The Wild Side by Brian and Claire Rogers

Earlier in the season, on the coldest day of the year, upland game started out the target of a Wild Side outing. But as sometimes happens in the great outdoors, it's not how the day finished.

'Told you there was one lurking there, Boss.”

With duck season well and truly over, the decoys shelved for some well deserved hibernation, the Wild Side team dusted off the light load ammo and the 20 gauges for some serious stomping through the scrubland in search of pheasant, quail – and later in the day with the 12 gauges handy – maybe a crack at some Canada geese.

Little did we know, however, that the hunters were to become the hunted.

It's not often that a magnificent day in the outdoors can be overshadowed by the mode of transport. The shooting wasn't that inspiring, but the vehicle certainly was. The Amarok was on a mission to stalk our hearts and minds.

We'd picked up the demo VW ute from Farmer Motor Group, partly because we wanted something that would handle some 4WD tracks, but also because we wanted to suss out its legendary fine ride on the highway between our shooting possies. We knew there'd be a mix of highway and off-road, so the Amarok promised the ideal match for the blend of tarmac and dirt track.
It certainly delivered on both.

While the upland game destinations didn't really fire, the Amarok did.

The thrill of the kill subsided to a most enjoyable open country and highway cruise.

The fish and game guru's promise of copious numbers of pheasant cavorting in the rolling coastal scrub country between the Tarawera and Rangitaiki rivers soon became a fanciful notion.

Where's a retriever when you need one? The old boy would've sorted it!

And just because we had a permit, didn't mean masses pheasants were going to take any notice and have the decency to show up.

Even the pointer couldn't see the point – and despite a fair bit of sniffing and running, even after the odd rabbit, there was little appeal in carrying on after several hours of traipsing through the undergrowth.

It was much more appealing to head back to the Amarok, sample the mandatory bacon and egg pie and get driving again.

The pointer was all for that and could hardly wait for the Volkswagen tailgate to drop and to jump back on board. Clearly a bit of German bonding going on.

The boys demolished a good 180 degrees of the pie, then turned the Amarok through the same and headed back out to the highway.

Plan B: We had reliable reports of a flock of Canada geese ravaging a lakeside property, so a cunning plan was hatched.

After further sampling the easy handling of the ute through the scrubland tracks and dunes, it was time to find the highway and push the button back to 2WD.

The Amarok has a two litre, twin turbo diesel engine and a six-speed box. It may not outwardly seem the gruntiest diesel ute we've driven, but it's certainly the smoothest and best riding. However the stats overcome the myth about Amarok – this engine delivers 120kW and 400Nm from 1500rpm so it's every bit as powerful as its competitors. So really the power and torque is equivalent to that of its competitors out of a smaller engine – but with the added benefit of better fuel economy.

There's a smooth, wide powerband in the middle there. It likes to have those gears worked and unlike the raw, low torque of other utes and our older Nissan, the Amarok is a much more refined drive. After getting the hang of the six-speed shifter, the journey became a real pleasure as we traversed the pheasant-less dunes to the highway, then onto the gravel lakeside roads between Rotoma and Rotoiti.

Ironically, the roadsides were alive with pheasants flying in all directions.

Our closest encounter of a pheasant came on Maniatutu Road, when two trotted out in front of the Amarok. The best chance we'd had all day at nailing a pheasant wasn't with the shotgun, but with the front grille of the VW ute. Tempting as it was, we let them fly for another day.
Besides, we had other fish to fry. Or should that read geese.

Arriving at the lakeside the lads loaded up with heavy steel shot and stealthily snuck down to the paddock to find a heap of wary geese giving us that sideways look, with a fair bit of honking signalling that we'd been spotted.

A bit less bacon and egg pie might have lessened the profile, boys.

Before the lads could get into position between birds and lake, the geese bolted.

The big semis opened up at seemingly impossibly long distance for steel, yet managed to drop a couple.
Now that was fine, except the plan had called for birds to be dropped on the paddock, as without a boat and the pointer too small to haul a dead goose from the lake, there was a technical problem.

So after a bit of rummaging around a nearby bach we 'borrowed” a kayak from under a deck.

One intrepid shooter stripped to his boxers and paddled out with his hands for the retrieval. Egged on, of course,

by helpful buddies, warm in their polarfleece and possum socks, on the lake edge. All was going well, till the icy cold lake water started welling upside the dodgy old boat.

Now we won't get into intimate detail here, but on the coldest day of the year, late July with half the Central Plateau snowed in and a stiff Southerly blowing – on Rotoiti in a sinking kayak with no paddle and wearing just wet boxers and a grimace – well we can see how the aviation industry first imagined the concept of the retractable under-carriage.

Mission accomplished, the boat returned to the undergrowth and one wet shooter plied with more pie and a tot for good measure. He didn't take well to the suggestion that all wet bodies such as geese and dogs and lake-dunked shooters be tied in the back of the ute. The lads loaded up the Amarok and, enjoying the comforts of its superb road handling, quiet ride, cruised back to the city with few tales of wild birds, but a good one about brass monkeys.

As mentioned earlier, it's not often the drive is more satisfying than the hunting. This is a vehicle that bridges that incredibly difficult gap – between a serious work truck with off-road capability – then pulling on its Sunday best to look and behave like a respectable family car.
We didn't get a chance to try its towing performance and that's something I'd like to see, how the two litre copes with a decent load of building materials or a serious boat on behind.

The Amarok delivered on both highway and off-road, distracting the Wild Side boys from the fact they are useless pheasant pluckers and have some serious homework to do on their venues.

And no, guys, you can't take an Amarok again, unless you buy one.