Last year the ‘Land Rover Series 1 Enthusiasts, New Zealand’ group met in Gisborne and toured south towards Wairoa on the inland road, and then travelled north via the Waimata Valley Road, popping out via Mata Road onto SH35 to enjoy a famous paua pie at ‘Café 35’ in Tokomaru Bay. Who would have ever thought that a year later – Café 35 would be closed and Tokomaru Bay would be isolated for months following the horrific devastation and loss of life on the East Coast of the North Island?
Further south at Hawke’s Bay one of our regular attendees, Jess Kyle and her family were right in the thick of it with her elderly parents isolated on the family farm in the Esk Valley and her property narrowly escaping inundation in Awatoto. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our many members and friends who were affected by Cyclone Gabriel on 13 February 2023.
Back in 2006 a convoy of pre-1958 Series 1 Land Rovers was organised to travel from Oxford near Christchurch to Cambridge in the North Island to mark 50 years of the Oxford and Cambridge ‘First Overland Expedition’ from London to Singapore in 1956. In 2011, Leon Zwetsloot sent an email to the convoy contact list to see if anyone would be interested in getting a few Series 1s together to tour some back roads and talk ‘Land Rover’ for a few days. Seven
