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Mike Watkins’ 1949 Ford coupe Single Spinner won the President’s Choice Trophy. The purple pickup — Public’s Choice Trophy winner, Ross Tebbs' 1940 Ford. Sunday morning’s popular show ’n’ shine in Orewa’s main street. Photos, Linden Images. Miss Hibiscus Vintage contestants, with Warrant Officer Steve Bradley of the NZ Navy, who escorted contestants to the stage. Winner Hana Wain (with the purple flower in her hair) is on Steve’s left. V8 Chic winner Kelly Ross with her 1966 Plymouth Fury 111. Photo, Linden Images. Award-winning Elvis impersonator Brendon Chase entertained the crowd.
The Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust will have more money to fund rescues this year thanks to Hibiscus Rodders’ highly successful Anniversary Weekend Beach Festival at Orewa.
Hundreds of classy cars, an estimated 50,000-plus people and stunning weather combined to make this one of the most successful of the eight Orewa Beach Festivals to date.
Nearly 400 pre-75 and/or American cars filled the Orewa Reserve at the main Saturday event, with excellent numbers also at the Friday evening meet-and-greet and drive-in movie at the reserve, the new Saturday evening What’s Under Your Hood’ contest and the popular Sunday morning show ’n’ shine on the main street, which drew a record crowd of spectators.
Beach Festival organiser Sharon Morris was extremely pleased with the event.
“It was wonderful to see so many people looking so happy,” says Sharon. “We have the perfect setting for the event, here at Orewa, and we’ve had fabulous feedback, with spectators and car owners telling us they had a great time.”
Sharon is confident the event raised as much, or possibly more than last year’s record $35,000 for the Helicopter Trust. “We have hopefully bettered last year’s total, but we’ve yet to do a final count.”
A major contributor to the fundraising was the popular auction, where a range of donated goods raised a record $12,750.
Beach Festival car entrants travelled from as far away as New Plymouth and Kaitaia and everywhere in between.
But it was local cars which won two of the festival’s top trophies. Hibiscus Rodders President’s Choice Trophy went to Orewa builder Mike Watkins’ gold 1949 Ford coupe Single Spinner. He bought the car 11 years ago, at the age of 19. His sister, an exchange student in the USA at the time, spotted the car abandoned in a paddock.
“It was rust-free, but paint-free too, and had been left outside in a paddock and was a bit beaten up,” says Mike. But his sister convinced him to buy it, so she went to the auction, and bid successfully on his behalf. It was shipped to NZ and he and his dad Rob rebuilt it.
“It took five years to fix up,” says Mike, but it’s been back on the road since 2011, and he’s even driven to the South Island and back without any problems. “I wanted a car that would do everything — shows, drags, road trips — and it does all of those.”
Dairy Flat resident and car enthusiast Ross Tebbs won the Public’s Choice Trophy with his 1940 Ford pickup truck, which unlike Mike’s car, came to NZ with beautiful paintwork. The sparkling purple truck was rebuilt in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, winning a major prize in a prestigious Detroit Ford show before being sold to a New York merchant banker, who Ross bought it from about two years ago.
“We did a bit of work tidying it up, but it’s the original paintwork — colour ‘rich plum’ — from the 1990s job,” says Ross, who owns Albany ITM. “Everything is pretty much as it was, but we’ve re-polished everything underneath.”
Other trophy winners included former Hibiscus Rodders club member and now Ruakaka resident, Melissa Nightingale, who won the House of Travel Trophy with her 1957 Chevrolet.
New Plymouth couple Gordon and Pauline Bourne took out the Protecta Insurance Trophy with their very rare custom made Chevy combination (’57 front, ’58 mid-section, ’59 back, nick-named 789), and East Auckland’s Ian Neary (Panmure) won the Westpac Helicopter Trophy with his 1959 Ford Fairlane Skyliner.
This year’s Miss Hibiscus Vintage saw almost double the number of contestants from its debut last year, and 25 entrants wowed the crowd with their colourful ‘50s and ‘60s vintage fashion, hairstyles and makeup. The winner — also last year’s winner — was Hanna Wain from Waitoki (vintage name Dariel Dearlove), with Torbay’s Gemma Overton (aka Gem Doll) in second place and Alanna Pleasants (aka Lani Lyndelle), Hatfields Beach, third.
Another popular contest also in its second year was the V8 Chic Award for female car owners, won by Kelly Ross of Papakura with her bright magenta ’66 Plymouth Fury 111. Entry numbers for the V8 Chic contest doubled from last year. Second place winner was Marie Forsyth with her Ford roadster, while third place went to Shari Woodward (Orewa), with her 2007 Ford Shelby Mustang, which she’s owned for four years.
Air Tahiti Nui and House of Travel’s popular USA getaway prize draw went to Northland visitor Brian Marsh of the Whangarei Hot Rod Club.
