An Unplanned Trip

[Cormanus]

I had intended to spend the last two weeks of October riding south to Phillip Island for the Australian MotoGP. Due to the untimely death of an old and dear friend, I had to abandon the plan so my wife and I could travel across the Tasman Sea (known fondly as 'The Ditch') to New Zealand for the memorial. We took the opportunity to go for a few days and catch up with other friends.

On the first morning we were there, we walked to Lyall Bay for breakfast and I spied this on the street.




Then, over the weekend, our friends took us to the [url=https://www.southwardcarmuseum.co.nz/]Southward Auto Museum at Paraparaumu which has an extraordinary collection of cars and more than a few bikes.

I'll start with a car as it's the first you see as you walk through the door.




This 1950 'Gangster Cadillac' features bullet holes, a bomb proof floor and glass the thickness of a matchbox. Here's the wrap sheet for it.


Sitting right next to Comrade Cohen's ride was this.






Although there were bikes scattered all over the floor amongst the cars, the majority was on a mezzanine along one side of the huge shed. On the way there, I came across this modest V8, built in NZ






Then it was up the stairs

[misterprofessionality]

I had intended to spend the last two weeks of October riding south to Phillip Island for the Australian MotoGP. Due to the untimely death of an old and dear friend, I had to abandon the plan so my wife and I could travel across the Tasman Sea (known fondly as 'The Ditch') to New Zealand for the memorial. We took the opportunity to go for a few days and catch up with other friends.

On the first morning we were there, we walked to Lyall Bay for breakfast and I spied this on the street.




Then, over the weekend, our friends took us to the [url=https://www.southwardcarmuseum.co.nz/]Southward Auto Museum at Paraparaumu which has an extraordinary collection of cars and more than a few bikes.

I'll start with a car as it's the first you see as you walk through the door.




This 1950 'Gangster Cadillac' features bullet holes, a bomb proof floor and glass the thickness of a matchbox. Here's the wrap sheet for it.


Sitting right next to Comrade Cohen's ride was this.






Although there were bikes scattered all over the floor amongst the cars, the majority was on a mezzanine along one side of the huge shed. On the way there, I came across this modest V8, built in NZ






Then it was up the stairs

you will never get me to believe that that thing can turn. wherever it was built, it must have traveled in a perfectly straight line in order to park on that spot. in fact, i'm inclined to believe that it was there first and they built the building around it.

edit: it says it traveled 12000km on the roads in new zealand? i didn't know you had 12000km of perfectly straight roads in new zealand. that's pretty impressive for an island. must be like a mobius strip, only PERFECTLY STRAIGHT.

[Cormanus]

The Allardice Hybrid, also from NZ
















And this Indian Chief

I had intended to spend the last two weeks of October riding south to Phillip Island for the Australian MotoGP. Due to the untimely death of an old and dear friend, I had to abandon the plan so my wife and I could travel across the Tasman Sea (known fondly as 'The Ditch') to New Zealand for the memorial. We took the opportunity to go for a few days and catch up with other friends.

On the first morning we were there, we walked to Lyall Bay for breakfast and I spied this on the street.




Then, over the weekend, our friends took us to the [url=https://www.southwardcarmuseum.co.nz/]Southward Auto Museum at Paraparaumu which has an extraordinary collection of cars and more than a few bikes.

I'll start with a car as it's the first you see as you walk through the door.




This 1950 'Gangster Cadillac' features bullet holes, a bomb proof floor and glass the thickness of a matchbox. Here's the wrap sheet for it.


Sitting right next to Comrade Cohen's ride was this.






Although there were bikes scattered all over the floor amongst the cars, the majority was on a mezzanine along one side of the huge shed. On the way there, I came across this modest V8, built in NZ






Then it was up the stairs

you will never get me to believe that that thing can turn. wherever it was built, it must have traveled in a perfectly straight line in order to park on that spot. in fact, i'm inclined to believe that it was there first and they built the building around it.

edit: it says it traveled 12000km on the roads in new zealand? i didn't know you had 12000km of perfectly straight roads in new zealand. that's pretty impressive for an island. must be like a mobius strip, only PERFECTLY STRAIGHT.

you will never get me to believe that that thing can turn. wherever it was built, it must have traveled in a perfectly straight line in order to park on that spot. in fact, i'm inclined to believe that it was there first and they built the building around it.

edit: it says it traveled 12000km on the roads in new zealand? i didn't know you had 12000km of perfectly straight roads in new zealand. that's pretty impressive for an island. must be like a mobius strip, only PERFECTLY STRAIGHT.
My limited experience of NZ's roads is that they're far from straight. Maybe they just stop the bike in the middle of the road and turn the planet somehow?

[hb9400_imp]

Thanks for the pics and sharing the story Cormanus.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Cormanus]

I'll continue with an early model litre bike ...


This Nimbus was made by a vacuum cleaner company!












This is a Reynolds Runabout made in the UK in 1910 ...








The neatly named Ner-A-Car ...


I can supply the wrap sheet if anyone's interested.

Then there's this 1908 FN from Belgium ...


And a 1908 Model D Douglas from the UK. Actually, 'The Douglas'.

[the Ferret]

Very cool old bikes. I love that stuff.

[Cormanus]

Then it was back downstairs, initially for a more modern style of motorcycle.




My wife thought something like this might be handy for camping together ...


I've included the story.




This little thing ...


... has to push this along ...


Finally, two cars. The first because it's a Honda and, I suspect, has a motorcycle engine. Someone might know.


I'm going to cheat and include the blurb 'cause it's easy.


And then this beauty from Mercedes. Read the newspaper article.




That was it for the remarkable Southward Museum.

We also visited Te Papa, the National Museum in Wellington. As with nearly all museums I've ever been to, it was overwhelming. They need to be approached in bite-sized goes so you can spend time with one or two things at a time.

But there was this Britten litre bike.






That's all folks.

[LongRanger_imp]

Outstanding collection! Thanks for sharing!

How many Brittens were made? Can you imagine what that bike would be like today?!

[the Ferret]

Well I don't know everything about early Honda cars, but the S600 as listed on the plaqaurd was a very special sports car for Honda which is why we saw an S2000 a few years ago which Guth owns. THe interesting thing imo about the S600 is not only did it out perform the British sports cars that it was designed to compete against...by a bunch, but it was chain final drive ( like a motorcycle) only with chains going to both rear wheels.

[suhawk305]

There is more motorcycle history in this world that I could ever imagine! Thanks for posting this Cormanus.