Wheels at Wanaka

Having immersed himself in promoting the presence of the reborn and repurposed Series 1 Land Rover, known as Oxford, Auckland-based marque stalwart Kevin Isemonger wasn’t really looking forward to making the long haul south for the iconic vehicle’s ‘last hurrah’ here, at the big Wheels at Wanaka motor show over the Easter weekend. His attitude changed, however, when he heard that mates from the Land Rover Series 1 Enthusiasts were planning a return trip back up the West Coast. This is the story of what turned out to be a truly epic 10 days of 4WDing old and new from Auckland in the North to Wanaka in the south and a hell of a lot of random points in between.

And so, after a veritable flurry of emails (and credit card transactions) I was booked ad ready, leaving my home at Clevedon, southeast of Auckland at 9:00am on Saturday March 21, reaching Wellington at 4:30pm and changing my car-ferry ticket from Sunday morning to Early Sunday morning which landed me in Picton at 06:30am – in heavy rain.

Unfortunately, I had accidently left the fridge on overnight, which drained the Defender’s battery to nothing, which was not a good start to what was a massive day on the road. Compulsory stops every two hours works for me, however, and I made Wanaka in time for Dinner at Rod and Anne Corbett’s place on Sunday evening.

Monday 29 March

Due to the methodology for transporting Oxford around the country, I had not had time to really give it a good look over – but today was the day and I finally got to do so in Rod Corbett’s shed in Wanaka. What a dream come true to have the privilege of working on the most famous Land Rover in the world!

First up I had a play with the steering. It was really heavy, so I popped the ball-joint on the drag link and