Drivesouth (Enlarge photo)

09/08/2008 07:04. Jeep took Richard Bosselman, among others, into the bush with a Cherokee. There he blazed trails and lived to write about it.

Not a hair salon or a shopping mall in sight. Just slippery forest tracks and country road driving between mud holes.

Staging the media preview of the new KK-series Jeep Cherokee at a fishing lodge near Turangi was a deliberate attempt to keep this medium model off the city turf so many "off-roaders'' tread.

While recognising that some of its cars - the Patriot/Compass, obviously, and the heavier-footed Grand Cherokee and Commander (regrettably) - are either designed, or destined, to spend their days on the school run, Jeep remains confident Cherokee and Wrangler owners still heed the call of the wild.

And so we blazed trails, waded raging waters,... // Drivesouth