August 2024
Kelvin Petrie’s 1942 Willys Jeep
Who’s Who for 2024/2025
Northern
Southern
Beaded Wheels Rep Murray Cormack m.g.cormack@xtra.co.nz 09 407 7255 Communications Officer Margaret Ilton 4ed.focus@gmail.com 0221008119
Editor Margaret Ilton 4ed.focus@gmail.com 09 4068565
Committee: Winston Matthews, Murray Cormack, Keith Lyndsell, Tom Deverall, Naomi Mason, Steve Edwards, Margaret Deverall, Margaret Ilton.
The full list of the elected officers is circulated with the minutes of the 2024 Annual General Meeting.
Club Cleaning Roster
After a discussion at our July meeting, the cleaning roster for the club has changed.
We will now clean at the end of each monthly meeting. Members at the meeting will share the cleaning.
Many thanks to our members who have taken their turns on the cleaning roster. For some, it has been a very long-standing contribution to the clubrooms.
I’ve changed my will three times!’. Chairman
If you notice any required maintenance at any stage, please let Steve know about it.
Steve Edwards 09 401 6239
Caffeine & Classics
3rd Sunday every month 9.30 to 12
Next date: Sunday 18th August
Ka Uri Awanui
An elderly gentleman had had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%.
The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, ‘Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again.’
The gentleman replied, ‘Oh, I haven’t told my family yet.
I just sit around and listen to the conversations.
Calendar of Club Events 2024-2025
August
10th Saturday at 10 am Monthly Meeting followed with Mid-Winter Potluck Xmas lunch.
Parts shed open at 2 pm.
18th Repco Caffeine & Classics
24th Saturday Daffodil Run
September
1st Father’s Day Run
14th Saturday 1.00 Monthly Meeting with Parts shed open at 2 pm.
15th Repco Caffeine & Classics
21st Working Bee @ Clubrooms 10 am
October
12th Saturday Monthly Meeting 1.00 pm with Parts shed open at 2 pm.
19th Dunny Run
20th Repco Caffeine & Classics
November
1-3 Nov Far North Tour [Northland]
9th Monthly meeting 1 pm with Parts shed open at 2 pm.
9th? November Wheels of Mayhem
17th Repco Caffeine & Classics
December
14th Saturday 10 am Morning tea & monthly meeting starting at 10.30. Potluck Xmas lunch to follow the meeting.
January 2025
4 th ? Jan Taipa Show and Shine
18th Saturday Picnic
19th Repco Caffeine & Classics
8th Saturday Monthly Meeting 1 pm with Parts shed open at 2 pm.
16th Repco Caffeine & Classics
22nd Saturday Northern Captain’s Run
March
8th Saturday Monthly Meeting 1 pm with Parts shed open at 2 pm.
Southern Captain’s Run
16th Repco Caffeine & Classics
April
12th Saturday Monthly Meeting 1.00 pm
Parts shed open at 2 pm.
19th Saturday Brian Parker Rally
20th Repco Caffeine & Classics
May
11th Saturday 1.00 AGM Meeting with monthly meeting following AGM with Parts shed open at 2 pm.
12th Mother’s Day run
18th Repco Caffeine & Classics
Monthly - 2nd Saturday 1.00 pm
Club Meeting @ Aurere Clubrooms
Monthly - 3rd Sunday
Repco Caffeine & Classics @ Ka Uri Awanui
Remember when
…
February
Club Notices
Mid-Week Run
Mid-week casual rally in Okaihau. Wednesday 7 th August
Meet on main street Okaihau, in front of hall, at 9.30am. The outing will be completed around midday-ish.
Bring morning tea, a chair and a coat. Okaihau may surprise you.
Murray and Gloria Cormack 09 4077255 027 9379747 m.g.cormack@xtra.co.nz +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PLEASE NOTE:
Our next monthly meeting will be on Saturday, August 10th , starting at 10 am, as the meeting will be followed by our Mid-Winter Potluck Xmas lunch.
It is a potluck lunch, so let your enthusiasm run wild.
BYO if you wish.
Any queries to Margaret Ilton. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pot luck Lunch
Daffodil Day Run Saturday 24th August
Make your own way to Ian McGregor’s home.
122 Landing Road, Kerikeri.
Feel free to arrive from 11 am onwards. Please bring a seat, cutlery, plates and a $10 donation for the fundraiser. It’s a social catch-up time for this gathering.
It’s a 10 am start for our August meeting.
Come prepared to have morning tea before the meeting.
Parts Shed
The parts shed will be open from 2 pm to 3.30 the day of our monthly meeting. For any ‘needs’ between meetings, please get in touch with Peter Mason.
Happy birthday today, Mr Chairman.
Chairman’s Report
No run in July, instead we had the annual lunch and prizegiving. As usual, the Mangonui Cruising Club was an ideal venue, even if the weather meant only the brave ventured onto the deck. Also, as usual, the lunch was excellent.
Congratulations to all our trophy winners.
Our Clubman of the Year is Peter Mason. Points Trophy was awarded to Winston Matthews.
Matthews Bros Cup was awarded to Robyn Mackay.
Brian Parker's trophy was won by Gloria & Murray Cormack.
The Father’s Day trophy was won by Jocelyn & Kelly Archer.
The Molloy Trophy was won by Sue & Terry Rogers.
The Mother’s Day trophy was won by Glenis Muir & Winston Matthews.
The Misfortune Trophy was presented to Brian.
For August we have the meeting on Saturday the 10th which I will miss as I will be representing the branch at the club AGM in Tauranga. Tom Deverall will also be there as a branch observer.
As the planned VCC National Daffodil Day event at Kaikohe had to be cancelled, we will have an alternative potluck lunch at Ian MacGregor's as a fundraiser for our branch's contribution to the Cancer Society's Daffodil Day.
Keith
Northern Club Captain’s Report
So far winter has been kind to us, and we’ve managed to have most of our runs without rain.
Ian McGregor is happy to have us at his place for a potluck lunch to celebrate Daffodil Day on Saturday, 24th August.
Thank you, Ian, for having us.
To make it easy for Ian, please bring a plate, cutlery, and a ‘seat,’ thanks. It has been agreed that a donation of ten dollars per vehicle would be an acceptable contribution to the Daffodil fundraising.
Feel free to contribute more if you wish.
Our annual prize-giving dinner at the Mangonui Cruising Club was another very successful and social event. Again, a lovely meal was supplied by the two great caterers.
Unfortunately, two parties receiving recognition at the event were unable to attend.
Murray is organising another mid-week run for Wednesday 7th August. See Club Notices for more info.
A big welcome to Murray and Christine Squires, our newest members. We’re sure you’ll enjoy what the club has to offer you.
We also have the Father’s Day run on September 1.
I am mentioning it now, as the September Focus will be sent out on the morning of the run. While it will have the details, it will be a tad late for your planning. Please check your emails for details of the run, later this month.
The polo and sweatshirts with our new emblem are being organised and Robyn will have the options & prices available for discussion at the next meeting. Thanks, Robyn for sorting this for the Club.
Tom and I will be absent from our club meeting in August. Tom is going as an observer to the National AGM in Tauranga.
Happy motoring.
Marg D
The First Motor Trip to the Far North
By G E Alderton
….” Being ready to start, we promised two commercials who were at the hotel and who were going that day to the same place as we were setting out for, to tell Joe Evans, at Waipapakauri that they were coming.
A.C. explained to me just what had happened. The pump which should have automatically kept the boiler supplied with water had failed to act, and the bottom of the boiler had been burnt causing it to contract. The copper tubes fitting into it became loose and let the water and the steam out.
“And what, then, is to be done? Have we to return for repairs?” I asked.
“No,” he said, “if we can get to a blacksmith’s shop I think we can fix it. This has happened to me before. Whereabouts are we and where is a blacksmith’s shop?”
I could not answer his questions. There was not a house in sight and as I had never been on the road before, knew nothing as to the whereabouts of a smithy and looking round the country as far as the eye could see, there was nothing there to support a smithy- except the advent of the motor car.
Fortunately, we had with us that most useful vade mecum, Cleave’s Directory and in that we ascertained that there was a smithy at Peria, some distance ahead.
I was then just on the point of going in search of a farmhouse, to get a horse when a Maori man came over the hill riding one horse and leading another with trace chains etc complete.
Had he taken in the situation clearly, he might have insisted on heavy salvage before rendering assistance, but he was too scared and curious to turn the position to account. A motor car had never been there before and fortunately, he had not seen it going or he would have made tracks rather than hitched his horse on.
As it was, it took some considerable diplomacy to get him to tie his horse on to the machine, and I am sure he would have been happier anywhere but there.
We got to the smithy about noon, but he gave us no possible hope of being able to effect repairs – it was quite beyond him, he said he had no tools. Neither he had. He only did shoeing and for this he had a forge, some hammers, and nails. There was a very heavy sledgehammer there, but things had not yet got so serious as to require its use, though it suggested a possible solution. I thought the case was hopeless as the as the blacksmith did. But not so A.C. He was not the least bit put out – just as quiet and confident as if he were soliciting an advertisement from an old customer.
“Now my good man,” he said, ‘you just make me a couple of tapered punches, and we’ll tap these tubes out in no time.”
This was done. The machine was turned up on end and the tapping of the tubes began. This operation looked simple enough, but it was a very delicate and difficult piece of work, requiring the skill of a first-class fitter and proper tools. The work took us from twelve o’clock one day to two the next- working all night- to effect the necessary repairs, and nothing but the solid determination of A.C. would have seen the job through.
To be continued.
