Mercedes-Benz G-Class gallery – riding with Mike Horn, the world’s greatest living explorer

THE world’s greatest living explorer needs a better agent. I’m guessing you probably haven’t heard of Mike Horn.

I hadn’t before I was asked if I’d like to drive his Mercedes-Benz G-Class around the wilder bits of New Zealand’s South Island.

He’s much like Bear Grylls, if Bear spent less time schmoozing celebs and more time drilling holes in his toenails, losing fingers, swimming solo down the Amazon, climbing 8000m peaks without supplemental oxygen, circumnavigating the globe at the Arctic Circle line under his own steam, doing the same at the Equator, taking his kids for a walk to the North Pole and actually serving in the real special forces rather than the Mr Grylls’ Saturdays And Sundays version of the SAS. Also Mike seemed to have missed out on a gold loyalty card at Travelodge.

Mike had just set a record for the fastest solo crossing of the Antarctic ice cap before sailing his yacht to Dunedin and meeting a man who couldn’t erect his own tent.

You can read more about Mike Horn and his G-Class adventures in the latest edition of Wheels, due on the shelves from today, June 1. In the meantime, here’s a gallery of images from New Zealand to get you primed.