The long way home…

Dave Hansford

Forum Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2020
Messages
119
Location
New Zealand
Car Year
2008
Car Model
Outback
Transmission
4EAT
So we’ve been getting some pretty obnoxious weather here in Aotearoa lately, and yesterday it gave me a reason to be thankful all over again that we own a Subaru. I‘d just wound up an assignment at Karamea, a remote hamlet on the northern west coast, faced with a four and half hour drive back to Nelson, when my wife called just on dark to say the state highway had been closed by a massive boulder-fall just west of Murchison. It happened at a critical choke point. There was only one possible detour besides driving halfway down the South Island, and it still needed about 120 kilometres of night driving in torrential rain to reach the start of it.

I finally arrived at the highway I needed, to find cones, flashing lights, and a ute parked across the road. I walked up to a guy in hi-vis, and told him I wanted to drive north to a little-known bush track called the Maruia Saddle, which traverses a string of minor creek crossings, that would bring me out on the homeward side of the rockfall.

And then, I had to listen to it all over again, and I’m sure you’ve all had to as well… how Maruia was a “really hairy” track, and how guys with “real 4wds” had come through that night, talking about how tough it had been. “And they were in much more capable vehicles than yours.”

I explained that I’d done that track several times in this very car, and that it was more capable than he might think. Anyway… he let me through, muttering something about “at your own risk.” The Outback sauntered over the Maruia, as I knew it would, and I finally got home after seven hours of driving, shattered but smiling at the little car that could - the one that got me home while thousands of others were looking for motels for the night.

But I do get tired of the patronising comments, the smirks and the lectures from people who think a ”capable” vehicle has to have three feet of ground clearance and monster tyres. It does show, though, the corrosive effect of those ridiculous TV ads for Ford Rangers and Jeep Cherokees, and how driver experience, judgement and ability never seems to enter the equation as long as something has a bullbar and driving lights the size of woks.

Anyway… that was a bit of a rant, but if you made it this far, thanks for letting me get it off my chest!
 
Good onya......
Some 15 or so years ago I found a little unnamed dirt road going from near Wollombi heading east over the hills to end up in Newcastle. I had not been on it before but thought what the heck and set off.......
I was flagged down by a local a few Kms in and he informed me much the same as you were told.
It turned out to be, this was wet but daytime, a delightful slow drive, potholed and slippery, narrow and twisty but so scenic. A few large rocks and hills but easy for a real All Wheel Drive!!!
Kevin probably knows this one as well. It`s in his, sort of, territory.
Sadly a lot of 4WD ads depict too much machismo and speed, none of which is necessary but obviously appeals to some, as well as potentially destroying a vehicle.
In my limited experience most tracks are drivable, just some may require a little spade work.
 
Exactly. Every time this has happened - and it happens a lot - it’s always come from someone who clearly has few clues about the art and science of off/rough-road driving, and presumes I don’t have the wit to recognise a stretch that’s beyond the capabilities of the Outback and simply turn around. I’d love a dollar for every time someone’s told me: “you won’t get through in that thing.” Or at least to bump into them again at the other end…
 
Another "you`ll never make it story". Last one I promise but this turned out to be correct.
I was living in the UK at the time, mid 1970`s, when a few of us friends hired a Ford Cortina Wagon to make a trip to Scotland in mid winter.....
Slowly crawling down a steepish hill in first gear into a small snow surrounded village an upcoming Landrover emitted a strong Scottish voice saying something directed to us. Incomprehensible at the time.
It wasn`t until we attempted to drive out that we all realised what the message was.........
Something along the lines of, in a strong brogue, "ye`ll ne`er geeet oot".
Not wrong, some kind person towed us back up the hill.
 
😆 From now on, whenever anyone says to me: “you’ll never make it”, I intend to reply: “well, not with THAT attitude”…
 
Bill_P said:
Well done Dave. In the bush I’ve had people come over to tell me how irresponsible I was to be there in “that thing”. 🤔
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I think that says way more about them than it does about you, Bill…
 
We should have a dedicated thread for this topic.

Latest awd vs real 4wd I had was a stand off last weekend. In the blue mountains driving down a narrow dirt road. Real 4wd coming the other way, we could not pass each other. The husband and wife in thier land cruiser safari just sat there looking at us as if to say my car is bigger and it's a real 4wd so you have to backup. So I drove around them up the enbankment on a short flat rocky area and back on to the road. I was about to yell out my window "that my f'n friends is how it's f'n done" but my wifey said "no darling don't say anything ".
 
temmah said:
We should have a dedicated thread for this topic.

Latest awd vs real 4wd I had was a stand off last weekend. In the blue mountains driving down a narrow dirt road. Real 4wd coming the other way, we could not pass each other. The husband and wife in thier land cruiser safari just sat there looking at us as if to say my car is bigger and it's a real 4wd so you have to backup. So I drove around them up the enbankment on a short flat rocky area and back on to the road. I was about to yell out my window "that my f'n friends is how it's f'n done" but my wifey said "no darling don't say anything ".
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Exactly right, but ignoring the (usually) good advice from one's SWMBO is potentially more perilous.
 
temmah said:
We should have a dedicated thread for this topic.

Latest awd vs real 4wd I had was a stand off last weekend. In the blue mountains driving down a narrow dirt road. Real 4wd coming the other way, we could not pass each other. The husband and wife in thier land cruiser safari just sat there looking at us as if to say my car is bigger and it's a real 4wd so you have to backup. So I drove around them up the enbankment on a short flat rocky area and back on to the road. I was about to yell out my window "that my f'n friends is how it's f'n done" but my wifey said "no darling don't say anything ".
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I heard "somewhere" that it is generally accepted that down yields ROW to up. I do not think that this is a written road rule but the three unwritten rules of "Courtesy, Consideration and Common Sense" SHOULD come into play. Always drive to prevailing conditions.
 
Subarus effectively and routinely undermine the value proposition of the so called “real 4wd” set. If I had spent >$100k on a LC and half as much again on ARB extras, and then found to my chagrin that a Subaru was able to access the same location but with superior comfort and economy, then yeah. I might be pissed off.
 
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Bill_P said:
Subarus effectively and routinely undermine the value proposition of the so called “real 4wd” set. If I had spent >$100k on a LC and half as much again on ARB extras, and then found to my chagrin that a Subaru was able to access the same location but with superior comfort and economy, then yeah. I might be pissed off.
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This even happens to us in the Outback. Just when I’m congratulating myself on a successful traverse of some goat track, a couple of students rock up in a Mazda Demio….
 
Ha ! The best “4wd” I ever had was a Ford Falcon 2wd wagon. Company car. Flogged it! It went anywhere and everywhere!
 
Once sitting at the bottom of a SERIOUS 4WD-ONLY downhill-only switchback track with a bunch of other "serious"
4WD-ers and a couple in a VW beetle came cruising down the track. They didn't even know it was a 4WD track -- seemed fine to them!
 
So glad to see you guys dirtin' like before!

Dave Hansford said:
t does show, though, the corrosive effect of those ridiculous TV ads for Ford Rangers and Jeep Cherokees, and how driver experience, judgement and ability never seems to enter the equation as long as something has a bullbar and driving lights the size of woks.
Click to expand...

ateday said:
Sadly a lot of 4WD ads depict too much machismo and speed, none of which is necessary but obviously appeals to some, as well as potentially destroying a vehicle.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. Having sold my Forester 8 months ago, I just noticed that many people here in AKL soup up their newish trucks/utes a bit too much but with low profile aggressive tyres. Then I looked outside of NZ and even in South-east Asia, it's the same theme. Of course, I don't care what they do with their vehicles but it just came to me that the souping-up is just a trend at the moment which may or may not soon die down once their vehicles get old and maintenance costs start to climb up. It's more like the accesorisation is done just for the looks. I hate to say it but it seems like it. I even saw souped up proper overlanding setups with all the RTT, illegal lifts, etc. A tourer, like us, knows that we remove whatever we don't need off the roof, especially when were driving in the city.

E: The scary thing about those souped-up utes is that....they are RWD! :eek:

Dave Hansford said:
😆 From now on, whenever anyone says to me: “you’ll never make it”, I intend to reply: “well, not with THAT attitude”…
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Totally agree. As above, it seems like gadgetism/consumerism to me. It's more like a right of passage. You have to have such and such in order for you to be such and such. Welp, owning a guitar doesn't make one a guitarist.

Bill_P said:
Ha ! The best “4wd” I ever had was a Ford Falcon 2wd wagon. Company car. Flogged it! It went anywhere and everywhere!
Click to expand...
Yes, it's similar to what Jeremy Clarkson says in his NZ visit with a rented Toyota Corolla, "Rental cars are the most off-road capable cars in the world."
 
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