One of the things I wanted to do when we got to Invercargill was go to Bill Richardson’s amazing truck Museum. We settled for the Coachmans Inn which is just down the road from the Museum and was $34 a night for two. The receptionist was ex Auckland and we had a great old chat about things Auckland and other things.
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Its has a whole bunch of powered sites behind the Hotel surrounding the amenities block which while it was nice and clean, it did seem a little tired.
We had a lie in with the sun coming in the windows and eventually walked down the road to the Museum. Fiona was walking into the city, another 1k down the road and was going to walk back and meet me in the cafe.
The Museum is a fantastic place. From first walking in, there is an amazing Texaco Tanker. I forgot to look at the details of what it was but what a mean looking machine. Then onto the early Fords.
It seemed like there was every single model of Ford from 1904 onwards into the 40’s and 50’s.
Every model of truck you could imagine and there were some early lawnmowers too. There was an interesting collection of tools for service stations and I was really interested to see an early tyre changing device.
Click on the Gallery below to see a Slideshow
I worked in a service station in Glenfield when I was a teenager and had to use one of these beasts. Swinging on the end of a tyre lever with grease. Lots of fun. It brought back some old memories.
Petrol Bowsers, Oils and some motors along with a GM 671 setup as a generator and a 171 too.
My old boat Rorqual had a GM Turbocharged 671 in it so I was interested to see it setup as a generator and normally aspirated too. In all the *71 series motors, all the pistons, conrods and bearings, valves etc are the same so easy for parts.
Fiona rang and said that just about everything was shut (saturday afternoon) and she was heading back. I was just about finished so I headed for the Cafe where a few minutes later, Fiona wandered in.
An amazing place and a must see if you’re in Invercargill.
Bugger It, we are off - www.buggeritweareoff.com 
This is on our “bucket list” to do on our upcoming South Island trip.
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It’s well worth doing.
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If you are interested in motorcycles then Richardsons also have the motorcycle museum that they brought from Nelson. We are heading for I’gill this weekend for a Clan dinner and for me a visit to that.
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When you buy your tickets, you get a discount to do the bikes too but I only wanted to see the trucks and cars. Apparently it’s very good too!
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Wow that tanker is something. Thanks for showing us.
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