Taranaki Branch Committee

At our June meeting, a motion was passed directing that “Upon joining the Taranaki Branch, a new member is to be given a VCC name badge with their name engraved on it, without charge to the new member”. Any new member should approach Kevin Fabish, on committee, to action this change to ensure the correct details are supplied.

Committee Chatter for Topical Torque

Hello Folks

We have a very busy next two months of Activities with the next big event The Waitara Mini Vin Tour to be held on 26th February, that is celebrating for the 50th time as this rally has been held since 1973. All those who have entered will be contacted with details of the programme and we look forward to this now iconic event for the branch being celebrated in True Mini Vin Tour style.

The next big event after this one for our branch is in the following month of March when the Maunga Moana Annual Rally will take place on March 24th/25th . Unfortunately the date in Beaded Wheels is wrong so our apologies for that error, Entry forms have been sent out and are now available on line. The Maunga Moana rally will be held in conjunction with the Plymouth Hotel.

Another event that the branch requires helpers for is the Fossil Fuelled Taranaki Machinery Clubs open day in Hawera. We have been asked to park the cars and we are able to keep the parking fee for our branch funds. Please contact Jim Logan if you are able to help. Details are elsewhere in this newsletter.

Michael Kruse contacted the committee with a suggestion to see if members would be interested in a logo-ed polo shirt with our branch VCC Taranaki logo printed. The committee felt that it could be a worthwhile project to see if there is interest at our Noggin and Natter night but were adamant that any orders would have to be pre-paid and be of a good quality. We warmly welcome 2 new members ,Nigel Bates and also Chris and Joyce Blackhouse who own an Austin Mini and Austin Ruby. We would encourage members to attend this next Noggin and Natter night as member Mark Masters will give us a talk on Mark and Shelia's trip to Norway and the Northern Lights with pictures.

We have dug out all the agapanthus at the front gate of the clubrooms to make it easier to see the gateway entrance for members especially in the dark. Many thanks to Grant Bishop for his help in removing them and taking away the plants. We intend to paint the existing posts white and install red reflecting tape on them. We are still waiting for Downers to fix the huge water potholes on the road reserve in front of the clubrooms, yes, we know, does that surprise you that we are still waiting. It is disappointing as we have been asking for this to be fixed for a very long time to make it safer for our members to turn into our clubrooms on this part of an extremely busy state highway.

The painting of our clubrooms has caused plenty of comments from the public we have heard and they all agree that the building looks clean tidy and is a credit to us. So there you are people do notice how we are looking after our clubrooms.

We hope to see plenty of members participating in the activities that have been arranged for you.

Enjoy this beautiful weather that we are having even though we have been relatively lucky to miss the horrible weather from up north. We certainly are thinking of our wider members up North and what they have been through.

Keep the passion........ Drive Safely..........Keep to the Left..... Enjoy.

Colin Johnston for the Committee.

Midweekers at the home of member Lloyd Gleeson, built 1890

February Mid-Week Run to Rickards,Gleeson’s and Muters.

A real good turnout of members and cars assembled at the Water tanks car park on the corner of Junction and Mangorei Road in New Plymouth for the midweek run organised by John Muter. We made our way to Barry Rickards place just around the corner to his amazing collection of vehicles and memorabilia. The collection was housed in a huge shed and we were able to walk around viewing all the different makes. There was a great hub caps, bottle, antique, old tools from a bygone era and car parts collection on the walls which made it easy to view. Barry had cars outside the building as well as inside. In all over 100 vehicles and some were for sale. Thank you Barry very much for allowing us to view your collections.

We then made our way to member Lloyd Gleeson’s beautiful old 1890s two story Villa home where Lloyd welcomed us and invited us to view his cars models and memorabilia. His house was a stunning example of early Villa architecture with its steep gable style and 13 ft inside stud on both the lower and upper floors. The house built on Rogan Street New Plymouth around 1890 was the farm house residence of William John Shaw who farmed all the area which later became the New Plymouth racecourse. The residence was later known as "Hillcrest". Lloyd has owned the property since the 1970s and has maintained the house and property to a very high standard. It was a real pleasure to visit this homestead and learn about the history. We were invited to inspect the house inside and out and even to the upper floors up the beautiful winding stairway. The rooms have been kept in the era with wallpaper and frieze giving a real taste of days gone by. Thank You so much Lloyd for letting us view your beautiful residence. From there we made our way to John and Meg Muter’s house where Meg had prepared a scrumptious afternoon tea with cold and hot drinks to finish off an excellent Mid-Week Run. Well Done John and Meg for arranging this excellent run for those that could attend. Dodge Brother Colin.