South Island scenery on show as top rally car drivers tackle gravel tracks

Aotearoa is hosting top local and international rally car drivers for one of the world's few gravel marathon rallies in the South Island this week.

The seven-day biennial New Zealand Silver Fern Rally event started in Christchurch last Friday with 105 rally cars eyeing a 3000-kilometre track throughout rural Canterbury, Otago and Southland - before ending in Dunedin on Friday.

Around 500 drivers and service crew members, more than 150 officials and around 700 volunteers have been taking part in the multi-leg event.

Organiser Ultimate Rally Group's event director Peter Martin said the event which began in the late 1960s was one of only two genuine gravel marathon rallies left in the world - the other being the classic East African Safari in Kenya.

He said this year's rally featured vehicles from all over the world, including cars such as Talbots, Escorts, Porsches and Lancias.

"The cars in the field are made up of primarily classic two-wheel drive pre-1985 cars for the historic trophy, and then the remainder of the field - bar a couple of '86 Subarus - are all modern two-wheel drive cars," Martin said.

"There are cars from all over the world. Feature cars, probably the Lancia Stratos which is for all intensive purposes a million-dollar vehicle. And I think the only other time one of these has ever rallied in New Zealand was back in 1979 Heatway, so quite a rare car."

Martin said drivers and crew from all ends of the world were also taking part, including 24 international competitors from Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.

"Obviously [there are] the stars from the Otago region, the Jeff Judds and the Deane Buist and co, Robbie Stokes and Brian Stokes who has previously won the event, he's actually coming second in the rally at the moment behind James Ford who won the last event in 2022," he said.

"The challenge trophy for the other two-wheel drives is currently being led by Chris Ramsay aka 'Rambo', a central North Islander. He's built up a new vehicle especially for this event, having just returned from three months overseas doing the Peking to Paris motor race."

Martin said the vibe among the international drivers was "unbelievable", as they marvelled at New Zealand's natural beauty and chatted with friendly locals.

"We've got some World Rally Championship (WRC) co-drivers in here. Cándido Estevez (Carrera) who co-drives for Dani Sordo in the WRC is here with Daniel Alonso [of Spain] and they're running a safari spec Ford Escort Mk2. They're just having an an absolute ball, they can't believe how beautiful New Zealand is.

"They are very much appreciative and enjoy the quality of the roads and the terrain that New Zealand offers.

"And I suppose one of the by-products of the recent weather effects we've had is that the whole country looks so green and lush, and the beautiful mountain terrains in the back. I mean, these guys are just going absolutely insane and falling in love with New Zealand, which is exactly what we're trying to do, encourage them to come back."

The seventh leg will start in Dunedin on Friday and finish in Wānaka before prizegiving.

Results and more details can be found on the NZ Silver Fern Rally website.