The idea was simple. Go to New Zealand, get a truck and travel around living inside it.

My name is Johny Cook and my fiancé Kirsty and I are from Inverness in Scotland.

With neither Kirsty nor I particularly mechanically minded our plan once we landed in Auckland was  to buy some sort of vehicle (a truck preferably) which we could travel around the country in.

This resulted in us buying the not so well researched 1994 Mazda Proceed Marvie along with all its little quirks at the Ellerslie Car Fair.

After a brief excursion north to sample the delights of 90 Mile Beach our plan was to gradually head south, first to Rotorua to meet up with some friends. 

This quickly changed when I was asked to shoot a mountain bike race in Dunedin in three weeks’ time.  So the first part of our trip was going to be more of a rush than anticipated.

Before arriving here, people had described New Zealand to us as being ‘Scotland on steroids’ and that is absolutely what it is, particularly the South Island - bigger mountains, bluer lakes and a sunnier climate. 

Driving around both the North and South Islands, we got a real feel for the difference between them. 

Of course our plans didn’t always go the way we wanted them to. However, touring around New Zealand in a 4WD has let us give into our curiosity of what could potentially be down a terrible looking road. 

Most of the time we just end up navigating in and out of potholes that feel like craters, and making waves through puddles hoping to see something spectacular.  Sometimes we don’t find anything and just enjoy the drive.  Other times we are brought to a spectacular scene, which can also turn out to be a good place to camp. 

To read the full story in the December 2016 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (November 21) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.