This is going to be luge
There are 26 new vehicles in the compound of Taranaki’s Holdenthemed museum – but they’re all without a roaring engine and only a fraction of the size of an actual car.
Owners of Hillsborough Car Museum Steve and Joy Fabish have built a 240-metre luge track at their Egmont Rd, New
Plymouth, property.
To take on the steep and snaking course, the couple have bought 26 New Zealand-made carts of every colour except blue. That’s because blue is the ‘‘colour’’ of Ford, Holden’s rival.
The luge track has been in development for the past year and with just the cart return ‘‘ski-lift’’ system to be finished, Steve hoped it would open to the public in October.
‘‘We were hoping to have it going by Christmas, but we found
it was too slow getting the carts up the hill,’’ he said.
While the carts would return to the top in the carrier, riders would get a lift onboard Joy and Steve’s Thomas the Tank Engine-styled train, which could seat 19.
Steve said the new venture, which ‘‘wasn’t cheap’’, would employ five people.
The luge was about diversifying business, he said.
It was the region’s second announcement of family fun in the past week, after New Plymouth’s Bowlarama revealed a milliondollar extension to its venue, which would include a mezzanine floor to house a new laser tag game.
Joy and Steve opened the museum, featuring what’s said to be the country’s largest private collection of Holden cars and memorabilia, in 2017.
It has since expanded to include a Bathurst-inspired miniputt course and a cafe. The couple were also in the process of building a 200-seat restaurant next to the museum, but Covid-19 halted those plans.
‘‘If it doesn’t open up as a restaurant, we’ll open it up as an extension to the museum,’’ Steve said.
‘‘People love going to the Rotorua luge. I know that one is twice as big but hey, it’s only Joy and I funding this one so it takes a bit longer to get things in place.’’