GREAT DRIVES More than just the destination

A decade or so ago, Mercedes-Benz launched a new model into the local market and, as part of the promotion for it, ran a competition asking Kiwis to nominate a Great Drive in this land of ours. As I had been publishing this magazine already for 10 years or more I had a pretty fair idea about which drives would be popular and I pretty much got the Top Ten right and in order.

My role in all of this was then to take this new Merc’ and go and drive over the selected routes selection – a job I found no job at all as I am at my happiest with a tankful of gas and the open road ahead.

So I spent a month driving the Kaikōura Coast Road, the Coromandel Peninsula, Kaitaia to Cape Rēinga, etc.

In all fairness, those roads are pretty well known, but if you put aside preconceived ideas, your satellite navigation and rely on eyes, instinct and an old-fashioned book of road maps, you can have some spellbinding drives in this country without getting lost.

I may have already told you, I find satellite navigation so instructive that I tend to just drive to the destination, almost in a daze and never really ‘turn off ’ when I see an intriguing road sign and do any exploring.

And this nation is compact enough and with a relatively small roading network that even if you do get bamboozled, simply by being aware of which direction is north you will soon untangle yourself. If there is a little advice I can give you, don’t be afraid to turn off main roads and follow your nose. I promise you won’t end