WCC of New Zealand - National Rally Report. Graham Keys

Sharon and I helped to made up part of the contingent of seven Aussies who attended this six-day North Island rally, brilliantly

organised by Winton and Ruth Cleal and members of the NZ WCC. We are starting in Wellington and taking in Masterton and

Palmerston North, and are travelling with Marion and Richard Graham in a hired and very comfortable Toyota Tarago with heaps of

room to carry us and our luggage from Auckland Airport via

overnight stops at Hamilton and Taihape to the rally’s starting

point, a motel in windy Wellington which when we arrive is

definitely living up to its infamous name. After five previous NZ

rallies it is great to catch up with all our Kiwi friends, and as the

traditional welcome dinner approaches we meet up with John

Mallia and Allan Francis who have arrived from Christchurch in

Allan’s black 6/90 Series III, and welcome Richard Keylock and

Carmel Hegarty who have flown in from Queensland and are

driving a borrowed FWD Wolseley 1300. By evening all the

friendships have been renewed and we are tucking into the first

of many delicious rally meals.

Our first day gives everyone a rest from driving and we tour

Wellington CBD by bus, ride the cable car to the Planetarium

and visit their wonderful museum, Te Papa, which lies in

Wellington harbour on reclaimed land and sits on earthquake

proof rubber blocks. Later we visit Peter Jackson’s world

famous Weta Workshops and have a “behind the scenes” tour of this mystical world that provides the costumes and motorised

monsters for many of the movies and characters that our children know the names off by heart.

Our dinner for this night is served aboard a party cruiser and we motor around a now strangely calm Wellington Harbour to a

secluded inlet before returning and boarding the bus to our motel and prepare for the next day of fun.

Day two takes us to the Southward Car Museum,

and I tick off another “must see” item from by bucket

list and see two very early Wolseleys amongst the

hundreds of magnificent cars, tractors, fire engines,

motor bikes, racing cars, boats and aircraft on

display over 2 floors and a huge mezzanine. We

lunch at a local car club’s meeting rooms and

inspect their parts shed before visiting a liquorice

factory and attending a NZ Airforce base where we

inspect a private collection of 6 airworthy and fully

restored aircraft, which includes a MK IX Spitfire.

On Day three we leave Wellington and

drive to Palmerston North where we visit

and lunch at the Tui Brewery, visit a

privately owned Greek Church with a

magnificently painted interior and then

drive north to our third rally motel in

Masterton. A great BBQ dinner is served

at the town’s local car club meeting

rooms, and we inspect their workshops

and parts sheds. The Copthorne Motel is

our base for the next three nights. The

complex has well over one hundred rooms

and caters for very large corporate

functions. On Day Four their huge front

lawns provide an excellent venue for the

official rally photo, and when the drone

has done its job we leave to enjoy a picnic

lunch at Castlepoint Beach where some energetic members walk out

the historic lighthouse with magnificent views over rugged East Coast

and the Pacific Ocean. Dinner and drinks are taken in a private room

at the local services club and we retire for the night and prepare for the

next days adventure.

Day Five dawns, and we divide into two groups. We rearrange the

seats in the Tarago so Sharon can transport six ladies while the rest of

the ladies fill up Wolseleys and promise to drive carefully as they visit a

mohair factory and doll collection while the blokes squeeze into the

remaining cars to inspect yet another private car collection and check

out the owner’s hubcap manufacturing enterprise. We meet up again

at yet another private collection, this time featuring both cars and

vintage clothes, and after lunch head back to the motels to

prepare for the superb final dinner and prize giving, held in

the complex’s formal ballroom.

Saturday, our farewell breakfast sees many sad good buys as

the Wolseleys and their owners depart for home, some with huge distances to travel and a ferry crossing to the South Island to

contend with before they complete their journeys.

For us, another six days of sightseeing remains until we swap car for plane at Auckland Airport, and we drive North, overnighting at

the Art Deco town of Napier, beautiful Lake

Taupo, Thames and the spectacular

Coromandel Peninsula, Whangarei in the

Bay of Islands and Kaitaia, near the most

northern tip of NZ before again heading

south and returning along the east coast,

taking the ferry crossing of Hokianga

Harbour at Rawene and driving to our last

stop, Warkworth through the beautiful Kauri

rain forest. Along the way we learn that the

shocking Corona Virus has taken hold. Our

Emirates flight back to Melbourne has been

cancelled but we were able to “escape” on a

special fight put on by Qantas for Australian

passport holders. A sad end to a great

holiday. Sincere thanks to our New Zealand

fiends for putting on a superbly well run

National Rally, which will be long

remembered by all who attended.