Sonja Ireland took over her first Wayfarer when she was 19 years old. Her father had purchased a mushroom-growing business in Whangaparaoa and the Wayfarer came with the assets. It had been used for taking mushrooms to produce markets and would have kept doing so had Sonja’s dad not bought himself a Holden Kingswood to take on that task. Obviously, he was more of a GM man than a Chrysler fan.
It was not long before the cool ute became part of Sonja’s identity. Its Alpine stereo was quite the thing to have back then.
WATCHING THE MARKET
Some years have now passed since the Wayfarer was sold and she had been keeping an eye on the market for another. “Not seriously searching for one, just keeping an eye on the market,” she says. However, she admits to having looked at Australian listings as well as those in New Zealand.
Around 10 years ago, she was giving away an old lawnmower to a guy who noticed her Volkswagen Beetle and asked about it. It soon became apparent that Sonja was into cars. The conversation moved on to
