The 4x4 Explorer story

I am writing this article sitting on my little 8.5m yacht in Auckland, where I have been for the last five weeks... I travelled up from the South Island to attend Fieldays at Mystery Creek and to set-up a dealership network for Maxtrax and Bushman fridges, for which I am the exclusive New Zealand importer.

I guess that we all knew that Covid was going to “escape” at some stage, but I was pretty surprised with how quickly it happened, and found myself stuck in Auckland without even the possibility to take the boat out for a sail.

It’s fair to say that I’ve had plenty of time on my own to reflect, and reading former editor Ross Mackay’s last “message from the editor” in the September edition got me thinking about how much has changed over the last three years for me, and what an incredible journey it has been.

For those of you who don’t know, as well as writing articles here, I also import Maxtrax and Bushman fridges, run 4x4Explorer and have 4x4Explorer Adventures which is a 4WD guiding business in the South Island. 

The creation of 4x4Explorer took place in 2018, the year that I sold my house in Auckland, and came about after a chance meeting with my business partner on a mountain in Central Otago a few years prior. Funny how fate has a habit of dealing the cards.

After selling the house, I had the truck signwritten and headed off on a six-month trip around New Zealand which took me all the way up to Cape Reinga and as far south as Bluff. This was an amazing experience! Sure, the scenery was amazing, but I was so pleased at how the 4X4Explorer message had got out and how many amazing people I met along the way, many of whom have become great friends. I know that I say it a lot, but the main reason that I own a 4WD is to get to amazing places and meet amazing people.

During this time, on a particularly miserable cold day in April, I also bumped into the well known author and guide Mark Wilson at Potters Hut, on the Old Man Range. This was another chance meeting that was going to lead places a year or so later.

With winter fast approaching and my kids living in Europe, I decided that I was going to return to France, my home of nearly 20 years, buy, build a truck and spend some time rediscovering the Alps and the Pyrenees. I bought a 2004 Shogun, or Pajero here in New Zealand, in the UK and headed off to France. 

The trip was amazing, if not plagued by breakdowns, which were largely due to my haste in wanting to get away and not having my new acquisition fully checked out before departure. An important lesson learned!

Within 24 hours in France, my French was back to bilingual standard and with the many breakdowns, I realised how easy everything is in New Zealand and the reason why I had left France... In summary, in France the answer is “no”, before you’ve even asked the question. Frustration reigned, but with every breakdown came a silver lining and many new friendships were made, which still endure today.

After nearly nine months exploring in Europe, it was time to come home. I left the Shogun with a new friend who I had met for 20 minutes in a beer tent at a 4WD show in the UK and headed back. Might sound a bit risky, but we are both ex-military and formed an immediate bond. Jon has been looking after the truck for two years now and I am totally confident that she’s in good hands waiting for me to return one day.

On returning, the first person who I called was Mark Wilson. By this stage, the 4X4Explorer brand was gathering pace and I wanted to talk to Mark about combining his 4WDSouth guiding business with 4x4Explorer. We met for a coffee and he was extremely receptive and so 4X4Explorer Adventures was born. Mark and I now run the business together and love sharing our passion for exploring and sharing our country’s back roads with fun people. We’re into our second season and have certainly been held back by Covid, but with a 90 per cent return rate, we’re doing something right. We are both passionate about sharing our knowledge and taking people to amazing places.

After only having been back in the country for a few months and looking for a house in Christchurch, the first round of Covid hit. I had been up the Wilberforce for a few days, and when I came out and into telephone reception, the whole world had changed... There was a story of a young guy tramping, who came out at Glenorchy expecting to hitch a ride to Queenstown, only to find that the country was closed. I think the police ended up giving him a lift to the airport in Queenstown...

Not knowing if this was going to be the black death or worse, I decided to head to Marahau on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. I’m pretty much a local there and it’s the end of the road, so seemed like a safe place to hunker down during the storm.

As soon as lockdown was over, I headed down to Central Otago, to meet up with my good friend Jono, prolific YouTuber and owner of the Lost Sheep Adventures channel. We spent two very cold but enjoyable weeks travelling and filming promotional videos for my ventures and a couple for his channel. I was also really pleased to have taken a photo of him in front of the camera, which made the front cover of this magazine. More luck than skill...

Last summer was taken up with guiding and trips with friends new and old. New Zealand is small, with two degrees of separation and the Overlanding community is even smaller. I have met so many good friends in Europe and here through guiding and random trips. It’s really a great way to meet people and explore what we have here on our doorstep. 

I have many friends, like me, who have Overlanded all over the world and we all agree that what we have here is truly special.

You can find links to all my articles on the NZ4WD website, which will give you more information on all the adventures that I have mentioned.

As always, I hope that you have enjoyed the read and hopefully meet you out there doing what we enjoy. If you see us, please come and say hello. That’s why we do it! Stay safe and here’s to a great summer of Exploring ahead...