And that would be the newly restored 1928 Reo Speedwagon, once owned by the founders of the NZMCA, Andy and Gladys Anderson.
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4 of the volunteers that could come up with #1, L to R, John, Alan, Brian and Fergus
Once used as passenger and freight bus in Te Karaka, it later went on to be a bus for the Gisborne freezing works.
#1 sporting its new Headlights
Andy Anderson bought the old bus in Gisborne and converted it to his Motorhome and then started the NZMCA as #1 !
Looking forward
Fast forward to June 2016, it was collected from the Eastland Museum of Transport and Technology and taken to a workshop at Hallright Plumbing. It spent the next 2 and a half years here being restored by a small army of 34 volunteers.
Looking back over the Galley
It was completely stripped down and rebuilt bolt by bolt and the result is stunning.
Click on the Gallery below for a Sldeshow
Allan, John, Brian and Fergus in front
Love the mirror
The oven
Dining area
Double Bunks
Comfy seating. Fergus’s nailbox has gone 🙂
The outside loo
The Loo
Seeing it on the NZMCA stand at the 2019 Covi show, it was a joy to behold. The attention to detail from the volunteers is amazing. Ferg Mckenzie along with 3 other volunteers came up to the Covi show to look after and show off their work.
Storage on the back
Well done too to the board for supporting the restoration. A great part of the associations history.
What I took from this years Covi show was the slow move away from ground floor beds in Motorhomes, mostly in the smaller models to drop down or other options. There were lots of new knick knacks too.
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Morelo area
There is a new Dethleffs XLI on its way which wasn’t available for the show but comes with a rear lounge instead of beds. The bedding comes as various versions of either a Luton type or different drop down setups. New also to the Dethleffs range is the Pulse GT.
Click on the Gallery below for a Slideshow
The new Pulse GT
Pulse GT
Inside the Pulse GT
Looking back in the Pulse GT
Bedroom on the Pulse GT
Pulse GT
Phil from Carters Tyres. The man you should talk to when you want tyres for your Motorhome!
Neismann and Bichoff
Fold up bike
Autotrails
Inside the back of a Kea van
New bench area in the new Nomad caravans
The new Nomad
NZs Allisee
The Trailite area
Popular place.. the Bar
Leisureline Caravans
Drop in Bach!
Lots of new things in the Accessory area
Jayco corner
Burstner has a new 7 something metre van option with a rear lounge with a door, and a drop down bed with another drop down bed further forward. A nice option too.
One of the things I really liked was the trailer mounted fold out camper priced at just $32000 with all the extras. I forgot to get the name of it, but a lot of kit and good comfortable camping without spending a fortune.
Its like a friend of mine once said in the boating world, those who spend less on their boat than the million dollar boaties, still have just as much fun 🙂
Click on the Gallery below for a Slideshow
Neat camper
The Dining area
The fold out bedroom
Inside
There was lots to see in the accessories area too with several options available in the Generator area and there was also a drop on bach on display too.
A Mark 1 Zephyr with matching Lilliput. I had one of these during my misspent youth 🙂
No show is ever complete without the Lillput Caravans and their beautifully done up tow cars (Tugs).
Great CaravansThe lovely Lilliputs
A good day with lots of walking. Fiona looked at her phone at the end of the show on the bus back to Ellerslie and we did just over 9000 steps 🙂 .. plenty of exercise for the day.
What an arduous process.. The house sold finally in October with a settlement of Friday 22nd Feb.
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The packers in.
It was listed twice. The first time with Drew, my son after it had been rented out for two years while we did the European and South Island trips, and we listed it virtually as soon as we’d moved back in. It was a bit scruffy having been rented out and we fixed the big things but in the end it wasn’t enough and the feedback was awful.
So we took some advice from some stagers and designers and painted all the main rooms Real Estate White. We painted doors that had been stripped that hadn’t been painted and Double Hung windows that needed a makeover.
The end result was a massive lift in the look and we relisted with Barfoots in Devonport as the Lake Road traffic and Devonport was too far from Drews other open homes in the bays.
Finally a result!!
Click on the Galleries below for Slideshows
The Packers doing their thing
Lounge suite being loaded
All our stuff in the Garage
Going going gone!
Stuff in the truck
At the storage facility
Loading the storage facility
On the Tuesday after the packers came, we moved Rafe into the driveway ready for us to sleep in.
Prior to that, we had already packed everything into boxes, loads to the local op shop and the tip and the contents of the Pantry and Fridge was loaded into Rafe along with our clothes and the toiletries from the bathroom. Rafe’s cuboards were almost bursting 🙂
Rafe in the driveway
The packers came and by the end of the day, all our furniture was safely locked away in a storage facility in Glenfield.
The big day came around on the Friday. Fiona went out to a girls lunch with friends to get away and I sat and waited for the Setllement calls to happen.
Empty Lounge
Empty Kitchen Living area
The empty Garage
Around lunchtime, one of the purchasers furniture trucks arrived and he sat outside waiting. At 2pm another truck arrived and they all camped on the grass verge outside. About 2:30, the purchaser arrived to see what was happening.
It seemed the buyers bank had been a bit slow getting the funds through to our Solicitor and they had only just got the money at 2pm but just before 3pm, I received that call that I was waiting for and finally drove Rafe out of the driveway for the last time.
Lots of money in the bank, all the debt gone and no house!
LOTS of freedom! No more lawns to mow for a while and no more rates to pay. Yippee.. .. now to find another much smaller house for two people and a Motorhome!
We’ve been to quite a few Mission Concerts now and they never seem to fail to entertain.
Click on any Image for Hi Res (Cell ph pix)
Earlier in the day
This year, we had Phil Collins along with a couple of local bands which warmed up the crowd.
The day started with breakfast at the Taradale Club which was supposed to include a shuttle ride around to the venue too but when the time cam for the shuttle, the driver went AWOL 🙂 so we walked and it wasn’t far and it was fun.
Click on the Gallery below for a Slideshow
Perfect way to start the day.. Breakfast
Taradale Club dining room
Dianne, Gary and Fiona finishing breakfast
Looking good
Rain coming down
On Stage .. cell pic
Breakfast was great and at $10 each was very good value. By the time we had finished breakfast, it was pretty much lunchtime so at 2pm, after a bit of a snack, we headed off around the corner to the Mission Estate.
Fiona, Dianne and Gary all rugged up.
The weather was supposed to shower in the morning and improve as the day went on but the weather was late.. so the showering happened during the early bands. By the time Phil came on, everyone was damp, it was cold but it had pretty much stopped drizzling so as the night went on, we dried out and it was quite pleasant.
Phil had had some back surgery and had a duff leg so was aided by a walking stick and sat on a stool at the front of the stage but as a drummer, he is very used to singing sitting down and it sounded as good as it ever does.
His 17 year old son Nicholas is now the drummer and is very very good. One of the early songs they played had a huge quite complicated drum solo in it and he did a great job. He’s also a good piano player as well and you could tell that Dad was very proud of him.
Phil with Nicholas playing the Piano (Cell phone pic)
All in all a great concert which I’m pleased we went to despite the timeing with packing our house with moving just a week or so away. A good trip..
We headed back to Auckland after a nice night at the NZMCA park at Taupo.
Late last year, I received an email from our Taupo Motorhome friends Gary and Dianne asking if we wanted to go to the Phil Collins concert.. yes please says I so Gary bought them online. I’m not sure exactly where he was at the time but I suspect it was somewhere in the UK.
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On the way.. Taupo
All I had to do was arrange for some parking at Napier for our two Motorhomes. Just as that was happening, I received a very timely email from mary at the Taradale club saying they had limited Motorhome parking for $25 a night.. thats us I thought so I immediately booked us for two nights for both of us.
Happy parking
Fast forward 6 months or so and despite moving out of our house in less than two weeks, we’re on our way for a few days to Napier.
Arriving at Taradale, I met Mary who was happy to change Gary and Dianne’s park so they were next to us and not long after we arrived, in rocked Gary and Dianne in the Niesmann.
34 Degrees C! .. not much talking happening here 🙂
The Taradale club was doing a BBQ tea for $20 a head and a $10 cooked breakfast so we clocked oursleves in for those too!
Every nook and Cranny was used.
The parking was great and with the temperatures hovering around the early 30’s it was stinking hot. The club’s bar with its air conditioning was a great spot to hang out and the drinks were reasonably priced too.
It was one of these !
There were probably about 30 odd Motorhomes there with most taking up the option for the meal and the breakfast.
Everyone was happy to chat to each other in the parking area and it was a very friendly spot.
Over the road, The NZMCA had leased a paddock fromn a local farmer and there was parking there too and that would have helped that Clubs turnover too!
Acroos the road at the NZMCA parking
Mary did a gfreat job making sure everyone was where they wanted to be and organising the meals. A neat spot to stay and very close to the concert venue as well.
The Netspeed Speedtest
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Rafe’s Tracking map north showing where the club is.
We were heading up North for the weekend to catch up with Helen, Chloe and Jessica and also meet Gary and Dianne from Taupo. The plan was to meet Gary and Dianne at the Caledonian Park at Waipu for a night and then go on up North after that.
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The Neissmann and Rafe
We pulled into the park early in the afternoon and it was good to see a few others in there enjoying the park. There were several Caravans and a couple of Buses there. What wasn’t so good to see was the missing buidings from the recent fire.
You can the back of Rafe in the park next door
As Gary said later, it was like a Tooth was missing. The fire happened in late September and burnt 3 shops to the ground including Fiona’s favorite cafe which is temporarily trading in a building over the road. Having something like this happen in a small town like Waipu would be devastating and I’m sure was a real shock to the town.
Neat TownThat Gap from across the road.
The town rallied around to help those businesses and many worked through their Christmas Holidays to help get some temprorary accomodation for the Cafe.
Cafe Deli’s temporary accommodation.Cafe Deli at the back
The next morning we went for a look through the town and had a coffee at the Cafe Deli over the road in their temporary building.
Good to see some others here.
Its good to see they’re rebuilding but what a huge hole.
After 3 years or so off full time Motorhoming, Gary and Chris are back in their Ruakaka bach after having it rented out while they were away. They’re still in their Motorhome outside though while they do a virtual rebuild along with huge changes and additions for their retirement.
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Outside
Gary and Chris were old boatie mates and we used to spend most weekends and Christmas holidays in the Hauraki Gulf when we had our old Whalechaser Rorqual. They had a lovely old classic sedan called Nau Mai. There were many happy moments and we had a lot of fun.
After selling up in Devonport and spending 5 years or so in Ranfurly, for a change of scene and direction running a B&B, they then bought their first Motorhome, an ex CI Munro renter on a Mitzi Canter base. They later upgraded this to a newer Mitzi Fuso which is what they have now and now they’ve finished their Ruakaka rebuild, it is on the market!
Click on the Gallery below for a slideshow of the House
The Kitchen
Lounge area
Outside
New cladding and some paint.. looking good.
Their two homes
Gary on the nailgun
Chris with the plans of the Kitchen
Looking back to the Mitzi
The house is looking fantastic and is very different to how it was.
And from now…
So .. the Mitzi Motorhome.. here’s some facts and figures that Gary has sent me.
The kitchen area
Its a 2008 Mitsi Fuso Canter with a 3.9 Litre Turbo with a Manual 5 speed box.
It has Rego till December and a New COF and its never failed a COF
There are 3000 RUC remaining.
The Speedo has 95088 km on it, and the Hubometer has 91220.
It is officially a CI MUNRO ULTIMA 4 berth. Gary put 6.5 metres on it but I’ve parked next to it and its at least 7 metres long.
Rear wheel drive on duals. Stove / oven / Dometic 3 way fridge freezer and a Diesel Heater. It has also had Netspeed installed and the Aerials are on the roof.
Here’s some piccies when he first bought it….
Click on the Gallery for Slideshow
Chris and Gary with their Motorhome
The kitchen area
The Lounge
Our park at Pelorus Bridge
At Evans Bay
Thats about all I can add or remember so call Gary for more info on 027 778 8557.
All I can add is that Gary being an engineer, he has looked after it and it is in really good Nick.. Someone is going to be buying a really nice Motorhome.
Another year flashes by and we’re into Christmas again.. fun times and sunshine.
The last few months have seen us parked up a bit with the house sale going on for longer than we thought. Its a done deal now with settlement in mid February so we have our last Christmas in this house and then who knows.. 🙂 We haven’t seen anything we like yet so we may be renting or living in Rafe for a wee bit.
Rafe looking Christmasy
Merry Christmas everyone and Fiona and I hope you have a great New Year.. be careful on the roads and if you see us out there, please come and say hello.
The Rudder cup was first run in 1908 and again on its 100th anniversary in 2008. The race involves some of NZ’s finest Classic launches racing overnight up to Sail Rock and back. This is the third time the full length race has been held.
Sail Rock is just over 100 nautical miles from Auckland and is just off the coast by Pakiri. north of Auckland.
At the visitors berth
In 2008, I was keen to run but Rorqual had an overheating problem and it would have been too risky but now that my son Drew has spent the last year going over the boat completely and has largely sorted out all these issues, we’re getting much closer but its great that he’s basically beaten it.
Because so much has been done on Rorqual recently and it has literally only just been put back together with so many changes, it was deemed to risky to go the whole distance but we thought we would show up on the start line and join in the fun and then peel off.
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Jason’s boat My Girl with Rorqual and Meola behind
We left Milford on the tide around lunch time and headed down to Westhaven marina to the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron (Home of the Americas Cup for those overseas) which is a bout 40 minutes by water. There we were to join up with some of the other boats who were going to start the race.
Rorqual and My Girl at the visitors berth
We had a great afternoon at the Squadrons visitors berth catching up with everyone and checking out different boats.
Catch up time at the visitors berth. Drew in the white shirt next to Rorqual with My Girl behind.
With us at the visitors berth was Jason with his boat My Girl that he has been restoring over the last couple of years and she looks fabulous. It has a big Turbo charged Volvo in her so she was one of the race favorites for her class. Behind us was an old work boat owned by Ian called Meola. Ian invited us on board and and showed us around. He has repowered it with a 4 cylinder Gardner and she looks a picture.
Meola under the bridge waiting for the start.
Not long after we arrived, old friends Barb and Dave arrived with their old Salthouse classic Trinidad. It was nice to see them too.
David bringing Trinidad into the Squadron base from Bayswater
About 6:30, everyone started to head out towards the startline under the bridge. There were 14 boats racing and they were all ready to go. While we waiting there, race official Baden motored around in a tender and checked all the boats had all their safety gear.
Click on the Gallery below for a Slide show
Everyone milling around the bridge before the start
Jason’s crew with their Christmas gear on
Race officials in the tender.. Baden in the blue.
Ferro and Kumi getting ready
Getting ready to start. Kumi, left and My Girl
Alan on the bow of Trinidad
Ronaki
Waimiga and Meola
The good crew of Ferro
Waitangi won the vintage division
The weather forecast for the race was a little grim with heavy rain and thunderstorms predicted for most of the race area and Auckland and while we bobbed around waiting for the start time at 7pm, the patchy showers were heading across Auckland.
The Cannon sounded at 7pm and Drew opened up the noise and we were off. With a puff of black smoke we were heading off down to North Head at the entrance to Auckland Harbour. As there is a 12 knot limit in the harbour until you get to North Head, Drew kept Rorqual’s speed down until we got well past Devonport and then opened her up to 16 knots.
Click on the Gallery below for a Slide show
And we’re off.. Trinidad and Sterling
Sterling won the Veteran Division
Trinidad won the Classic Division
Lady Margaret with her new John Deere motors!
Under way
My Girl
Trinidad passing Takapuna Beach
By the time we got to Devonport Wharf which is about half way down the harbour, we were well ahead of most of the fleet and only one of Drew’s mates in a Thundercat with a 50HP Yamaha on the back was with us. He spent 10 minutes or so playing in our wake which provided some entertainment for us.
Our entertainment for the day.. the Thundercat with the big Yamaha
We got about half way across to Rangitoto light when Drew decided to withdraw from the race and we headed back sedately at around 15 knots.
Sterling won the Veteran Division and the Rudder Cup
Rorqual performed amazingly and I was really pleased that Drew has managed to crack the heating issue with only some small things to be done to finish things off.
Heading off towards the Tiri channel
They dropped me off in Viaduct Harbour and I caught the ferry home to Devonport. They went on to Islington Bay for a boys night away. A fun day!
Kumi and Meloa heading north
I was watching the race on my phone on a tracking app and I noticed some of the Rudder racers had returned back to the Squadron base in Westhaven by 3am in the morning which is great timing.
Every year this is an event I look forward to and we missed it last year as we were in the South Island. This year it was held at Zion Motorhomes new premises at Pokeno rather than the usual Rally somewhere.
The rain on the way.
As the Rally this year was at The A&P Showgrounds at Pukekohe next to the Racetrack, Fiona and I decided we’d go straight to Pokeno and camp outside for the night. This worked really well as we found a driveway next to the Rental fleet yard and later we were joined by three or four others. Those at the showgrounds were bussed out to Pokeno and back.
Since we bought Rafe, Jonas and Irene have added several new brands of Motorhomes to their stable. This year we were also joined by Morelo, Frankia and Niessman and Bichoff owners too.
Other overnighters outside who later moved down near where we were in Rafe in the distance. It was windy and rainy too!
In previous years, they’ve been held at Camping grounds and one year was at the Car Museum in Hamilton where Gary and I did the parking!
The layout
The event was well organised by the Zion crew with a couple of ladies singing and the food was fantastic.
Irene during the quiz and prizes
Over the course of the night, there were some spot prizes given out. Some were drawn out of the pot and others were for answers to some easy questions.. like who’s the youngest and who had the highest NZMCA number !
Click on the Gallery below to see a Slideshow
Fulltimers in their XLI, Ian and Linda having fun. Good to see them again too.
Jonas having a say.
The front half of the showroom
The Foods up
Yum
Old friends Bruce and Judy from Coromandel. They’ve got Rafes twin with the same colour too. There are only a handful of Globe4’s in NZ as they were only imported for a short time.
At the Zion Motohomes table
More at the Zion table
Down the road a bit
It was nice to see some of our old friends that we haven’t seen for a while and amazing to think that our Rafe is one of the oldest Dethleffs Motorhomes on NZ roads as Jonas only started bringing them in not long before we bought ours 🙂
A great night thanks to Jonas and team and I’m looking forward to next years.
Fiona & Chris, two empty nesters put their dreams of doing something different into reality… Now back in a house, they were living in their Motorhome, come along for the ride.
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