I TRAVEL PROFESSIONALLY ALL OVER NEW ZEALAND ON a regular basis, even to the most remote parts of the country. One such place is the township of Te Anau, situated on the fringe of Fiordland National Park, which marks the gateway to the South Island’s world famous Milford Sound. This is where I caught up for a chat with the now 85 years young John von Tunzelman.
John is a Vincent man through and through – a motorcycle brand very dear to him, which he’s been riding all his life. To start with, he showed me his collection of old newspaper clippings of Vincent pursuits... a folder full of Rollie Free’s and Marty Dickerson’s achievements, alongside NZ Vincent greats such as Les Lamb, or Bob Burns and Russell Wright. John reminisced that it has been his great pleasure to meet so many super members from the world of Vincent HRD motorcycles.
“I met George Brown at his shop in Stevenage on October 7, 1976, just after I’d visited the old Vincent HRD works, which was by then part of a girls’ school,” he recalled. George had worked at the factory for some years but left and set up shop across the road, servicing Vincents. He established many very fast times on the ‘Nero’ Vincent,
