By Kevin Taylor
The early Sunday morning start in Auckland was wet & miserable, when I arrived at Smales Farm at 7.30am there wasn't a Mini in sight but the coffee man was already set up and no queue at all, just me. I txt'd Chris Westlake at Matakohe to find out if the Maungaturoto Car & Bike Show had been cancelled and he said "not raining up here". I thought that if no one else turns up I'm grabbing a coffee and going home.
Then there was a tap on my window and Alan & Shelagh had arrived so we decided we might as well go for a drive, we can always head to Chris' for lunch and then come home. The good thing about a 2 Mini convoy is that you don't have to wait for others to catch up so we arrived at Maungaturoto in good time, and we were directed into the school's upper sealed playground where a smaller than usual show was coming together. It was warm & sunny when Chris arrived with his 2 Minis so there were now 4 Minis in attendance.
Did I mention that Alan & Shelagh were in their recently acquired Mini Moke replica? I thought that it looked like a scaled down Jeep as it has the distinctive Jeep looking grille, I joked that I didn't think many Mokes have been harmed in the making of this Moke? They are both well equipped for open car motoring as they were well rugged up for the journey but they did find that the torrential rain we encountered on the trip north had managed to find its way between the windscreen and bonnet and they were a little damp, but they soon dried out in the Northland sunshine. Alan will figure out how to make the Moke more waterproof before they venture out in the rain again.
There was an interesting variety of cars & bikes at the show and even a local tractor with a flame themed paint job and chainsaw strapped to the rear platform.
The school was serving up great bacon butties and various other treats and there were stalls selling assorted other stuff. The kids were enjoying the bouncy castle and other entertainment.
At 1.00pm they awarded prizes for Peoples Choice and other award categories and then Chris invited us back to his place at Matakohe for refreshments before we returned to Auckland.
An interesting day out, thanks to Chris for his hospitality.
The early Sunday morning start in Auckland was wet & miserable, when I arrived at Smales Farm at 7.30am there wasn't a Mini in sight but the coffee man was already set up and no queue at all, just me. I txt'd Chris Westlake at Matakohe to find out if the Maungaturoto Car & Bike Show had been cancelled and he said "not raining up here". I thought that if no one else turns up I'm grabbing a coffee and going home.
Then there was a tap on my window and Alan & Shelagh had arrived so we decided we might as well go for a drive, we can always head to Chris' for lunch and then come home. The good thing about a 2 Mini convoy is that you don't have to wait for others to catch up so we arrived at Maungaturoto in good time, and we were directed into the school's upper sealed playground where a smaller than usual show was coming together. It was warm & sunny when Chris arrived with his 2 Minis so there were now 4 Minis in attendance.
Did I mention that Alan & Shelagh were in their recently acquired Mini Moke replica? I thought that it looked like a scaled down Jeep as it has the distinctive Jeep looking grille, I joked that I didn't think many Mokes have been harmed in the making of this Moke? They are both well equipped for open car motoring as they were well rugged up for the journey but they did find that the torrential rain we encountered on the trip north had managed to find its way between the windscreen and bonnet and they were a little damp, but they soon dried out in the Northland sunshine. Alan will figure out how to make the Moke more waterproof before they venture out in the rain again.
There was an interesting variety of cars & bikes at the show and even a local tractor with a flame themed paint job and chainsaw strapped to the rear platform.
The school was serving up great bacon butties and various other treats and there were stalls selling assorted other stuff. The kids were enjoying the bouncy castle and other entertainment.
At 1.00pm they awarded prizes for Peoples Choice and other award categories and then Chris invited us back to his place at Matakohe for refreshments before we returned to Auckland.
An interesting day out, thanks to Chris for his hospitality.
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