Hosted by the Dargaville-based Kauri Coast 4WD Club, the Kauri Coast Safari is limited to 40 vehicles which are put into teams. While it is a 4WD safari, it is also a social event which gets all participants together each evening, making it very special and certainly family orientated.

The latest Safari (Jan 2016) started with everyone gathering at the Te Kopuru School south of Dargaville.

The first day saw a very early start down to Pouto at the Kaipara harbour entrance. We then continued up Bayleys Beach (Ripiro Beach), the longest driveable beach in New Zealand at 107kms, before a ‘road trip’ to Rawene and the ferry crossing  to Kohukohu and the local school for the first overnight stop.

Overnight it rained meaning a revised plan for the second day through flooded roads to Ahipara then a trip up Ninety Mile Beach to Huketere.

Next day would be a more relaxing day while on day four there was the compulsory group photo before heading to Ninety Mile Beach again and the trip to Cape Reinga. 

Unfortunately day five’s long anticipated off-road sections had to be cancelled as the tracks were still treacherous after Monday’s storm, resulting in another  ‘road trip’ this time  to Oromahoe for the last night’s stopover.

Luckily on the final day we managed to get some real four-wheel-driving in with a very nice and appealing farm and bush drive which had just the right amount of challenges. 

To read the full story in the March 2016 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (on sale February 22) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.