Sleepin Around New Zealand: First Trip and More!

[felixx]

so many kiwi icons!
Nice work

[Sheddie]

so many kiwi icons!
Nice work

So you spotted the Trekka then! That was a real icon.

[dales133]

A trekka was actualy my first car.pretty much gave it away not long after buying it.
Can't expect a 16 year old to fix a wreck even if he thought he could

[dales133]

Btw my family owned a batch with a tram car age in the back lawn in tapu
On the old tapu/coroglen road.

[Sheddie]

Btw my family owned a batch with a tram car age in the back lawn in tapu
On the old tapu/coroglen road.

Is that the second drive on the right as you turn in to the Tapu/Coroglen Road? I just found it on Google maps. Cant see it on street view, too many trees in the way. If I can spot it when we are down there in a couple of weeks I will try to get a photo. May also be back there in April.
There were lots of those old tram cars converted to baches at beaches all around the Auckland area, after the council changed to buses. I saw one when we were over at Dargaville recently.

[dales133]

Ýea was down the tapu end , was a small fibrolite batch but that might be gone now.
Tram car rage was a long one with half bunks for us kids and half workshop.
There were alot of them down there when we were kids

[Sheddie]

Queens Birthday Weekend, May 30th - June 2nd 2014.
Ford Capri Car Club NZ AGM. Rotorua.
I hadn't fixed the Red Capri after blowing a cooling hose at a recent Motokhana (Dale was driving), so we took the old green Capri.
We left home on Friday morning and as usual we dropped the dogs off in Auckland on the way through. Unfortunately in NZ most camps have a strict no dog policy.
From Auckland we would normally have taken SH1 through Hamilton, but this trip we decided to go down SH2 then SH 27. Going through Hamilton I knew we would have had enough range with the Capris little 40L (9gal) tank to get us to Cambridge. But going the other way we had to get to Matamata, which was about another 50Km (30mls). Fortunately I had a 10L can in the boot (trunk), as while we were cruising along a long flat straight about 5km out of Matamata we quietly rolled to a stop.
With the shorter winter days, we arrived at the camp in Rotorua just on dark with a light drizzle falling. We set up camp then headed around to the Hotel where the rest of the members were staying, for a catch up and dinner.

Saturday morning was beautiful and sunny as we headed down to the park by the lake, and put on a car display and concourse judging.


We had not intended entering the concourse, but as there were only two Consul Capris there, we decided we would. The cars ranged from run of the mill drivers and race cars to better than new show cars, although even these get driven on a regular basis and the cars had been driven from far afield to get here.

The Car-B-Q was there cooking sausages and the general public were wandering around admiring the cars and remembering their younger days and relating tales of what they got up to in Capris.

Not a Capri, but this very nice Sunbeam Rapier convertible was parked on the street near by. I would sure love to own that one.
After the judges had climbed under, around and through all the cars, we headed off in convoy to our lunch stop, at the Fish & Game New Zealand trout breading facility, not far out of town.
We parked all the cars in front of a big pool, full of small trout, and took lots of photos.



The afternoon was then filled with a car trial, which took us for miles and miles, all around the countryside and in around the city and lakes.
It was after dark by the time we arrived at the finish venue, for the AGM, and the meeting was already under way.

Sunday we met at a car park, then drove in convoy to the NZ Fire Service national training centre. This amazing facility was about $38,000,000 to set up. They have created a small part of a city with streets laid out with multi story buildings, cars parked in the streets and even a train crashed into a car in a tunnel.
They had a set of driver training tasks for us to do.

Here we are lined up at the start with the oldest and newest Capris side by side.

First off was a drive around the streets with a driving instructor

The other events were timed runs around some cones and in and out of garages, then round and round a barrel with the passenger holding a rope.


Later we were given a demonstration of how the facility operates. On the cold winter morning it was amazing the amount of heat coming from the flames.

We headed back in to Rotorua and went for a look around the markets then back to the camp to chill out and give a guided tour of the TD to one of the other campers.
That evening we took the gondola to the Skyline Restaurant up Mount Ngongotaha for the final dinner and prize giving. Surprise surprise, I was awarded best Consul Capri, but I did have a 50% chance.

Monday morning we packed up early for the long haul home. Another great weekend in our Tear Drop.

[Sheddie]

Britz at the Beach, Whangamata.
October 24th - 27th 2014.
We had been planning to attend this event for a while, but in the end were going to flag it, as Dale had been made redundant in May, and we were being a little careful with our spending as suitable jobs were a bit thin on the ground in this area. On the Thursday morning (23rd) as I was leaving for work we decided "bugger it" lets just go.
The weather forecast for the weekend was not good, but we planned on enjoying it anyway. We had been in communication with Bantam, and he had been working hard to get camp-able, as he was planning on this being his first trip, so we thought we would surprise him.
While I was at work Dale got busy and loaded up the camper, booked a camp site, arranged for us to drop the dogs with her parents for the weekend and had everything ready to just hook on and leave when I got home
We headed off to Auckland that night, which would save us a couple of hours travelling the next day. We were towing with the old green Capri again, as I still hadn't fixed the red one.

We caught up to this one on the Auckland motorway.
We arrived in Thames in time for lunch and the main street was lined with British cars. There were Union Jacks flying and the shop windows were decorated with British memorabilia. We parked and headed off to find somewhere for lunch, just as one of the many rain showers started.

We found Bantam parked down the road and had a quick catch up.
The plan was, later in the afternoon, for the cars to travel in convoy to Whangamata, where the weekends events were to be based. It is a hilly and twisty road, so we left early as I didn't want to be travelling that road in a parade of 200-300 odd cars, as there was the likelihood of over heating.


We set up camp between the showers and got the gazebo well tied down for the strong winds that were expected. Bantam ended up parked next door but one, so you might say that New Zealand has had its first gathering
We went off to the event HQ to register, and caught up with our Capri Club friends.
Saturday
It had been a pretty stormy night but we were dry and all in one piece in the morning.
We headed off to a big park to prepare for the parade through town. Our entry number was 520 (something) and there had been more enter after that, which made for an amazing parade and display.


More rain in the backgroung as we looked around the cars, then would make a mad dash to shelter in the car as the wind and rain belted past.

The markets were there with food stalls selling things like Yorkshire puddings, pork pies, and Cornish Pasties.
And entertainment including Morris Dancing.



In the afternoon we all drove over to Tairua, with some of the people taking part in a Tombola (whatever that is)?

This Wolseley 18/85 took top prize at the display on Saturday.
Saturday night they put on a drive in movie. This was quite entertaining as the rain showers continued passing over, and then the sound got well out of sync with the pictures.

Sunday morning, we packed up and took our tear drops down to the park for the final event.




This was the oldest car there, a 1913 Humber, with probably one of the oldest drivers as well.
Behind it is one of the last Humbers built, a Supersnipe from about 1966.


The event today was a bonnets (hoods) up display, and the sports bodied Mini below took the prize.

Again we had lots of people wanting to know all about the teardrop and you never know, it may have given some of them the idea that they could build one of their own.

[dales133]

Great pics Brian aka Cedric aka Frank.
Used to spend most of my early teenage years down at onemana and whangamata. .. has it been ruined like most of nz good places?
Mums at the mount this week but that was ruined years ago.
Love the cars.. especially that flash liking land crab.. I owned one of those...and a Hillman imp hut don't tell anyone

[Vedette]

I loved the Capri Bar-B-Q!
Had one once that we used as a donor car for my son's 54 Anglia.
Then threw the car away????
So, now I am just waiting to see a Teardrop made from a Capri??
Could be your next project Frank???????
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[Sheddie]

I loved the Capri Bar-B-Q!
Had one once that we used as a donor car for my son's 54 Anglia.
Then threw the car away????
So, now I am just waiting to see a Teardrop made from a Capri??
Could be your next project Frank???????
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

Hi Brian,
How about this one?

The next project I am supposed to be working on is the Austin A30 trailer for a friend to tow behind his A30, if it ever gets off the ground. He has found one donor car, but he is trying to come up with a second one. I may start a thread on it some time.

DSC04379.JPG (129.71 KiB) Viewed 3128 times

a30 trailer2 (640x534).jpg (150.42 KiB) Viewed 3128 times

This is my A30 with doctored photo of what we are planning.

[Sheddie]

Taipa Auto Spectacular 2015.
Saturday January 10th.
This is an annual event, organised by the Far North Vintage Car Club. It attracts vehicles of all sorts, such as vintage, classic, hotrod, motor bikes and trucks. Our club, the Classic and Sports Car Club of Northland, have made it a regular event on our calendar for quite a few years and we usually have a good number of our cars make the 1-1/2 hour drive, to attend.
We decided to take the TD and head up a couple of days early for a bit of R&R. We had found out that the camp ground at Hihi (pronounced hehe) would allow the dogs to stay, so Ruby & Henry got packed in to the Red Capri (yes I had fixed its cooling pipe problems finally) and we headed off on the Thursday.

We arrived at the camp and parked in a nice quiet spot in the corner with lots of big trees for shelter. Next to us was a camper van with a couple of standard poodle show dogs and next to that was a caravan with another scruffy little dog. It is not often, in NZ, that you can camp with your dogs.

Friday, we had an absolutely lazy day. We spent the morning sitting in the shade with our feet up reading, then after lunch we thought we had better do something, so went for a drive to have a look around Hihi, then to Mangonui and Coopers Beach.

We got back to the camp and spent rest of the afternoon doing the same as we had done in the morning and I finally found the time to read all the silver beatle build.

A very tidy combi camper at the camp.



Saturday morning I gave the car a quick polish before heading over to the display and discovered a 4 inch crack in the windscreen. We would have got that when driving up on Thursday road works. (By the time we got home it had grown to about a foot).
We drove over to the rugby grounds at Taipa (tai, as in neck tie, & pa, as in dad) to line up with all the other cars, and managed to get a spot near the trees, and reserved some space for the rest of our members. We also hijacked an area under the trees, for all of us to set up for a picnic, as it was going to get very hot as day went by.

Someone had brought along this mint little Lilliput caravan for the display.

One of our members has recently imported this Rambler Marlin from USA



Vedette would have liked to see the Studebakers.


There was a group of these little racers, powered by 10hp Chinese Hondas. Built by school kids.

This very unusual Lancia was once owned by Evita Peron.

I doubt that Ford UK ever expected their Thames 800 van to look like this. Fitted out for camping and with a turntable on the back for towing an O'Kanagan 5th wheel camper. Enlarge this photo to see the list of modifications. The trailer he has behind it there has 12 wheels under it, just because he could.



That afternoon we got back to the camp and took the dogs for a walk along the beach









Sunday morning we packed up and headed home. We had enjoyed a nice relaxed weekend away.





Mangonui township, looking across the Mangonui harbour.

[KCStudly]

Fabulous as ever.

[39Ratrod]

Love your car!!! That thing is SWEET!

[Sheddie]

Fabulous as ever.

Thanks KC, glad to here you are enjoying our travels.

Love your car!!! That thing is SWEET!

Thanks Ratrod. We love it. That one is actually the wife's one, but she lets me drive it.