Doing the tourist thing and ravelling the North Island and the Beach Hop is on next week.We arrive on Thursday for three nights and really looking forward to this event. As per previous posts we got some good accommodation only 4 kms from town and usually finding somewhere at late notice is like discovering gold. Anyway we have seen very little hot rod stuff as we have travelled north but hopefully this will change as we move back south on Tuesday. As usual I will have a full set of photos as soon as i can.
Only one sleep to go!!.We arrive tomorrow for the Beach Hop and we have spotted a few cars on the road as we continue our travels. The 32 roadster is a repro but looks very authentic.The 29 was just on the side of the road in a little town with the For Sale sign on it. Found the old repair service building with probably the oldest dinky looking hoist using the old style in ground ram.
Drove in from Coromandal this morning and as we cam through Tairua the cars were arriving for a show and shine there for the day. There would have been well over a thousand I reckon. We continued into town and there were still a few hundred in Whangamata parked in the main street and cruising town. I think Saturday will be huge with the Show and Shine here.Off tonight for the Bands in the Bars. Will try to do pictures tomorrow.
Yup Tairua show and shine just keeps getting bigger - and we used to think it was maxed out at 700 odd cars three years ago. Its always amazing to see that there are still many cars just cruising Whangamata even when this show is on. It feels at times that we have half the cars produced in the USA sitting in this one area over the weekend.
I have to get over their one day, seems to be a lot of nice cars over the pond. Look forward to your pics hudson48.
No photos but I do have about 10 hours of video to go through! It was crazy. I reckon there would have been one car 'spectating' for every one of the thousand or so entered too.
Will any video be posted here Cal.? I feel as far as car guys go Wednesday at Waihi ,Thursday at Tairua and the icing on the Cake Friday at the picturesque Onemana beach . The sunrise was spectacular and the day would rival any event in the world. Saturday is a crazy day for joe public. Keep this event on your calendar.
For those on facebook. There is 162 pics here. https://www.facebook.com/PopeyePics...3098435383573/881274161899327/?type=1&theater
Went there 2 years ago. Same thing, did a trip around the North Island first then down to the Beach Hop. Absolutely brilliant! If you get the chance, go. Talk about sensory overload.
Still on the road and haven't had a chance to download pictures yet.A lot of the cars aren't HAMB friendly so will have to be selective. Having said that this event is still one of the best I have EVER been to.All kinds of cars are welcome here with hot rods,a few customs and lots of classics from 50's,60's and 70's. Very diverse collection of automobiles. Probably well over 2000 cars with 1000 registered entrants(they cut of the registrations at 1000 which filled in one month). This run is well organised and everything starts when they say it will in the programme. Will try for photos later.
I was in NZ for vacation the whole month of March and stumbled on the Hop while driving around. What great gathering of cars from many styles. My wife and I only had time to spend a few hours in Waihi but it was time well spent. I wish we had time in our trip to follow the Hop to Onemana but alas I had to make my way back to Auckland for the flight back to reality and work. You Kiwi's have a beautiful country, great people and nice taste in iron.
The Jalopy Journal
