Well, here we go....on our way.....and for those of you that are "train spotters" we aren't doing 90mph, I have calibrated the speedo in k's.
On the first night we all gathered round at Glenn, Roger and Ange's to have a meal and a few beverages before heading up town to cruise.
The first night was pretty uneventful, but a lot busier than I remember. It seems people are arriving in town earlier in the week and making a long holiday of it all.
Just as well we weren't up too late though as the next morning you have to get there fairly early if you want to be at the front of the queue. This has a couple of benefits....it means the drive to Tairua is a straightforward run (as opposed to taking over an hour if you are at the back of the queue) and it also means you get to park on the beach front at Tairua (as opposed to on a rugby field in town).
Anyway here we are waiting to go. Friends of ours (Brian and Sandra) own the burnt orange V Dub ute in the foreground. They just finished that in time for Beach Hop. It has a wellside tray and sports a surf board with a surfer god airbrushed onto it. Really cool.
Here is the Pop literally glowing in the sun.
This shot shows us arriving at Tairua. That's Roger and Ange in the 28 Chev behind us and Glenn is driving Roger's 55 Dodge truck behind that. Cool photo!
At Tairua, we got a real good park under a tree and close to all the goings on.
Oh and it seems a good time now to show you the artwork I created in the lead up to Beach Hop. I had a mate turn my sketch into a sticker. A bit of a play on words....pussy....growler.
This car belongs to friends of ours, Lance & Jackie Crane.
Here is another shot of Roger and Ange's 28 Chev.
Once we'd had settled in we had a look around. There is always plenty to see including trade stands like this.
And all the other cars of course. There were about 800 in total.
This one looked like it was about to turn into somthing from one of the Transformer movies.
This truck is completely hand formed from sheets of panel steel. A real credit to the builder.
As you can see the setting is just superb!
This one is a Lincoln Zephyr that has been heavily customised.
I have a real soft spot for these Caddies, but regrettably I don't have the 8 metre shed to match.
This Mustang belongs to Paul and Margaret. Margaret works with me at Pearson/Penguin.
This guy has been building this car up and recording his exploits on the NZ Hot Rod Forum, so I have been following it for a while. It's a Chrysler Valiant that used to be 4 door. A real credit to him, it looked good!
These are the cars parked on the rugby field I mentioned earlier.
Cool airbrush work here!
See the pinstripe on this car....it's about 3 to 4 mm wide.
....and it all begins with a wee man peeing and the brand of the company that did it (Trick Flow). The begining of the pinstripe is to the left so as you can see this little stick figure is only about 8mm tall and all painted on by free hand. Very clever at this size.
Quite a nice pink as far as pink cars go. Certainly stood out in a crowd.
This car has been around for a few years now, but still looks stunning!
This was a new one. A lot of engineering and detail has gone into this.
This is another friends car (Bill and Dawn) you may recall it in bare steel on my Flaming Ford Blog back in September 2010. Click here to see.
A real cool paint job with ghost flames you can only see in the right light.
This truck was cool. Basically a full-on modern mud truck that you might find at a 4x4 rally, but done like a hot rod with an old Dodge body.
Everywhere you go at the Beach Hop there are bands playing Rock n Roll or Rockabilly music. This band is particularly good. You can't help but sing along.
As for the weather....sun, sun, sun!
That night it was more cruising up town before retiring at a reasonable hour ready for the Thunder Cruise to Onemana on Friday.
The Thunder Cruise allows you to run with open headers on a public road. This one is my favourite as you travel around a few residential streets before heading out of town. There are always heaps of people out on the side of the road waving and cheering. No matter how many times you do this you still get goose bumps!
Here we are queued up ready to go. The scenery here is spectacular too!
Here's Janine with the engine running and ready to go!
This is the view ahead.
This is a sample of the crowd that comes and watches along the way.
Here's a shot of the cars arriving at Onemana. It's about a 20 minute drive, but to give you an idea of how many cars come here...... an hour and a half after we arrived, the last cars still hadn't left the start point at Whangamata. Huge!
This is the view from where we parked.
While wandering about we found the Coupe I used to own. It is still very much that same as when I had it, but "Shorty" has lots of plans in store!
This shot taken looking toward the bottom paddock gives you an idea how big this event is. Probably about 1000 cars here.
Once again...Rock n Roll bands keep you entertained.
Not to mention trade stands.....
....and dragsters "fire up's"
These are the Beach Hop cars you can win by buying a programme and filling out the enclosed entry. You get to choose between the Falcon Futura Ute, Car or the Caravan.
Here's another couple of photos showing the view from the bottom paddock looking back toward the hill we parked on.
Oh and here is the beach we are right beside.
More bands down the bottom end. The guy with the dreads is a real laugh. He stands on his bass, plays it upside down and behind his back. A real performer and real popular with the crowds.
This car belongs to the owner/editor (Alistair) of Petrolhead magazine.
This is another Ford Pop. Ross and Liz also live on the North Shore in Auckland. Theirs is powered by a Lexus V8, the same as the one I am putting in my Coupe.
Couldn't resist taking this arty photo of the back of the Pop's headlamp.
When we got back to town we spotted another Pop. Cool seeing another and comparing.
At night we went cruising again. I loooove this truck!
The cruising traffic is real congested and slow moving which means you get a good look at them. Hard on cooling and charging systems though with lights on and fans going flat out.
One of the the big deals at the cruise nights is to have something that makes your car stand out. Whether it's a flame thrower, siren, funny horn, under car lights or people in costumes.....it doesn't matter, but I reckon you've gotta do something.
This year I found some cool lights that are basically mini projectors. They project the Ford logo. I had intended to use them on the coupe so that when you opened the doors they shone on the ground. It would look cool and they would double as lights to show any puddles etc on the ground.......but when we were putting the Pop back together I had an idea.
I decided to mount one under the boot and one under the grill so that they shone on the road. They are LED so they don't use much power. This means you can use them when cruising but also when the car is parked.
They proved to be worth their weight in gold. People can't believe them and can't work out where they are coming from. Even had one guy (when it was parked) looking up at the shop verandah to see if it was coming from up there.
Most just shove their foot under the grill to see if it will shine on their shoe, but we have even had some scrub the pavement to see if it was some kind of fluoro chalk.
When driving along one lady yelled out, "look at that its going along in front of them."
I often wonder where on earth do these people come from!!
As Phil said though when I told him...."I never cease to be amazed at how 'less is more' - you could have had a 30 grand paint job and it wouldn't have been noticed the same".
Saturday is the main parade. The one everyone comes to see. First the Rock n Roll clubs dance their way down the street. Then the crew and Beach Hop cars go followed by the motorbikes. After that the Ultimate Pass cars go (about 200) then the Standard Pass cars like us (about 800). There are more cars than that entered but some choose to just watch.
The photo's below are of the Standard pass cars.
Over to one side they decided to put all the red cars (just because the Hop giveaway cars are red) and they let them go in a bunch on their own.
Here we are starting the cruise. Check out the numbers of people!
After the parade we spotted my old Rambler!
Then we had a look around at the Trade Stalls at Williamson Park.
Later we went and saw the Retro Caravans that were all parked at the local school.
Followed by the Pre 49 cars that were at the Whangamata Club....big bucks here!
This was my favourite. Loved the green colour and man did it sound cool. We sat beside it in the Thunder Cruise with open headers waiting to cruise. OMG I want it. (Janine)
Back in the main street the crowds were thinning as everyone made their way to the park for the major prize draw.
We had a quick look at the T Bucket Tee Party before heading to the park ourselves.
You see heaps of people in their 50's and 60's gear getting into the spirit of it all!
Back at the park the crowd was huge. On stage there is a Retro Fashion Show and a Junkyard Fashion show where all the outfits are made from car parts. They also have a Beach Hop idol singing contest.
After that though, the main event is the draw for the car. The winner had been coming to Beach Hop since it started but still didn't have his own car, so it was good to see it go to someone like that. He chose the Futura Ute.
Immediately after that the Futura car was auctioned off. It went for $32500. A good price if you were in the market for one.
With the formalities over we left to have tea and to go up town for one last night of cruising. Actually that reminds me, I must tell you about the kids. They are often on the side of the road asking you to take them for rides. It's a real family environment during the day and it's commonplace to gather up a bunch of kids, chuck em in the back of your car and do a lap with them....they love it.
Not sure why but there was this particular bunch of kids that Janine and I thought looked like they would really enjoy a lap or two, so Janine jumped out and asked the parents if the kids could come for a lap. Before you know it we had 3 in the backseat with grins from ear to ear!
One kid (I reckon about 4) was dressed in a Batman suit and not long after we pulled back into the traffic there was a tap on my arm and he said, "Hey mister! I need to tell you, I'm not really Batman. I'm just a normal kid wearing a suit". Awww so cute, you can't buy a moment like that! Poor little bugger must have been stressing that if we got into a spot of bother, he wasn't going to be able to save the day. Just thought he better let me know.
While we were at Whangamata we decided to put the Pop down on the Beach to get some pics. It was the same spot where Hot Rod Magazine did a Magazine article featuring the Coupe with Clayton and Wendy Andrews 38 Chev. Thought it would be cool to get some of the Pop too!
Next morning I have to say I looked out the window at the Pop with a fair amount of fondness and pride. It had served us really well. Not an ounce of trouble all weekend and it certainly looked the part and was admired by many. After falling out with it a bit over all the issues in the lead up to The Beach Hop, I have to say I really like it again already!
Lastly on our way home we called in on a guy just out of Huntly to pick up two rear guards, a bonnet set, a grill and a fibreglass bootlid. Just may use them as we tidy our one up and it is good to have spares like that. They certainly aren't that easy to come by nowadays.
Turns out he bought a parts car to help with building his drag car. Its an old drag car from the 80's that he is bringing back to life.
Whew....on our way home at last....really tired but have had an absolute ball!
Thanks again to Roger, Phil, Jason, Bill, Tony and Kevin (for your support from afar!) It's all been much appreciated and the Pop certainly wouldn't have been there without your input. Cheers.
Colin & Janine
