Beach Hop 24 ...

ok you lot .. if you ever come to New Zealand make sure the Whangamata Beach hop is on your itinerary ....

i took the lark there and back from my home town (1100 + miles)

According to the Organiser there were 2000+ registered vehicles, Mine was number 953 + half that again just to come and look, rumoured to be over 110000 people in a town with a population of around 4000 .... constant cruising to various destinations, events like best fashion made from car parts, drag race - guys in drag, and so much more

giveaways too, the Mustang pictured , brand new 350 Harley d , $10000 cash, 4th was $1000 vanity plates,,
randomly drawn, guy that won the mustang didnt own anything , a woman won the harley way way cool ..

proceeds go to various local organisations, school, surf life saving etc, this year was the Fire brigade

Funniest vanity plate on a badly desert burnt 56 Chev said "PSASHT"


most amazing week of cars bikes people ive ever been a part of ....

first pic is a group of cars ready to head off on a cruise - this 409 powered bucket has been a favorite of mine since i saw it on a magazine

and Smokey and the Bandit made an appearance.....

and some clever people the horse head was incredible,, this guy had so much more too

there is still around 450 still unposted pictures from this event ,

if anyone can help out instructions on how to post a secure link, im more than happy to share here..

this is the biggest single car show in NZ, and 2-3 weekends either side of this one - there are multiple others .

even Billy Gibbons from ZZ top has been, fellow club member took his coupe and sent through a photo of himself standing next to Billy, and his Nash ...

down side was my vacuum advance blew - took me about 400 stressful miles to diagnose,, replaced with a 2nd hand spare that lasted about 2 miles hahahaha,,

finally working out what the problem was ( i had replaced coil, condenser -x2- electric fuel pump, cleaned points swore and cursed at it alot ) i didnt hold back for the last 85 miles, I could have slipped the timing forward a little to compensate, but the bulb in my timing light blew - yeah on the trip - , + fast heading toward 7pm and just wanted to get home ,, scoffed alot fuel in the process .. making it 10 mins later than predicted ..

all in all the best time ever ( in the car scene)

Glad to see the car hobby alive and well in other places! Thanks for the pix!

smallfoot said:

Glad to see the car hobby alive and well in other places! Thanks for the pix!

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Small last year our federation of motoring clubs (FOMC) conducted some research in how much the industry in NZ $$$ the classic, resto , hot rod etc etc industry created. prior to Christmas 2023 the estimation was 11 Billion ! . just a couple of weeks ago the final figure was 16 billion pa.. !! this is an incredible figure!!

Kiwifruit we export at just under 4 billion pa, wine a whopping 2.4 billion for 2023

heres the link ... keep in mind NZ has a current population of New Zealand is 5,258,812 and not everyone is a gearhead at least not mrs crate !

https://mailchi.mp/hotrod/nzhra-executive-meeting-minutes-july-2551916?e=446fc0f7c3

Keep those figures close by and use them any time the sport is threatened. There's some stupidity that threatens us over here and I'm not sure it will get straightened out, sorry to say!

wow, great looking cars down there... Thanks for the pics

smallfoot said:

Keep those figures close by and use them any time the sport is threatened. There's some stupidity that threatens us over here and I'm not sure it will get straightened out, sorry to say!

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i believe thats why it was done ... some folks should follow this process over your way .. 16 billion in NZ ,,, what figure will the States come up with ?

I think it is cool seeing some of these classics as right hand drive. I didn’t expect that. Thanks for posting. Jim

Thanks for taking the time to post the pics for us to enjoy

What a nice variety of hot rods, classics, etc. in NZ. I watch You Tube nostalgia drags from your homeland. Good stuff. I especially like the pic of the couple in the rusty RPU. The smile on their faces is gold.

Those are great looking cars.

Thanks crate. Fun to see what's going on in other places.

some more ... to see

major sponsor of this event is a crowd called Repco.. - they are owned by Napa

annnnd some more

smokey lil pu had a little whoopsy , losing the rear end - nearly off the road into a ditch,, this wee cloud follwed him quite distance up the hill, from way before the corner..... bit of a laugh embarressing for him & lucky no one was hurt or broken

Love that green late 55 or 56 Dodge pickup (probably a Fargo there).