Bashing rough terrains with a buggy in the winter

Although there are only two of us, there's always something happening. Drives, coffee, house parties, car reviews, photoshoots... the list grows ever-increasingly larger and more diverse. This would be fine if it weren't for the added e-mails, Whatsapp messages and phone calls my buddy is always busy with. I mean, he has over 31,000 unread e-mails for god's sake!

When us friends congregate, heads are always buried in mobile devices, preferring the attention online rather than conversing with the people they are with. In this case, I can't blame my buddy here. He's a legal professional and has many clients to assist, in which case could be a problem of epidemic proportions if he doesn't give his job his full attention.

No sweat, though. I think I found a good solution and it's in the form of a 4x4 buggy. We make our way from our hotel to the Adventure Playground in Rotorua, New Zealand, in the BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo (GT) for some off-road fun. The weather this morning is about 17 degrees but the sun is out and the wind isn't strong. One denim jacket should solve the problem.

But it seems I'm wrong. One bloody denim jacket isn't enough.

I may have underestimated the weather, or just the lack of foresight if you may, but I should have brought along a pair of gloves and a proper balaclava just to keep myself warm. My friend, on the other hand, looks at me weird because he's somehow never afraid of the cold like I am.

As we begin our off-road fun in a Can-Am buggy up the mountains, it is mere minutes before my face and ears start to numb. Since I started off as the driver, the ice cold wind caressing my cheeks is still bearable because my focus is making sure we don't topple off the edge of the mountain to our pitiful deaths.

But as we reach the top of the mountain, where - for a couple of minutes - feels like heaven on earth, I start having severe headaches. It wasn't from last night's alcohol, I'm sure. My ears are freezing and it hurts like hell. This time, I cannot feel my face. Experiencing cold numb palms also means that covering my freezing ears is utterly useless.

Thankfully, we managed to capture a few pictures for the sake of social media before our guide instructed us to swap drivers. Thinking this is a good time to 'warm' myself up, I quickly jump in the passenger seat while waiting for my buddy to get himself ready for the drive down the mountain.

Again, it doesn't work out well for me. As my buddy drives down the mountain, I'm forced to hold the handle bar in front of me for safety reasons. Back to square one, my palms continue to freeze, least to say my screwed up face.

I refuse to give in to the weather and decide to keep my mood up and rising as I manage to do a selfie with my buddy while he's driving. And this is when I have a random thought to myself: The 4x4 Can-Am that we're rummaging through the mountain, like the BMW 6 Series GT that we've been driving around New Zealand in, really brings joy, heightened emotions, interaction and sense of togetherness. It's the kind of activity that's a conversation starter, with the kind of car that mixes sportiness with modern day comfort, thanks to soft leather seats and excellent performance.

Anyway, it feels like forever before we get back down to the ground level where we started off. Of course, to my friend here, it feels far too short. Then again, it has a lot to do with the fact that he doesn't have a pair of freezing palms and a face like I do. Somehow, he is just never afraid of the cold like me.