The wife and I are looking at the possibility of moving to New Zealand for a significant amount of time, and are looking at things like climate, economy, gun laws, ATV laws, natural disasters, and things like that.

I did a search for New Zealand here in GC and found a couple guys and learned a little bit from their posts, but am wondering if someone can go into more detail about NZ as it pertains to ATV riding.

Obviously you’re going to have a lot of beaches. But my preferred type of ATV riding is mountain trails in wooded areas. How much ATV riding like that is available in NZ?

Is it set up in designated ORV parks, or are there just trails that run through the wilderness?

Here in Washington State in the US, if you drive more than 15 miles, chances are you’ve crossed a political boundary into an area managed by a different government entity with different rules on where and when you can go and what you can do. Is it like that there as well, or is all of the riding under one management umbrella? The whole country is about the size of Washington State, so it seems like it could be under one umbrella.

What about riding an ATV or SxS from camping areas directly to the trails? Riding into town from camping area to grab groceries and gas? Riding from one trail to another?

In general, is the place ORV friendly, or is it a constant battle to keep conservationists from shutting you down?