NEW ZEALAND'S HIGHLANDS MOTORSPORT PARK

You might not think of New Zealand as a motorsporting nation. A new track in the country's beautiful South island is changing things though. Jonathan Crouch paid it a visit

Motor racing tracks are usually bleak, unappealing places, typically windswept ex-airfields frequented by die-hard enthusiasts. Not the sort of thing you expect to find in one of the most naturally beautiful places on earth, New Zealand's scenic South island. Yet that's exactly where you must now go to find the most southerly international standard racetrack in the Southern hemisphere, the Highlands Motorsport Park.

Imagine a place you could drive your high performance roadcar to the limit, challenging yourself around a 4.1km circuit with classic corners from some of the world's greatest racetracks. A facility where your machine could be stored, garaged and fettled in your absence. You could even have an apartment above your own pit garage. And here's a place with much more too. A karting track for challenging your friends, an oval speedway for high speed drifting action and a dirt buggy off road track. There's even the possibility of getting out onto the glassy lake that surrounds the track, a stretch of water where the uniquely Kiwi sport of jetboating sees converted speedboats fitted with big V8 engines that can reach eye-watering speeds.

In the evening, your dream can continue. The complex has its own winery and world class restaurant. There's even a museum where you can reminisce around an array of classic road and racing cars. And everything is all laid out against a backdrop of snow-capped Alpine mountain scenery, reminding you that just half an hour away lies the Central Otago region's tourist capital of Queenstown with its easy access to world-standard ski slopes. You can ...