My Cars

First car. A 1981 Mini HL. Learnt a lot about repairing cars with this and had lots of fun. Sadly wore it out and having bought it for £3000 in 1985 traded it in for £500 in 1997.

1971 MGB GT - Bought from my Father in 1994 for £4000. A great car to drive and complemented the Mini very well, winning on the longer drives as it is much more comfortable. Taken to NZ as had a new engine, put in my first RAYSGT. Used for spares as too rusty for New Zealand certification then finally sold the remains for $1000.

The Brough - a 1934 Brough Superior OHV 680 - sat languishing in my Fathers garage for many years until he threatened to sell it in 1994 so I bought it unrestored for £7500, paying in installments. My Father restored the motorcycle and sidecar chassis in 2002 and I found and restored the sidecar body. Could not part with this however so it came with me to New Zealand and registered as BRUF. Proved a bit unreliable though and rather than spending $$$$'s on a new engine sold to a guy in Germany for £85,000. 

"Peanut" replaced my HL in 1997 for £7500 from a Rover Dealer with only 15 miles on the clock, 5 of those being my test drive. Multipoint injection with front mounted raidiator and added stainless wheel arch covers, walnut door cappings, centre console and door pull, alloy handles etc it was a delight. Sadly sold for £2400 on EBay in 2007 when I moved to New Zealand.

After years of argument I was finally forced to take a company car. I had an agreement with my boss for a while that I could use my Mini, hiring a car if I needed to carry passengers in comfort. Gave my Mini Cooper to my parents to use and leased this MGZR120+ in 2001 which was a delight until it was stolen in 2004.

With the lease agreement finishing I had now to buy my own company car, and no I couldn't buy a Mini. Bought this second hand MGZR120+ for £8500 in 2004 which was also great fun until it was also stolen in 2006.

Having given my Mini Cooper to my parents to use I soon missed having a Mini. Picked up this 1967 MKIII Wolseley Hornet for £450 in 2002 and restored it as seen above. It was originally registered as MEL993F but sold the registration for £700 on EBay and the car itself for £900 in 2006 before leaving for New Zealand.

Now in New Zealand I needed somewhere to live and drive so bought this 1999 Toyota HiAce Campervan as an ex rental from Pacific Horizon for $24000 in 2006. It was my home for 6 months until I bought a house and was great fun to drive as well as to live in. Sadly sold it for $15000 on Trade Me in 2010 to another hire company as I was only using it for a couple of weeks a year. Did do 36,391km in it though.

I used to drive to work in a company UTE, picking up colleagues on the way, so with the campervan I didn't need a car. However the company discontinued this practice so needed a car. Picked up this 1971 MGBGT for $7000 and a new registration in 2009. Have been swapping bits from my old MG so apart from the body it is mostly my old faithful AOF348K! Then a white van didn't see me coming and it was written off in 2014. Sold at auction for $1000. Got my $7000 back on insurance.

Well having sold the campervan I had lots of room in the garage and spotted this 1975 Mini 850 on Trade Me in 2011 and it was local so for $4000 it was mine. Affectionately called "Tweety" for obvious reasons. Finally sold it for $5000 in 2013 as I had bought MINI11 as this was a bit slow.

Spotted this 1958 Mk 1 Frogeye for sale on Trade Me in 2012 and was local so went to have a look. Took some haggling but got it for $19,000. Needs some tidying up and can be a bit twitchy with a 649 cam but is great fun. My dream car, just need some dream weather.

Photoshoot of Otatara Classic Vehicle Museum 2012.

I looked at this Mini as it was local but was a bit too nippy and was for sale at $10,000 on TradeMe which was a bit steep. It didn't sell and after talking to the owner put in a started bid of $7,500 in 2013 and won it! Had a few issues but after putting in a walnut dash, centre console, door cappings and a few other tweaks it was a nippy little thing. After retiring though I found I was not using it and after spending a year fixing a fuel leak finally sold it for $14,000 in 2022 and it is going to Australia.

I saw on the internet that the MG3 was being imported into NZ so I ordered a black one from Christchurch and had the Trophy Stripe and MG3 decals added. Seemed a bargain at $22,000 in 2014. I bought it as I did not want to continue using RAYSGT for work, especially in the winter. As luck would have it RAYSGT was written off a week before I went to pick this one up. Lucky timing.

A colleague at work who also had an MGBGT (and who I swapped a load of parts from my written off one with before it was taken away) told me of this 1971 MGBGT for sale in Roxburgh that he said was very good so I went for a look. Had overdrive and only problem was a dodgy clutch, bought it anyway for a steal at $12,000 in 2017. Put my RAYSGT plates on it.

After selling my campervan I felt a couple of years later that I wasn't getting around NZ enough so was looking for another. I wanted one with the same layout as my last one but registered 2000 earliest as this meant it only needed a WOF every 12 months rather than 6 if older. After a couple of years I finally found one in Cromwell and bought it the same day as my second RAYSGT for $11,500 in 2017.