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A Weekend on Four Wheels By John Eichelsheim A Weekend on Four Wheels A planned weekend exploring some of the rivers and streams of the Ureweras seemed a good opportunity to arrange a gaggle of 4WD vehicles to get ourselves and our gear down the country and into where the fish would be biting. By swapping the vehicles around over the weekend, we were able to get a fair idea of each car's good points - mostly on the road, but also in places you'd hesitate to go with a 'normal' car. Since this is a fishing magazine, we thought it sensible to use the vehicles like a fisherperson would. On this occasion we dispensed with towing boats (the 'other' great reason for owning a 4WD) and decided to employ the cars to get us into some less accessible water that would have tested everyday road cars. Nothing extreme, just rough roads, muddy tracks, potholes and river crossings - standard fare for backcountry trout fishers. The adventure began with a Friday night dash down to Lake Aniwhenua, our base for the weekend. Four vehicles were involved: a Subaru Outback, a Suzuki Jimny, a Chrysler Jeep Cherokee and a Landrover Freelander. Most were loaded with at least two people and all the gear and food for a weekend of lake and river fishing, including a couple of inflatable boats (one with an outboard motor and fuel tank), waders, float tubes, rods, wet weather gear and more. Aniwhenua is a good three-and-a-half hour's drive from Auckland - 300-some kilometres in all. This meant the drivers had a good chance to assess the vehicles' on-road capabilities - the most important consideration for vehicles of this type, since they will spend most of their lives on the tarmac. The Subaru was the most car-like of the group and, not surprisingly, the most capable on the road. In every respect it drives just like a car and the 2.5-litre engine provides excellent performance. Although it boasts increased ground clearance over the standard Legacy, this has no noticeable effect on vehicle handling in normal driving conditions. Full-time four-wheel drive offers enhanced roadholding and safety advantages, particularly in wet or slippery conditions. The Subaru was the most heavily loaded of the four vehicles, thanks to its generous load space with the seats folded flat, and the amount of gear I decided to transport. The Suzuki Jimny was the smallest of the four vehicles, in engine capacity and overall dimensions. Despite this, it was the second most heavily laden of the group due to Mark Kitteridge's propensity for fishing tackle! With two adults and all their gear, including an inflatable boat and a float tube, the Jimny was loaded to the ceiling. While the passengers reported the cabin was somewhat cramped with rod tubes, nets and other fishing paraphernalia filling every space, including the space between driver and passenger, they still made good time and reported a comfortable enough trip down. For its size, the Suzuki is quite roomy but it's tall rather than wide, making it more difficult to pack efficiently. Mark commented on the ride (a bit bouncy at times) and that the Jimny in automatic form didn't have a lot left over for overtaking. With its short wheelbase and a 1300cc engine mated to a three-speed automatic gearbox (with overdrive), his comments were not unexpected. On the other hand, the Jimny gets along very nicely at the legal speed limit, is quite frugal with fuel and its bright and cheerful interior was comfortable for the whole three-and-a-half-hour trip. Compared to the Samurai it supersedes, it's positively luxurious and has the road manners to match. The Jeep Cherokee Sport 2.5 litre turbo-diesel surprised with its willing on-road performance and provided its occupants with a swift, fuel-efficient and comfortable ride to the lodge. This vehicle, too, was well loaded, but its bigger interior volume made for more comfortable cruising than the little Jimny was able to provide. There's less room in the Cherokee than you might think, though, especially with the spare wheel mounted inside the car. A stop at Lake Rerewhakaaitu was the first test for the Jeep's four-wheel-drive capability as Geoff and Ian bounced down an overgrown mud track to their chosen lakeside possie. As it turned out the Cherokee performed better than the anglers did, though Ian did manage one fish before midnight. The fourth vehicle was a new Landrover Freelander, lightly laden with Alistair, his photographic gear, and food and clothing for the weekend. Alistair experienced possibly the best trip down of all of us. Traffic was light, the Landrover has an excellent sound system, and it gave good economy from its 1800cc engine. Alistair enjoyed the drive, praising the seats, driving position and the car's on-road manners. The women in the party were unanimous in pronouncing the Freelander the most desirable and the Jimny the cutest - both important observations. Saturday dawned grey and cool with the promise of rain. The morning's activities involved a variety of nearby streams, exploring the top end of the lake and launching and testing the Zodiac inflatable carried down in the back of the Subaru. Each 'crew' went its separate way with plans to rendezvous back at the lodge at midday. In short, the stream fishers did better than the lake anglers and the boat fishers didn't even get afloat - a slight problem with the outboard. All of us caught some fish, though, and it was a happy bunch that met back at the lodge. By lunchtime the weather had definitely turned for the worse, but we were committed to a visit to the upper Whirinaki for photographs, four-wheel driving and fishing. The road into Minginui is a pleasant drive, but not when it's raining and especially not when most of it is subject to road works. Soon these first fifteen or twenty kays will be sealed, but we struck treacherous and slippery clay conditions in the midst of the sealing project - ideal conditions for 4WD. All four cars are either full time 4WD or have 'change on the fly', so there is no need to stop in order to engage four-wheel-drive. We'd swapped vehicles around, as we did throughout the weekend, so that everyone could get a feel for each of them and compare impressions. I drove the Subaru, Mark the Landrover, Alistair the Suzuki and Ian the Jeep. We made excellent progress in the slippery conditions, although all the cars were soon covered in a fine coating of clay. Four-wheel-drive is such an advantage in this type of driving. Grip and road holding is vastly superior to two-wheel-drive cars, and they feel so much more secure on the road. Beefed-up suspension and better ground clearance means that the occasional hole, rut, washout or rock fall is not the drama it can be in a conventional road car. Corrugations didn't bother any of the cars. Realistically, tackling rough back roads and adverse weather conditions are as serious as most 4WD owners will ever get. If you do a lot of that type of driving, it may be worth owning a 4WD for the security, versatility and ruggedness it offers. Certainly, all four we tried coped with the conditions easily and all of our drivers finally turned back onto tarmac with big grins on their faces. And that's another big part of the equation - fun. These cars are a lot of fun. A few more kays of sealed road took us to the old forestry camp and the beginning of the forestry tracks. Where necessary, 4WD was engaged once more and we went in search of interesting water. With all four vehicles in convoy, we investigated a number of river-access tracks before choosing one that ran parallel to the stream for quite a way before crossing over. The track itself wasn't too bad, although it required a few detours onto the wet grass and through low scrub to avoid the worst of the water-filled holes, but we stopped at the ford to check the river out. The Subaru has the least ground clearance of the group, so it was the vehicle we were most concerned about as the going got tougher. (Not that we'd experienced any difficulties so far with the transmission in 4WD-low-ratio, but I was aware of the Outback's considerable front and rear overhangs, compounded by a towbar. Nor did I want to fill the extremely comfortable and very new interior with water). As the vehicle I was most familiar with (I'd driven a petrol Cherokee for 18-months), the Jeep was nominated to test the water, so to speak. After a reconnaissance on foot, Geoff took the Jeep, in 4WD-low, through the ford (not too challenging at all), up the bank on the other side (rather more challenging) and on out of sight. Before we had the chance to bring the other cars through, he was back again to repeat the whole exercise, several times, in reverse as well as forward. It was clear he was having far too much fun, especially in the deeper section of the ford, which was strewn with big boulders. The Jeep's excellent ground clearance and good traction gave it a phenomenal ability to negotiate the slime-covered boulders. While Geoff fooled around in the river, we took the opportunity to position the rest of the cars in the ford for a photograph. The Suzuki showed equal aptitude in the slippery riverbed and it, too, was virtually unstoppable. Only the very largest of boulders threatened to compromise it, not through lack of traction, but because it finally runs out of ground clearance. I ended up perching the Suzuki on top of a big rock in the river for the shot. The last two cars took a while to position. The Freelander was at least as at home in the conditions as the first two, despite not being equipped with low-ratio. The riverbank exit was no contest and it, too, laughed at the boulders in the river. In 4WD first gear, it's possible to crawl along at a snail's pace, and entry and exit angles are good enough for serious four-wheel-driving. A high-tech traction control system controls the vehicle on steep descents and helps the Freelander negotiate slippery conditions. Not so the Subaru. Its low-ratio is much higher than the other vehicles here, so progress is less controlled. It suffers from lack of ground clearance in this sort of situation, too, and - although we negotiated the ford successfully (water just below the door seals) - I wasn't game to try the steep riverbank exit. The Subaru was parked in the shallowest, least rocky part of the ford for our photo. You'd think that all this to-ing and fro-ing would have sent any trout within miles rushing for cover. Not so, as David proved by hooking two fish in quick succession from the eye of the pool below the rapid in which the cars were parked. With the photos out of the way, we split up for some serious fishing. I took the Suzuki and explored a narrow track (it's ideal for this) that eventually petered out in a huge sinkhole next to a small tributary stream. Leaving the vehicle where it was. I splashed and crawled my way up the stream, fishing as I went. For the most part it was so overgrown that casting was impossible. Luckily, the spawning brown trout the stream was full of were too busy chasing each other to take much notice of me. Catching them was a simple matter of dapping the nymph off the rod tip. I caught and released four nice fish in less than hour, lost a couple more and spooked too many to count - great fishing. The others, too, enjoyed good fishing on rainbows and browns in the main river as the afternoon progressed. Intermittent drizzle had turned into steady rain by late afternoon and dusk settled early. If we thought the vehicles got dirty on the way in, it was nothing compared to how dirty they got on the way out! The next day dawned extremely wet. Any thoughts of serious exploration were put on hold and we modified our activities to encompass fishing closer to base. Several of the team motored a few kilometres down the Rangitaiki River to one of the feeder streams, which they hoped would still be running clear. I took my turn in the Freelander and drove it back to the lower Whirinaki; also hoping it would still be fishable. It was, just. We drove the Landrover up and down the quickly flooding river track before settling on a long run to fish. Leaving my partner comfortably ensconced in the vehicle, reading a magazine with the stereo on, we braved the pelting rain and started fishing the rising river. We fished for an hour before the water became too discoloured and high to continue. Each of us caught one fish, Ian a rainbow and me a brown, on the small glo-bugs we had finally changed to after drawing a blank with conventional nymphs. Megan drove the Freelander back, pronouncing it extremely desirable, while Ian and I enjoyed the comfort of the cabin. It's packed with clever little features, cubbyholes, map pockets, drink holders and more. Wet gear in the back (clever rear window-back door arrangement) and sensible mats inside. Back at the lodge the others were returning from their morning's fishing. Despite the worsening weather, they'd caught fish, on the stream and under the dam. A final photo shoot was planned for the afternoon, then the cars were hosed off, packed up and the trip back to Auckland began, via Lake Rerewhakaaitu and a last assault on the trout for the Jeep and the Landrover contingents. We had experienced an excellent weekend's fishing. The four loaned vehicles had been an integral part of our enjoyment and they allowed us to experience the range of fishing we enjoyed in two days. Wet, muddy conditions would have excluded conventional cars from some of the places we went, and I certainly wouldn't have risked a family sedan on the river crossings. All the cars were comfortable and quite capable on the road, particularly the Subaru and the Freelander, while all performed well in the rough (nothing between Jeep, Suzuki and Freelander). Load capacity was good in all cases, although the little Jimny was at a disadvantage because of its size, and the Jeep, Landrover and Subaru are capable tow vehicles. Around town, the Suzuki is fun, the Subaru indistinguishable from a car, the Jeep surprisingly nimble and the Freelander desirably drivable. But it's on metal back roads and tracks that these vehicles come into their own, and why they are so useful for fishermen who frequent these areas regularly. The fact that all of them will do a great deal more is probably irrelevant for most 4WD owners, including fishers, but it's nice to know you can if you have to. Vehicles supplied by:
Landrover Freelander by Roverland, Parnell, Auckland END |