Thread: Trip to the Deep South

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Did you get to the car museums in Wanaka? It is a beautiful part of the country down there.

We did see the Warbirds & Wheels display. The Toy & Transport Museum was on our list, but it seemed that we saw the signs for the other one first and that's the one we did. Never did see the signs for the Toy & Transport Museum.

That's a shame, was just a few hundred meters up the road :-(

Roger, that sounds like a very fun, and excitig trip you two had. I look forward to all your pics you share with us. That's really cool that this forum was able to bring you together with people 3/4 the way down the globe from us, and have them take you in as their own. That's awesome!

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Roger, I look forward to all your pics you share with us.

Yeah; I want to see pics too!

(Although I have purely selfish reasons: I want some free advertising for Tourism New Zealand...maybe pics will encourage more Americans to tour here and spend money!)

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

That's really cool that this forum was able to bring you together with people 3/4 the way down the globe from us, and have them take you in as their own. That's awesome!

Yep; it was pretty cool.
But after the welcomes that we were given on our trips to the States, the reality is that we were simply reciprocating.
We found Americans (by and large,) to be bloody fine people.

Here's a first batch of pictures of "Cars of New Zealand" for your viewing pleasure...

The NSRA NZ Nationals Show & Shine


John & Rosie's Bus to start it off:









This young gal was posing with cars all day, here w/ her husband/boyfriend, and she liked the bus!!


John & Rosie's '47














A very sweet "Ute":






Gary & Elaine Pulley had sold their all steel Willys, but borrowed this Merc to attend!










Graeme "Coxy" & Lynne's Terraplane. Coxy did the chassis engineering work on jb's bus:




I have a "soft spot" for '60 Chevy's, my first car, which taught me a lot. Mine was white....

Second batch....















Robin Barnes (lamin8r) F100 dd/work truck.




The next two Hudson's belong to Tony & Sally Waas. Tony's the VP of NSRA NZ as I recall....




The Righteous '36 of our own V8flathead, who's an occasional poster who we need to energize!! He's a talented guy!








































It's supposed to be WARM in NZ!!

Thank You Mr Spears! Love the pics..

....and remember our pinup girl??








Her guy told me that she posts her '50's style pictures on one of the web sites that's popular, and I think she's trying to drum up interest as a model.

There's more cars to come, like the Hardware Store display where Burt Munro's stuff resides, a few from Highlands Motorsports Park (race track), and others. Later....

Invercargill was the home of Burt Munro, who set several Bonneville records on bikes and his story was told in the movie, World's Fastest Indian. A local hardware dealer, Ernest Hayes, acquired Burt Munro's collection of machinery, bikes, and parts and used his store, E Hayes & Son's Hardware, as the showcase for it - E Hayes Motorworks Collection - Burt Munro's World's Fastest Indian Scout - Classic Vintage Motor Vehicles It's quite a place, they have a wide range of products, and they are very welcoming to tourists who want to wander around and take pictures. Quite a place!!











As they went to trade shows Mr Hayes used to build "special tools" to put on display, and to generate discussion with potential customers. Many are in these cases...










The World's Fastest Indian


























E. Hayes & Son's also had several cars & trucks on display thorughout their store, a '57 Chevy, '57 T-bird that I recall, along with others from the earlier '50's that were unrestored other than a thorough wash before coming inside. They also had a large collection of early machinery, including a running engine built from bits & pieces laying around the farm & shop, just because it could be done.... Seems to be a common thread, oft' referred to as "Kiwi Ingenuity".

Another place in Invercargill is the HW Richardson Truck Museum - Truck Musuem | Transport History | Vehicle Displays | HWR, New Zealand Since jb spent a number of years behind the wheel of various large trucks, hauling milk for one thing, he has a healthy interest in this collection of trucks amassed by Bill Richardson. We were fortunate to gain access to the museum, which is normally only open by appointment, and then only on select days of the week, but when we showed up at their headquarters building they were very nice, called back to the curator's office and told him our story (only here today, passing through trying to show as much of our country to our friends from Kansas, wanted to see the museum for years, etc, etc) we were directed back to the entrance around the block with no signs announcing it at all. It turns out that Bill, who passed away not too many years ago, lived just across the street and didn't consider his collection a museum, and really didn't like the idea of a lot of people tromping through his stuff. In fact it was not until Bill was gone that they erected a sign on the building out front for HWR Transport, which is a collection of buildings taking up a residential block. Previously there was nothing to let anyone know what the buildings were .

Scroll through the tabs on the website to see an overview of the amazing collection of trucks, and the wonderful layout of the collection. They are currently working on a nominal 50,000 sqft addition that will allow them to bring the entire collection together in one place, and which will have a small restaurant and facilities for a real museum, open to the public on a regular schedule, sometime in 2015. Here are a few pictures we took as we wandered through....





















































Many of the trucks in the collection were Bill's personal trucks, including two F150's less than 15 years old that he bought new drove as his work trucks and then added to the collection.

Good - no, GREAT stuff there Roger. Thanks for posting them.

Awesome display of vehicles! What a trip! I'm so glad you were able to hook up with so many CHR members! I would do the trip to New Zealand for the E. Hayes & Son's hardware store alone. Just a chance to see the worlds fastest Indian would be worth it! Burt Monroe's story was inspiring!
Any shots of the interior of the Bus, the very cool Bus!

Crikey!
Excellent stuff...many thanks for that Roger...and yes; so many of the trucks in Bill's museum were a nostalgia trip for me.
The S series Bedfords, where you carried a broomstick to hold on the loud pedal when climbing Ngauranga Gorge in high 2nd/low 3rd...otherwise your feet would cook from the heat of the motor right alongside.
The K series Austins, if you couldn't reverse by mirrors there was no way you were going to back those things up...they were so heavy in the steering you needed both arms on the wheel at all times.
The International Paystars, the first trucks I drove with a Roadranger box.

Ah...nostalgia alright...it ain't what it used to be...it's a thing of the past...

(And so many of them from the forties, fifties, and sixties were just pure pigs to drive...no thought whatsoever was given to the mug that had to drive them...they were bloody hard yakka!)

And thanks for the other pics too; I hadn't realised that you had got quite so happy with the camera!
All good.

Originally Posted by stovens

Any shots of the interior of the Bus, the very cool Bus!

Steve, when we were there the interior of the bus was just coming together. Cabinets were in to house the small refrigerator, cooktop and some storage, and the pull out seat sections that form the bed were in place, too, but much still to be completed. The combination toilet/shower area were in place, but not yet functional, but jb has quite a collection of "honey pots" that he can carry along . The only shot of the inside I got was this one of the driver's seat from the relocated entry door.

IMG_3933 (1024x683).jpg

jb will have to ask Rosie if she'll take some photo's of the interior now that the roof is in place, and he can visit SharpMark with the camera and get some help posting them up