Hello all,
Another kiwi here from Auckland (Christchurch bloodstock though )
I have have a couple Land Rovers in my life, starting off with a series three and moving onto my current 110.
I am in the process of completing a 5 year rebuild/upgrade on the said 110. Hopefully by the time its finished i will be able to head
back down south and check out a few of the trails.

GrumpyGel said:

How many of us are there here?
I'm in Chch with my trusty Freelander and project SIII.

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Hi everyone from Wellington,

We replaced our Hilux Surf with an '05 Freelander TD4 in June 2015, so relatively new to owning a Land Rover. However, LR is frozen into my psyche - I drove the (in)famous NZ Army petrol V8s for years until their replacement with Pinzgauer in the mid-2000s, so am loving heated seats vs memories of detaching the engine bleed air inlet hose (aka 'cabin heating') and sticking it up the sleeve of my Swandri to stave off Waiouru frostbite.

Annoyingly, we're now tempted to upgrade to a Freelander 2...

Hello from Argentina,
I'll be with my family touring the North Island of New Zealand in a motorhome. In argnetina I am a new user of a Disc 1 300Tdi 1998. Perhaps be lucky enough to meet some landrovers in your country.
If anyone can recommend me places to visit please mail it to me envpia marceloratner@yahoo.com.ar, or just to chat.
hug

Hi Marcelo,

Hope you enjoy your trip to NZ, we hired campers when the kids were small and its good fun - very big and tiresome vehicles to drive around (especially in towns/cities) and a hire car and accommodation is much more practical & usually cheaper - but they are fun.

My suggestion for places to visit.... the South Island

Hello to all....especially those in the SI. Hope you are all well and have not been adversely affected by the earthquake. Each time I have driven around those sheer rock bluffs on the Kaikoura road, I have tried to remove from my mind any thought of what would happen if there should be a quake. Seeing the recent pictures I somehow feel the drag around through Murchison to go south, is no chore at all.

Good luck to all and look after those Land rovers. They may come in handy.

Cheers

Hi @Vicar haven't heard of any LZ members in any trouble - but they could quite likely still be without power and internet.

Unfortunately a lot of what makes NZ such a wonderful place also makes it a very dangerous place if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. SH1 through North Canterbury, the Hundalees and the Kaikoura coast is spectacular - but it has been created that way through millennia of earthquakes - its not to surprising another came along this week! It will be a very long time before any of us can drive it again. I haven't got a clue how they will get road access to Kaikoura - presumably they will pick the easiest of the SH1 North/South or Inland road through Lyford/Waiau to fix and go for that, then worry about the other places. Huge obstacles to fix though not just the massive slips, there are plenty of bridges out (if any of them in the region can still be used).

I'm not so sure the Nelson, Murchison, Lewis route is much of a safer option. The Murchison quake of 1929 did some mega damage. I think that was the first quake to take down parts of Christchurch Cathedral and it was 250km away!

Hello Grumpy...good to hear you are ok.

It is certainly a mess down there. I am wondering if it would be an idea to go down once the ferry situation is sorted and join any volunteer group that may get set up. Pack the camping gear in the 90 and trundle down. It isn't as though i have never gone south via Murchison and Reefton before now. It would be a bugger if the windy road up and over south of Seddon is compromised. There is a bloody steep drop off there.

I can swing a hammer, use a chainsaw, drive a tractor etc. I have had some association with farming. Still one must await how things pan out and move from there.

After the Chch quakes we were fine over this side of town (broken windows, cracked brickwork etc but nothing serious), so I threw a barrow and spades in the back of the Freelander and headed off over to the East side of town. Drove around till I came across someone digging the liquefaction out of their property and stopped to give a hand.

Somehow I think the sort of problems this latest quake has created can not be fixed by the volunteer army. They need heavy equipment and expertise to clear the 100,000 slips, fill in the cracks (and level) the roads and repair bridges.

Having said that, if you did turn up with hammer and chainsaw - I'm sure there would be very appreciative people

That is a long twisty climb near Seddon. IIRC it is fairly new roading, only put in in the last 10 years.

Gday landies. Been on lrzone for years but didn't know of this little sub forum until grumpy pointed me in the right direction.

I've a Freeby1 2004 td4 auto HSE owned from new that made trip with me from brightly in 2010.

We're out Rolly way.

bikerguy34 said:

Gday landies. Been on lrzone for years but didn't know of this little sub forum until grumpy pointed me in the right direction.

I've a Freeby1 2004 td4 auto HSE owned from new that made trip with me from brightly in 2010.

We're out Rolly way.

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Hi, I think this bit of LZ was created after the "new" website went live.

Ouch - you had a quick welcome to Rolly then - assuming you settled before Sept! Quite bad timing that!

Hope you're enjoying NZ. We've been here since 2003 and have managed to make it work. We were helped initially by having family here but have a good circle of friends now.

We are now settled and happy. We were at Heathrow on 4th sept. That was our emigration day !
Arrived into Chch to aftershocks and nowhere to live as rentals which were previously plentiful dried up. We eventually found one in Rolly, kids started school here, and when we looked to purchase we didn't venture too far from the friends we had already made.
Tempted to get a defender before they become silly money but I kinda know the freebie inside out now. Not too costly to run providing you can wait for pars from uk. No vat often offsets the carriage. Sometimes I have the parts in my hand cheaper than if I'd bought in uk (and had to pay vat)
I've given the freelander plenty of stick off road and it's surprisingly capable if you don't need big ground clearances (I once smashed the sump on an alpine day trip miles from anywhere) and nearly had it float away wading through a river
The mechanics are pretty sound providing you keep on top of the maintenance. I've been OCD with this, but those that don't seem to think it's a lemon when it lets them down.
I won't be selling mine and on a crusade to see how many miles I can get it to do!

Joined up to this today...



Organised by the 'NZ LR & RR Forums" on Facebook. They have FB groups for RR/Disco and Defender/Series/Perentie. I'm in the Freelander/DSport/Evoque https://www.facebook.com/groups/NZ.Freelanders/

Anyone going or interested in going?

"Kaikōura Road Trip"

This trip is designed to help the people out in Kaikōura and surrounding areas.
The date won't change so pencil this in.
Ok so the plan at this stage is : convoy from Belfast sat morning, head to Waipara springs winnery for a wine tasting $5.00 per person. Head to Waiau, lunch at the waiau hotel if temp hotel is up and running by then. Other wise lunch back at Waipara springs. Head to kaikoura via the inland route. Arrive and check in to the peketa camping ground. Free time go and visit Kaikōura leave the seal colony till Sunday morning and we will do it as a group event.
Sat night is fish and chips night back at the camping ground as well as a few drinks.
Sunday morning check out at 10.00 am. Head to the seal colony, farmers market in town if still running. I have arranged an early lunch at Donegal house just out of Kaikōura heading north. After lunch will hopefully have a track to drive down. Convoy home after that.

We also have some sponsorship so a prize donated by Hooked 4x4 (Mitch Chester) will be given away, good stuff Mitch and thank you.

Will leave from the Pegasus tavern Belfast on Saturday.

I have sorted accommodation at the peketa camping ground. At the moment all the cabins are available. The cabins range in size and can sleep from 2 – 5. The beds have a bottom sheet, pillow and pillow case. (bring you own sleeping bag, top sheets, duvet etc) The cabins also have a small fridge, heater and jug. The facilities block with bathroom, hot showers and kitchen is close by. Please book these rooms yourself and add that you are with the New Zealand Land Rover Forums. P: 03 319 6299 |www.kaikourapeketabeach.co.nz.

G'day @AllanWorms - nice to have you in LZ. Well, presume it is

GrumpyGel said:

G'day @AllanWorms - nice to have you in LZ. Well, presume it is

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Hi

Seems nice to me so far Just getting a feel for the place.

I don't have a Landy yet, but might be able to wrangle the Disco in my avatar... but without the arse in the window. 97 V8i that needs the exhaust manifold sorted out

AllanWorms said:

Hi

Seems nice to me so far Just getting a feel for the place.

I don't have a Landy yet, but might be able to wrangle the Disco in my avatar... but without the arse in the window. 97 V8i that needs the exhaust manifold sorted out

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Someone hasn't been using the factor 50 on that Disco. Mind you, I noticed the other day that all of a sudden the paint has gone on the roof of my Freelander.

They always need something sorting out

My D1V8 sounded great, when it was running, but was a money pit.

Yeah... the paint looks a bit rough Might have to Camo it

I suspect it would be a very big money hole... but it would still be cheaper than buying a landcruiser! Plus I'll still be able to say I've never owned a Toyota

It will only ever be a play thing, if it happens.