Our correspondent and two fishing friends find the refreshed Toyota Hi-Lux is more than a match for New Zealand’s rocky terrain and a mountain of gear.
IT’S one thing tip-toeing around the highways and byways of north Norfolk, sometimes with the dog in the back and a bit of shopping, but it’s quite another spending weeks on the road in New Zealand with two fishing pals whose idea of packing light is to wipe the side of the kitchen sink before bringing it along. Pals whose idea of keeping the car tidy is to wipe their feet before they get out, who think it’s interesting to curiously press all the buttons at once just to see what those buttons do, who collect interesting rocks and whose waders are a biological hazard zone.
It’s also quite another to drive that car hundreds of miles, fully loaded, up to the hill and down dale, along tarmac roads, gravel tracks, and riverbeds. That kind of journey allows you to get under the skin of a machine, to work out if it really is as good as they say it is. They? As I said it is. Because I reviewed the Toyota Hi-Lux in 2017 and said it was excellent. Was I right? Is the 2019 refresh just as good?
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
