Our north-South challenge is getting some traction

Joanne Morley sent us this month’s Opening Shot among a whole raft of images from northern trails, a cool ‘out there’ pic off the Taupō-Napier highway.

In the same upload was this tunnel shot. She says it’s her favourite, from the spooky tunnels of the old Whanga Road track. This is not a place to take an urban SUV – the entry and exits are chopped out and in wet weather are lakes of mud. For real, old-school 4WDs not scared of a bit of mess though, it is pure heaven.

Our winner for the month, though, is Fin Yeates’ cool shot of his Nissan Patrol in its natural element: muddy trails near Ohakune. The central North Island is a recreation, leisure and adventure mecca, with many 4WD trails to explore and towns like Ohakune and Raetihi for mid-adventure refuelling – great coffee and eats. NZ4WD is keen to go have a look around the national park in the near future, and in the meantime Taupo local Fin has hinted that he and his mates have more great images he can tempt us with over the coming months.