A Ride in the Wild

Attention adrenaline junkies:

"You've gotta pull it hard - like this - to maintain control in the bumpy corners, otherwise it'll throw you off like a bucking bronco in a rodeo. Oh, and don't plant your feet for stability - your foot might get pulled under the rear wheel. Gas here, break there. That's pretty much it. Ready for some serious fun?!"

Pull. Throw. Rodeo. Plant. Lose a foot. Serious fun. Got it.

We are talking about quad-riding. These 4-wheel drive/motorbike hybrids are nothing short of hell-bent off-road monsters, and half the battle is to not let them get the best of you as you bash through forests and catapult over giant dunes. There's something about a quad that demands to know whether you've got the testicular fortitude to deserve to stay on.

Four Tracks Adventures are the best established quad-riding outfit on New Zealand's North Island, just 40 minutes north of Auckland. Though less wild than the South Island, this place is no scenic slouch. This eco-sensitive operation runs through a nature sanctuary that stretches across rolling ultra-green farmlands, through forests, over giant sand dunes and along miles of empty beach. But its most noticeable feature is its promise of adventure.

A decade ago, brothers Mike and Richard Bond discovered that the best way to explore this beautiful landscape fully was by riding their quads along existing forest trails, rarely used hiking trails and cattle tracks.

Mike, who was a genteel graphic artist at the time, started taking friends on his hardcore, mud-spitting, hi-revving outings. The feedback was so positive that he and his brother opted for a lifestyle change, chucked their jobs, negotiated access to this vast swath of paradise, and became the North Island's first quad off-road adventure company.

A decade on, these guys are still tearing down narrow forest trails, through mud bogs, and over dunes, only now it is with a small group of, at turns, exhilarated and terrified, soft-adventurers in tow. Four Tracks Adventures has become Ground Zero for adrenaline depletion.

As soon as you mount one of these 300 cc beasts and bring the engine to an impatient growl, you realise there's soft adventure - and then there's not-so-soft adventure. And this would definitely be sipping at the straw of the latter.

You have 5 gears and a foot-break like a motorbike; no clutch. You have a gas lever like a jetski by your right hand, which WILL remind you of a bicycle break at the worst possible moment. And to round off this true hybrid, there's even a reverse gear!

With a top speed of 60kmh, you are able to explore a mind-blowing 40km of beautiful countryside in an afternoon's outing. But this sport isn't about speed. It's about manoeuvrability.