2024 Roaming the 'Rapa Rally
At our annal general meeting two years ago Jim Laird accepted the responsibility for organizing the next rally to be held in the Wairarapa. He then co-opted me to assist him. Together we formulated a plan with the following objectives:
- To have a central venue Have interesting trips that were not “too long”
- To visit interesting places and events
- To have an excellent meal with entertainment at night
Jim, with his local knowledge had mapped out a list of interesting local roads we should take, the many different collections, and locations we could include. The final outcome was a six day rally, with forty people and thirty-seven cars all staying at the Solway park hotel and making daily trips through many rural roads and towns of the Wairarapa.
We all enjoyed some lovely weather and had a lot of fun. Thanks go the club members who assisted us, Leyton Chan for oversight, Theo De Leeuw for managing the finances, Lynette Duncan for the rally booklet, Jim Laird and his PA who put together the tour directory, Craig Marshall and Mike Taylor for the interesting presentations, the club members who kindly leant cars to others, the people from the USA who travelled so far and all the participants who made the rally such a success!
The first day of the rally was spent travelling to Solway Hotel in Masterton. It was a sunny day when we left Napier, but extremely windy on the way to Norsewood Village. My goodness it was quite the wrestle to try keep the car within in its lane.
We arrived at Norsewood and had a spot of lunch before heading to the Mills Family Collection. Where there was quite the collection of trucks, memorabilia, and even a steam powered bicycle!
After the visit to the Pointon Family Collection we made our way to morning tea in Tinui Village. The locals provided an excellent spread of sandwiches, sausage rolls, buns, tarts, etc.
The town was still recovering from the effects of severe flooding in 2023. We were told that the flood waters had submerged most of the town leaving only the community hall, and the shop across the road untouched.
After morning tea we headed to Castlepoint Lighthouse. We climbed up the windy windy steps (bet you’ve never seen that in a sentence! Windy as in gusty and windy as in curvy). We were greeted with a magnificent view.
When it came time to leave one of the cars almost got stuck in the sand! Luckily being a Packard it managed to free itself without too much bother. We then stopped for lunch at a local fish and chip shop.
Two Bentleys on our rally parked outside the Mills Family Collection . On the left is a 3L the right is an 8L.
On the third day we headed out to see the Dudson Family Car Collection. They had a great collection of pre and post war cars. Mainly English and American marques. They have a nice collection of Hudsons.
Our next stop was at Dave Pattons, where we were shown a collection English cars. There were mainly post-war Jaguars and Daimlers.
On the fourth day of the rally we set off early after breakfast to the Tui Brewery. The food there was nice, and the brewery tour there was interesting. Turns out that they don’t produce the Tui beer at this site, but rather they produce small batches of craft beers. There was also a small museum detailing the founding of the brewery, and how the Tui branding had changed over the years.
After visiting the Tui Brewery, we popped down the road to “The Tin Hut”. A private collection consisting of several large sheds all full to the brim of commercial vehicles. There was also quite a impressive collection of classic/vintage motorcycles.
The most impressive of all was the 1941 Harvard 66 2711 Mark II plane. It had spent many years in a children’s playground, until it was removed and transported to The Tin Hut to serve as a weather vane!
