tony Burgess and exited west back up Paparata Road to complete the track we’d follow in the afternoon.

We descended into the valley below, skirting a tempting swampy area and ascended the ridge to gain views over farmland and fenced blocks of pine and native trees. Following a most enjoyable short detour down the wrong ridge we were soon back on track to bounce off the top end of Stuart Road before descending then ascending Peach Hill (265m). Here we stopped for a windblown cup of coffee and to admire the views east over the Paparimu Valley and Auckland’s water catchment areas of the Hunua Ranges and Mangatawhiri Forest – the south blocked by the Paparata Ridge line towards the Firth of Thames.

I have to say (with mixed feelings) we were lucky with the weather. The predicted rain did not materialise, so the steep descent off Peach Hill was handled with ease and grace – as opposed to the experienced screaming and yelling coming from all-terrain, or highway-tyred SUVs sedately slithering sideways off the tracks.

With the door tops off and the canvas rolled up on the Series 1, it was definitely ‘drippy-nose’ weather as we headed north again, descending the valley before reconquering the ridge line to close our first loop.

We continued along the ridge line at 250m to descend back into the valley and exit via Lynd Road back onto Paparata Road and back to base for lunch.

During the lunch break spot-prizes of sponsor products were handed out. I was very fortunate to win a set of ‘TruckClaws’ which I had been researching for use on my Discovery. These are a ‘strapon’ aluminium extrusion that is held in place by a ratchet tie-down. They are not for driving, or road use, rather is a bolton single ‘grouser-plate’ just for getting out of the odd slimy geographically embarrassing moment. Thank you!

After lunch we swapped routes and Tony led us back up the way we had come – to cut across private property to pop out near Ararimu School. We then weaved our way through private land at the headwaters of the Mangawheau Stream before gaining height back up the ridges at around 240m.

It was staggering how many houses dot this landscape now. Not that long ago this valley was a few large farms – but now the hillsides are dotted with new or relocated houses and kilometres of flash painted post and rail fencing. The night would be a tell-all, with the dark still of the Hunua valley replaced with hundreds of houses ablaze with LED illumination

With the day moving on and the temperature dropping we headed back to base to relieve some mud tension by having a play in that ‘tempting swamp’ we passed earlier this morning. After a few large tyred ‘grunters’ required recovery, a 52hp Series 1 didn’t stand a chance, so we pumped up the tyres and said our goodbyes.

The Safari raised over $9,500 for the Ararimu Community Pool from sales to 90 vehicles and raffle tickets. A HUGE thank you to the Manukau Four Wheel Drive Club for getting in behind the project and to Natasha Rivai from ‘The Property Group’ for sorting out the compliance bits.

Back to civilisation

Southern adventure continues

For the third year in a row, David Coxon’s holiday drive continues to explore the tourism ‘jewels’ of the Mainland.

So far on this trip, we have travelled from Picton down towards Christchurch and over Arthurs Pass to the West Coast, then all the way down to Jackson Bay before crossing back over Haast Pass and exploring the Wanaka area.

Now, our travelling companions Ashley and Gillian needed to be back home at short notice and managed to book a ferry for three days’ time.

It was at the Omarama Top 10 campground on our way back north that we finally managed to get adequate internet and discovered that the first sailing we could get was over a week later.

Rather than worrying about the impact of this delay on our plans back home, we decided to embrace having an enforced extra week of holiday by ourselves and make it a very slow trip up to Picton.

Leaving Omarama, Ashley and Gillian still wanted to do some sight-seeing, so instead of just going to Christchurch for the night, we took a slightly longer run to stay in Akaroa, initially, taking our time and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery around Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo. However, once we came down onto the plains the clouds rolled in and we just made a steady run for Akaroa, finally setting up our camp at the Akaroa Top 10 in murky and cool, but dry weather.

The next morning we bid farewell to Ashley and Gillian, while we stayed on at the camp for another day. We took the time to explore Akaroa, finding a number of shops selling off last winter’s stock at bargain prices. I got some very good deals. After lunch we went a little way back around the harbour then up to the scenic drive along the ridge line. The road up was unsealed, but to my surprise, the road around the top was all sealed – very different from my memories. We got some nice views through gaps in the clouds before we dropped down into Le Bons Bay.

With better planning, I would have taken the unsealed route that we had driven past earlier into Le Bons Bay and come back up the more direct sealed road, but I was not that well organised. However, it was still a pleasant visit to the coast, and we ended up chatting to a guy in another Prado for a while before

Story and photos by David Coxon

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climbing back up to the ridge and looping back to Akaroa for our final night.

There were still low clouds still hanging on the hills as we packed up the next morning so we did a final bit of retail therapy, hoping the clouds would lift, but no luck so we decided to forego the rest of the scenic tour of the ridge line and head for the big smoke of Christchurch for a few days. Having plenty of time, we stopped to visit a gallery at Little River and had lunch in the car at the rather windswept Birdlings Flat.

Reaching Christchurch, it was a bit of a GPS tour around the streets to reach our accommodation at Amber Park in the Riccarton area, which I picked because it had good ratings and was in an area of Christchurch that I remembered from when I was at university there (although, there was very little that was as I remembered it). Amber Park offered both camping and motel accommodation, and while the motel side was quite full, there were only a few campers. This gave us almost free run of the kitchen and lounge, making for a very comfortable stay. Our time in Christchurch was

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1: Lunch at Murfell’s Beach, on our way to Picton. 2: Looking across Lake Pukaki to

Aoraki / Mount Cook.

3: There are still some beautiful old buildings in Christchurch. 4: Akaroa township.

5: Banks Peninsular from the scenic road around the ridge line.

1: Colourful salt flats near

Blenheim.

2: The Avon River in Christchurch.

3: Rather impressive crossing of the Waiau

River near Hanmer

Springs.

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purely tourism, visiting the areas I remembered and seeing how much they had changed, both with time and from the 2010 earthquake. It was all rather uneventful, except for another stormy night on our last night. This time the tent didn’t leak, but the wet pack-up wasn’t appreciated.

It was a very leisurely drive to our next stop, back at Hanmer Springs so that we could take the inland road to Kaikoura. We tried to take a few backroad deviations on the way up, and there although there were very few alternate routes to follow, we did find one that gave us a nice lunch spot on the side of a very quiet road, and one that took us through some interesting country. At the Hanmer Springs Top 10 we took advantage of the clearing weather to get the tent dry again and had another relaxing evening. The next day we backtracked a bit to take the inland route to Kaikoura, a very scenic route that had obviously been upgraded as part of the recovery from the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. Taking advantage of 4WD capability we dropped down a rough track into the bed of the Conway River for a scenic and undisturbed lunch before the final run back to the Top 10 at Kaikoura. We were now getting tired of the main road travel but needed one final day to get from Kaikoura to Picton, arriving on a glorious hot afternoon and pitching our tent in the shade of a large hedge for the last four nights of our holiday. After the long mainroad trip, we had plenty of back road trips planned for the rest of the holiday.

RETURN OF THE OFFROAD GRAND PRIX!