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Thursday 27th February

Start of the Tour proper after last nights get-together and welcome dinner. Today it was off to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre which is currently made up of a display of 20 WW1 aircraft of replicas, restorations and survivors. Four of which are flyable and many from the collection of Sir Peter Jackson(Lord of the Rings) together with an extensive related collection of WW1 flying memorabilia. After that walked over to the Omaka Classic Cars museum which contained British and Australian built cars, but NO Packards! My ride for the day, as a passenger, was a '36 Twelve Coupe Roadster with just over 39,000 miles on it. Apparently the original owner, a Texan, had put it aside after about only 4,000 miles and wasn't used much after that. The present owner rebuilt the engine and has put about 20,000 miles on it. The present owner also owns the '32 Twelve Dual Cowl Phaeton on the Tour, a Duesenberg which was in the museum in Wanaka as well as the '18 Fleetwood bodied Twin Six and many other cars.

Dave,

Speaking of the Fleetwood bodied Twin Six, the owner tells me it was bought out of the States probably about 20 years ago by an Aussie but it is not the one you referenced. Apparently the guy who bought it into Australia, along with a lot of other cars, under-declared their value and they were all confiscated and auctioned off by Australian Customs. After that it made it's way to NZ, where a partially done restoration was completed. It looks stunning!

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Mal, lucky accident running into all those Bugatti. We had a similar experience several years ago at a show in California where, we came upon a sizeable display of Bugatti. They made the day and were more impressive than the featured marques. Thanks for sharing.

(o{}o)

Friday 28th February

Today was a run from Blenheim to Lake Rotoiti, lunch nearby at Tophouse Hotel then onto Nelson for the South Pacific Packard Clubs AGM followed by dinner.

Some pic's from today.

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That 36 twelve roadster is gorgeous! Aren't you lucky being able to be chauffeured around in that!

Mal, thanks for the pictures - looks like a great tour. Question - is the Auburn speedster real or a replica?

Dave,

The Auburn is real I believe, and it's '36 SC 851 Phaeton, I'll see if I can find out some more about it today. At the Art Deco day in Napier this Auburn was there as well as 2 others, one of which is a replica.

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Today was the World of WearableArt & Classics Cars Museum. Funny, but I didn't go into the wearable art wing. Instead the car wing and the large 'shed' out the back occupied all my attention. Three Packards there as well as many other cars, including another Auburn.

And Dave, I spoke with the Auburns owner. He tells me he bought it about 15 years ago from Switzerland. Restored it, basically except for the interior, and converted it to RHD. In doing that part he was very fortunate in that he got onto a US guy who had an Auburn which was RHD(from either South Africa or Argentina) and who had already converted it to LHD. The Kiwi Auburn owner was able to get everything for the RHD conversion, steering, bell housing, linkages, etc at a great price. Oh, and it's a '35, not a '36, had that wrong. Another story was the engine, because he'd bought it from a distance had been told that the engine was good and the supercharger silent. When received, the engine was full of noises while the supercharger was quiet but only because it wasn't working! The Kiwi Auburn owner also said he did have a Speedster as well but sold that about a year ago. And mentioned that Packard owners who have ridden with him have been impressed with the car and its road manners and driveability.

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Looks like an amazing trip Mal. Who would have thought that such a diversity of old classics still reside in Kiwi? Weather looks perfect too.

Hi Mal

Thanks for the great pictures! Looks like you and the participants had a wonderful time with a group of great cars. It's always easy to spot an Auburn Speedster replicar by the tread width that's too wide for the fenders and the lowered sloping hood.

Steve

PS: I can't believe that '33 Twelve Individual Custom runabout isn't displayed as the museum centerpiece. Someone needs to put a bug in their ear!

What a great trip and autos! Thanks Mal for all the pics and details of your outing. I'm envious.