The Auckland area has a dearth of off-road possibilities but it is still possible to find some interesting back road byways within easy reach of Jafa Land.
With the promise of a Holden Captiva for the weekend it was time to plan out an interesting route that could be done easily as a day trip.
Being based on the North Shore it made sense to head north into the Rodney area. So with a basic plan in place (which involved an element of follow our noses) we headed off on a rather wet and overcast Saturday morning.
First we took a brief detour via Riverhead and Kumeu to pick up a friend and navigator before heading to the start point for the trip at Warkworth, which is a great gateway to a number of interesting destinations.
A late start did at least see the weather improve with the clouds and rain clearing a bit to make the day more pleasant.
On the road run from home to Warkworth on some wet and greasy tar seal roads we gained a generally good impression. The test vehicle was a CX spec model, with the 2-litre common-rail turbo diesel engine.
The CX is the mid specification level for Captiva, with SX below and the LX above. A 3.2-litre Alloytec petrol V6 engine is also available. The CX is basically the SX with different alloy wheels and a third row seat making it a seven seater.
The design is modern and pleasing on the eye with good proportions and a nice rounded profile, while the prominent wheel arches with plastic extenders help give an aggressive stance.
The interior is also modern and well laid out with a very distinctive pistol grip style hand brake lever. On tar seal the vehicle rides fairly firmly but not uncomfortably. It did feel a bit tippy toe on the wet tar seal, but it was reassuring to know that there were ABS and ESP electronics if you did go a bit too fast.
The load area was vast and easily ate up a camera bag and basic set of recovery gear.
While Warkworth is itself an interesting town, today it was only the turn-off to head towards the coast.
There are a variety of routes.  Veer south to explore the Mahurangi peninsula area, or do as we did and head for Matakana.
There are a number of vineyards with nice eateries along the way and Matakana itself has become a bit of a tourist town with its farmers market on Saturday mornings drawing a lot of people.
There’s also the Morris and James pottery, Matakana theatre and a range of restaurants, cafes and craft shops to add to the appeal.
We decided to stop for lunch and chose the Rusty Penguin which had a great kids’ play area, a fire  and yummy seafood chowder – perfect for a cold winter’s day.
Fed and watered we then headed towards Omaha, turning off again to drive out to one of the ARC’s crown jewels – Tawharanui Regional Park.
About half the drive is a gravel road (although a pretty smooth one) and as you get further along there are some great views out to sea to the north and south of the peninsula.
The park itself is run as an open sanctuary and is on the north side of the peninsula and comprises farmland and forest which includes puriri and kauri trees. The park has sea on three sides including a good surf beach.
There is a camping area, campervan parks, numerous walks and picnic areas. While the park could well entertain all day we planned to do a circuit of the area to see what else there is so we turned around and headed back towards Leigh and then headed north to Cape Rodney and Pakiri.
If Matakana was too early for lunch you could try the renowned sawmill café at Leigh.
The Cape Rodney area has a lot of interesting side road off shoots – most of which are short gravel roads providing some great views out to sea including Little Barrier and the Hen and Chicken Islands.
Our main destination was the Goat Island marine reserve which provides some awesome snorkelling or glass bottom boat experiences in summer - but today was a bit stormy and cold to tempt us even slightly.
This was New Zealand’s first marine reserve formed in 1975 so is well established and teeming with fish, which are so tame they will eat from the hands of snorkellers. There are also some interesting coastal walks starting from the Goat Island reserve.
Given the inclement weather we decided to get back on the road to head towards Pakiri, and after a bit more tar seal we hit gravel again and now it was getting a bit rougher and twistier.
Pakiri is a big long sandy beach backed by a large dune area. This does mean a bit of a hike to get to the beach, with no vehicle access to the dunes – in fact the car park at Pakiri had more “you can’t do” signs in one place than I have ever seen. Guess it says something about our local officials’ mind set when they are hell bent on preventing people doing things in public places rather than trying to facilitate as many activities as possible.
Pakiri is also well known for horse trekking either on the beach or over the surrounding farm land and hills (see travel information on page 14).
Now that we were getting onto more interesting roads we got a chance to consider how the Captiva handled these conditions. Although the ride was firm on smoother roads, the Captiva handled the rougher stuff well, insulating the occupants from the worst of the bumps and corrugations.
Handling on the gravel was also sure-footed and stable although the front wheel bias of the 4WD system was noticeable (it is an automatic 4WD system that drives only the front wheels until slippage is detected when drive is progressively added to the rear).
The five-speed automatic gearbox is smooth and the ratios seem well chosen, with a manual override if required. The 2-litre common rail engine delivers 110 kW at 4,000 rpm and 320 Nm at 2,000 rpm.
The power is best described as adequate,while  torque is reasonable but it gets a bit breathless as the revs get up. The diesel has official fuel consumption figures of 8.7 litres/100km compared to 11.5 for the petrol version - although the gauge did seem to go down fairly quickly indicating that this style of back road touring on twisty roads is fairly hard on fuel use.
The driver’s seat was comfortable and the stereo helped keep the occupants entertained.
Our topomap and GPS showed an interesting track along the edge of the Mangawhai forest from Lake Tomorata (well worth a look in itself as a nice coastal lake) but when we headed down it the track seemed to have vanished and there was just a locked gate so we had to do a U-turn back to the main Ocean View road (still gravel).
Our penultimate destination was another interesting-looking (at least on the map) side track to Te Arai point. It was rapidly approaching darkness when we headed down here but with the wind and surf the views along the beach were well worth the drive and there was a short piece of off-road track which got you up above the car park for even better views.
Unfortunately due to the rain and the road tyres on the Captiva we couldn’t quite make it but the Captiva’s HDC (Hill Descent Control) came in handy when backing off. I am sure the vehicle could have made it but there was a badly-placed mound part way up and some risk of damaging sills which convinced us not to try too hard.
With darkness fast closing in we headed off to Mangawhai to have dinner with some friends before returning to Auckland on the main road via Wellsford.
This was definitely an interesting ramble, even given the less than ideal weather and the rapid closing in of darkness aided by the cloud cover. It was nice in winter but would be even nicer in summer with opportunities for swimming, snorkelling or surfing, not to mention a multitude of art and craft shops, a huge choice and variety of eateries and some great scenery.
The Captiva proved to be a very capable and comfortable vehicle for a trip such as this. While we can and do take modern soft-road vehicles such as the Captiva well off-road, most owners are more inclined to use them more for back country touring with the odd side trip to a picnic spot or along a rutted track.
The stronger suspension, ride height and stability make them ideally suited to this style of back country touring. This is aided by generous load carrying abilities compared to most cars, a higher seating position for better visibility and usually longer range from larger fuel tanks.
The Captiva sits well among its peers in the mid to larger soft road SUV category. Certainly the design is very modern and it is easy and comfortable to drive. A bit more power would be nice but it is not disgraced and trim levels seem pretty comprehensive (and if you want more features such as climate air and leather there is the LX model).     *