Pride of the south

It doesn’t seem too long ago that I was making my way down to Nelson for the V 4&Rotary South Island Champs, held November 8–9. I am literally still buzzing from the trip, which was my first-ever expedition to that large piece of land mass south of the North Island. I managed to get a bit of sightseeing in after Friday’s photo shoots, and I drove out to the Abel Tasman National Park for a quick walk, photos, and a well-deserved mocha. Just as I thought the day was over, NZPC photographer and Nelson local, Mikey Mayers, gave me a call and invited me out to what he described as something I ‘had to see’. So 11pm came around, I jumped into what would soon be Daily Driven for Issue No. 217, and we made our way out to the first ‘spot’. Upon arrival my mind was completely blown, there were literally hundreds of highly modified cars parked up at the local meet-up point. People were just hanging around, having a good time, and appreciating the wild rides that made it out for the cruise.

After a very strong police presence made itself known, people scattered and continued cruising throughout the night, meeting up at the beach, or cruising Nelson’s spectacular roads. This kind of stuff was once the backbone of our scene, but doesn’t seem to happen up here in Auckland much any more — and if it did, people wouldn’t be so well behaved. It was a real eye-opener to see so many laid-back car enthusiasts. One thing I did notice at this meet was the amount of girls there — I’d say it was 70 per cent male and 30 per cent female; if you go to a car meet in Auckland you’re lucky to see a handful of female car enthusiasts.

Speaking of which, it’s time to get those builds ready for summer, Auckland — I’m looking forward to getting involved in some of the exciting stuff that we have going on up here.