Rusty Nuts Hot Rod Show!

Waihi Beach, New Zealand 22nd March 2014

Cresta went to her first New Zealand car show on the weekend - The Rusty Nuts Hot Rod show at Waihi Beach.

We cruised with the Beach Hop crew from Whangamata along the winding hilly roads to Waihi Beach. The scenery was just beautiful, through rolling green farm land and fern-filled forests, I am always amazed by just how beautiful New Zealand is and cruising along in an old car makes you appreciate it even more.

The  car show was held right on the beach and the cars all parked up on the sand - crazy!

 This too cool for school Woody Wagon looked right at home

The Beach Hop prize giveaway cars got to test out their newly installed running gear and pose for a few photos the winner of the prize draw gets to choose between the Mustang, a Falcon surf wagon or the Zephyr (the Falcon was still having its interior done so wasn't at this show)

This Zephyr comes with a matching vintage caravan and some lucky winner will taken them home for the cost of a $5 program! 

I had lots of fun getting so many great pics in the lovely afternoon light 

They had a great band called the Recliner Rockers playing on the sand - gotta love that double bass!

What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon - chilling on the beach, listening to some live music and ogling over all the luscious chrome and immaculate machinery...

Even though I'm more of a classic and custom girl than a muscle car fan - This shot was one that I was particularly happy with - I just love the composition of it and the light, so I turned it into a black and white and it became pure art...

Cresta had lots of photos taken of her and even blokes appreciated her - these cars were a lot more popular in New Zealand than they were in Australia and so many people came up to me and said that they either used to have one, learned ot drive in one, or their parents had one... 

it made me happy to have my not-quite-so-flash as the other cars Cresta get so much love.

Of course to me she will always be the most beautiful car in the world!

Southward bound!

Maleny to Lennox head, NSW and back 4-6 Feb 2011 (562km)

This trip had been in the planning for quite some time. The weekend away was pre-booked with a whole swag of members from the vintage caravan forums and so yet another weekend of old vans, classic cars, hot rods and good company was assured.

When Mum had told me she was planning a visit over from New Zealand at around this time I'd said "I have a vintage caravan outing then". She had suggested rescheduling her trip until after that. "No way!" I said. "Come along, you'll love it!" Having already made my son promise to join me on this one, I thought why not make it a family affair and drag Mum along too?

Mum's flight got in at 10.30am. At 9am I was still running around Maleny organising last minute things like an oil top up for the car. Then there was some last minute tweaking of the electricals on the tow bar to fix the right indicator which was wired wrong. Thanks to the lovely Maleny mechanic at JLR Mechanical and the Maleny Auto electrician next door for squeezing those last minute repairs in for me! Van all loaded on to the car, and bags all packed, the next stop was a fuel up and air pressure check on all tyres before hitting the road; destination Brisbane International. At around this point, running about half an hour behind schedule I got a text from Mum. "I'm here, where are you?". Ummm, "I'm still in Beerwah!" Oops! I raced down the highway at the speed limit (not something I normally do when pulling a van) to pick up a waiting Mum with the hopes of then dashing down to Yatala to meet the meandering convoy at 11.30 for the rest of the journey. Amazingly we made it! The pace slowed considerably from there, as the older cars and their cute caravans cruised down the highway at a much more leisurely pace, getting us into Byron Bay for a scenic detour and arriving at Lake Ainsworth Caravan Park at around 2pm QLD time.

The weather was awesome! We went for a swin in the surf once camp was set up, and then soothed weary bodies in the warmer and more sheltered tea tree lake. Once night fell, there was a big sausage sizzle at the communal BBQ area and vintage vanners gathered for a feed and a yarn well into the night.

On Saturday morning while some of the vintage vanners decided to go off treasure hunting at local garage sales, Mum, Bas and I went to Byron Bay. Although the beach there was nice, I found the town itself just a bit too full of tourists and hectic busy-ness for my liking, so we parked the car down the southern end of the beach and went for a long walk up to the lighthouse and back and all got severely sunburnt in the process! The lighthouse was beautiful, as always; a most photogenic landmark it is, set against the bright blue sky on the most perfect Summer's day. It was the first taste of a real summer I'd felt in a long, long time. All we've had here in the "Sunshine State" for the past three months or more, is rain!

I accosted a guy in the lighthouse carpark who was applying sunblock and asked if he'd mind if we could have a bit. "Is it always this hot here?" I asked. "Are you not from around here?" he asked. "No, I'm from Queensland!" It was pretty funny.

Anyway, we had a blast, despite looking like beetroots, came back for fish and chips and slept soundly. On Sunday morning Banno's crew made use of their new industrial-sized pancake makers for a communal griddle cake breakfast on the BBQ's - yum yum!

Then all the coolest cars and hot rods lined up and took many willing passengers for a quick blast around Lennox head which caused quite a stir with the onlookers at the local pub! Mum, Bas and I all got to ride in Banno's bright orange rod which went beautifully with the cute Sunliner they had only just finished in time to bring down to this event.

There were a great selection of vans and cars to be seen, a total of 26 vans attended and the whole weeekend was relaxed, stress-free and loads of fun with a real seaside family-holiday feel to the weeekend. And that, after all is what vintage caravanning is all about! Bas had fun with Izzy and the Banno boys - something to do with sparklers, glow sticks and bombs... hmmmm... no damage done apparently!

I managed to get some video footage of all the vans as I wandered around on Sunday morning before everyone packed up to go home. The Olympic fibregalass contingent were all gathered in one corner (they assure me this was pure coincidence). Then there were 1950's bondwoods, 1960's aluminiums, and a few fibreglass bubble shaped sunliners like Joey and Banno's along with a teardop and a couple of folding vans scatterd about within our designated part of the park.

For all her initial doubts, I think I've managed to convince Mum, as I have down with so many people now, that caravanning is not "camping". It's so much more civilized being able to rock up at your destination with your own bedroom all made up just the way you like it, a fully stocked pantry, a working fridge, stove, and electricity. This 'aint no roughing it - I adventure in retro style! Now Mum is even looking at vans for sale in New Zealand so I think I may have hooked another one!

So, the trip home was a lot quicker without the convoy and without incident. I love having that little van behind me, it makes the whole journey so much more fun.

We all had so much fun at Lennox Head that we've decided to do it all again next month.

Congratulations Mum on your first Vintage caravan outing!

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Hervey Bay Hot Rod 'n' Custom Car Campout

Sunshine Coast to Hervey Bay return 1-3 May (500kms)

I had heard about the May in the Wide bay Hot Rod and Custom Car campout from the Vintage Caravan forums. A lot of Vintage vanners are classic car enthusiasts who use their restored old caravans to travel and stay at the many car shows and campouts held several times a year all around the country. So, fuelled by promises of multiple vintage caravans and lots of classic cars all in the one place, it was time to hook up the old van, jump in the car, and hit the road north for the 260 km drive up past Gympie and Maryborough to Hervey Bay.

As I pulled into the Happy Wanderer Caravan Park I was greeted by a hive of activity and a sea of chrome-adorned open topped rods in just about every bright coloured metallic two pack known to mankind. Having just returned from what sounded like a hilarious observation run and treasure hunt, it was miles of smiles all around as rodders gave fellow rodders a taste of cruising around the caravan park and out and around the streets in their pride and joys. I found Jeff Neels, the secretary of the Wide bay Rodders who introduced me to some of the car owners all of whom were more than happy to have a yarn about their cars and what they love about “rodding”.

“It’s the camaraderie that develops through runs like this one. And the freedom, the freedom to build a car that truly reflects the individual” says Owen Johnston, the club’s president. Owen’s interest in rodding developed when he rescued his grandfather’s old rotting 1927 Buick from a sorry fate many years ago and turned it into a hot rod. He said it took two years of his spare time to repair, restore and rebuild the beauty from the ground up. And it seems this kind of passion and devotion runs deep in the rodding fraternity with many attendees sharing similar stories about the journey of their car’s rebirthing. 

So what is a hot rod? Basically it’s a pre-1948 model of car, usually American, such as Ford Model A’s and T’s or Chevy’s and Buicks with a big fat V8 engine in it. The rest is pretty much up the builder’s own tastes; choose your colour, your chrome bits, add personal touches such as licking flame paintwork and big shiny wheels and you’ve got yourself your very own hot wheels project for big kids. Now you’ve made yourself your dream chick-magnet (unless you are a chick already in which case your car will probably be pink and more of a dude repellant) you need somewhere to drive it. As modified vehicles, general daily use is out of the question. Besides, with paintwork like this, would you want to risk it? Most hot rod clubs hold at least one get-together a year to allow members to mingle with other enthusiasts. Along with a bit of car-envy and healthy, jovial competitiveness, all genuine classic and vintage car lovers are welcomed with life-long friendships often formed along the way.

Entry fees included a host of activities designed to engage all rodders of all ages along with communally shared and catered meals held under canvas canopies in the caravan park. Having grown over the past three years to over 120 cars participating this year, May in the Wide Bay now takes over two camping areas in Hervey Bay with onsite accommodation apparently having been booked months in advance. With many of the featured cars on limited special usage registration, registered runs like this one give owners the chance to strut their stuff, turn some heads and show off a bit and many of them travel several times a year to attend events such as this one. Wide Bay Rodders secretary Jeff is quick to point out that any funds raised from holding events like this one in excess of their needs are donated to charity and an auction and raffle drawn on the closing night of the event saw funds proved the generosity, as well as the partying spirit of the rodding fraternity. The the Oncology ward of the local hospital are the deserving beneficiaries of this weekend’s proceedings.

Thanks so much to the Wide bay Rodders for your hospitality. I had an absolute blast  - see you next year!