New Zealand

Whilst the car was 'hospitalized' in Melbourne, we headed off to see some family friends in Auckland, New Zealand.

My chum Richard, currently works at Southern Spars, who build the Carbon Fibre masts for Super/Mega yachts, Volvo Round the World Racers, and America's Cup - as far as I am aware there are only two facilities in the world that have the capability to build such stuff, and I wasn't going to pass up the offer of a walk round - I used to be in the yacht race scene, and worked in a yacht yard - but that was early days of carbon fibre, and comparatively this was like the chance to visit NASA when you are a hanglider enthusiast! What Southern Spars do is simply awesome, the scale of the super yachts stuff defies belief, the best part of two hundred feet long, and maybe three feet in 'depth' and made in two parts (front and back) then glued together and 'cooked' in a two hundred foot autoclave, the detailing and finish required when you are producing stuff to be used on the toys of the richest people in the world is simply unbelieveable, even 150ft above deck level screws are covered by monogrammed screw caps! The scale of the rigging is also amazing, and again, whilst the bits are big, they are just beautiful. The effect that these new materials have can be remarkable - when PBO rigging replaced rod a few years ago 2.5 tonnes was taken out of the rig weight, which then means 25 tonnes can be taken from the keel, for the same righting moment - so your oligarch can either have a lighter boat, or 27 tonnes of extra 'goodies' for the same performance!

We took a long weekend down in Waihi Beach down on the Bay of Plenty, pretty stormy and wet weekend, but on the Sunday we took a drive 30kms up to Whangamata (pronounced something like Fonga-matar!), where we knew their annual Beach Hop was taking place. We had no idea what it entailed but on the switchback road through some impressive rainforest scenery we must have passed at least 200 Hot Rods, Muscle Cars, and mainstream classics. When we got into town there were still a couple of hundred left, including some great machinery, ranging from Model T Rods, the ubiquitous Chevy BelAirs, hopped-up Lincoln Continental "barges" plus 'Vettes, T-Birds, Mustangs, Holdens, Toranas and Impalas galore. Great to see mainstream classics mixing with the Rods, in the UK the two scenes seem mutually exclusive, which I feel is a shame, as I fully appreciate the superb engineering and beautiful presentation of many of these cars. The antithesis of something like Phillip Island but great to see (and hear of course!)

Cath, Greg, Charlotte and Amelia, and Richard, Megan, Nicholas, Matthew and Annabel - thanks for your hospitality.