The Old Man Range for the old man’s birthday

After a winter of trip cancellations due to torrential rain, flooding, track closures, and two “one-in-one-hundred year” storms, our little family was ready to get out of town. We didn’t manage one overnight 4WD trip between June and October due to mother nature’s tantrums and the apparently mandatory presence at work, so our planned 10-day exploration around Otago and Southland had us fizzing the whole month of November. Scott, the proud owner of our occasionally trusty Pajero, was also turning the big four-oh during the trip, a milestone perhaps not eagerly anticipated but certainly worth celebrating, so cold food was kept at a minimum to ensure plenty of room for beer in the fridge. (By the way, if anyone in your life is turning a significant number and you need a gift idea – the 4WD fridge is it. Game-changer. So good.)

While the second half of our holiday would be in Queenstown, meeting friends to ride bikes and relax, the first five days involved taking the (extremely) scenic way to get there. Because of the multi-activity nature of our trip, the Paj was packed to the absolute hilt with roof box crammed