GO SOUTH, YOUNG MAN!

There has always been much to commend a trip to the deep south — blue cod, Glory Bay oysters; Zookeepers Cafe in central Invercargill for breakfast; Stewart Island; Ziffs Cafe and Bar near Teretonga, Riverton — the list goes on, but now there’s more. For years, my good friend Noel Atley has been telling me, “Michael, you must go to the truck museum”, and I’ve been consoling myself with the notion that I wanted to leave things on the ‘to-do’. I’d been hearing so much about this truck museum that it couldn’t possibly live up to the accolades from everyone I spoke to about it — could it? Answer — let me put it this way. Two and a half hours was nowhere near enough time, and the Bill Richardson Transport World museum will form part of my next trip to the deep south, and I don’t doubt trips

of the tiny handful of men to have ever worked on the original — half a century ago — walked in.

From there, we were off to E Hayes Hardware store. Known locally simply as ‘Hayes’, it is an institution. Another car familiar to Howden, and very familiar to Wal given that he rebuilt it, is the Mcbegg — a car that with Laurence Brownlie at the wheel set the New Zealand land-speed record in 1968. So, that’s on display, in the store, along with the world’s fastest Indian; the world’s fastest Velocette; that cabinet with all Burt Munro’s failed pistons, from the movie; and enough other motorbikes and vehicles to dazzle. I sent an email to my friend Locke in California and described a fairly typical few hours in Invercargill — “You did all that in a day?! I’ve gotta get to Invercargill.” Honestly, I can’t think of another place quite like it.