99 Rivers would be a group experience first and foremost, focusing as much on the people who love 4WDing as the actual 4WDing itself. The adventure would blend 15 days of the South's absolute best 4x4 trails, remote destinations and interesting diversions with awesome accommodation, dining, good wines and terrific company. 

While many of us do still like to camp out now and again,  on 99 Rivers even Glamping was going to be out.  And even if the trails would not be truly hard-core and for the most part mud free they would still be 'interesting' enough with, as the name suggests, plenty of river crossings and suited to capable and well equipped ‘shinies.’  

The trip was advertised in the hope that 'if I built it they would come'.  'Turned out I was right.

In January 2016, nine like-minded couples from both North and South Islands (including a delightful couple from Turkey!) all sharing an enthusiasm for 4WDing, more particularly 'overlanding', met up in Marlborough for the start of our 15-day South Island adventure.

A month or so before departure the route itinerary was distributed and each couple was assigned at least one day where they would be lead vehicle for that day.  They would doubtless Google up on the history or interesting facts of that part of the country we would be passing through on their day at the helm.  More importantly they would be Entertainment Officers for that day. 

This sacred duty was only loosely defined and was left to them to determine what they did to make things entertaining, or at the very least interesting. This idea proved an ideal way for everyone to get involved and be part of the team effort and helped develop the resulting unity that ultimately made the adventure so special for all.  It was also bloody funny.

Also, as might be predicted, 99 Rivers was a quest of particular attraction to 'River Spotters'.  Trip rules prescribed that a river may be added to the official count provided;

• It must be crossed
• It must be named, either on the bridge if crossing by road or on the map if wheels wet, and carry the title ‘River’ in its published name, and
• It could only be counted once (otherwise, after the Macetown leg we'd have had maybe 99 Arrow Rivers listed, let alone all the other repeats).

Streams and Creeks, while far more numerous, definitely wet and often possessing delightfully intriguing names - Isis Stream in the Molesworth (who knew?) or Roaring Swine Creek in South Westland, spring to mind.  But they are not 'Rivers' as such and thus did not count.   However, since we were there we recorded them anyway, just for hell of it. I bet you'll never guess how many Rivers we counted.

To read the full story in the October 2016 issue of NZ4WD go to Ziniocom (September 26) or purchase your own hard copy