A few days ago Campbell Live ran a story about vehicle insurance when driving off a proper road.

See http://www.3news.co.nz/Offroad-insurance---are-you-covered/tabid/817/articleID/196623/Default.aspx. This got me thinking about what my car is covered for, since we regularly drive across paddocks etc for events.

I read my policy which states:
We may reduce a benefit or provide no benefit at all if, at the time
of the loss or damage, your vehicle was off-roading unless agreed to in writing by us.

This is something to keep in mind as for example, at the recent Vulcaniser event the track was very slippery and the potential was there for a vehicle to slip in to another vehicle and cause damage.

I rang my insurer (AA) to ask if a farm road was classed as off-roading. They said that if the road goes to a house, it is okay, but if it is just going through a paddock, it's not. To be accepted, the route has to be regarded as a road by the local council.

How common is it to drive on farm roads when going to events?

I guess those insurer definitions eg; house at end of road and/or recognised by council as a road are clear enough but I would wonder how they diferentiate vehicle types / uses. Does it matter if your insured vehicle is a 'proper' 4wd (ladder chassis + ground clearance), a 'softroader', a 4wd station wagon / car, or a 2wd station wagon / car ?? When is a vehicle adjudged to be outside it's normal / accepted domain of use? I might need to talk to my insurers. (edit - only watched the news clip after writing the above - I'm guessing my pedantics about 'type of car / vehicle' won't matter for much - they were in a pukka 4wd doing what 1000's of kiwi families do with their 4wd's every weekend)

I doubt there will be many mtbike events in NZ that take organisers, competitors, & spectators as far away from a sealed road, and deep into a farm, as the Vulcaniser does. Just one more aspect of it's uniqueness.

But what about this bit (from the AA policy, I'm insured with them so thought I'd better check)

Off roading
means your vehicle being used anywhere that is not a recognised
road by the local council or authority. The Off Roading exclusion
does not apply where the vehicle is on any:
> recognised boat ramp for the purpose of launching or berthing
a boat,
> field for the purpose of accessing a building or site,
> field or unsealed area used as a carpark,
> unsealed but recognised road by the local council
or authority.

Does that mean accessing the site of a bike race, and parking in a paddock is ok?

I switched to AMI a couple of years back as I used to go offroading in my old 4x4, and they covered that for no extra cost.

I was basically covered in NZ no matter where I managed to get myself, and works in practice too, one of the guys we were with rolled his Safari while we where offroading and they wrote his truck off and replaced it.

AMI are also the only insurance company I could see that covered me whilst racing my road/mtb bikes as well, all round seem pretty good and well priced.