Robert and Stella departed this morning, and we decided to go to Whangamata to visit the Beach Hop. We had no real idea what it was all about, but we had heard several mentions of it, and seen a poster advertising it as a Rock 'n Roll Festival.
Subsequent research showed it to be a get together of 1950 and 1960 cars, predominantly American.
It started in 2001, with about a thousand people attending. By 2005 there were 45,000 people visiting. Nowadays there is a total liquor ban in the streets, and a large police attendance, all apparently welcomed by the organisers. Sadly, today was a grey and dismal day with rain or drizzle the entire time we were there.
Whilst we were wandering up and down town numerous cars passed and re-passed us in the street as they cruised up and down. Shops were full of period clothes and memorabilia. We stopped in Beach Hop Central and bought a tee shirt. As soon as they realised we were from the UK Mick was given a VIP pass to hang round his neck.
Further down the road a local campsite was full of period caravans, all due to be judged for top of the show at some point. The final judging between the five best cars, two best bikes and three best caravans will be held by popular vote on Sunday.
There was also a sizeable contingent of hot rod and custom cars of all sorts, though these were out-numbered by the genuine old cars. There were fantastic paint jobs, to rusty looking wrecks, with everything in between.
It was hard to judge the number of cars there, but going by the traffic jams in the street, and the 3 to 4 kms of tailbacks of cars trying to get into/return into town, we estimated we must have seen 600 to 800 cars. The organisers do say it is now the largest event of it's type in the Southern Hemisphere.
One of the main events for the Friday was a convoy of cars to Onemana Beach, about 10kms along the coast. We drove out there, but everything was packing up as we arrived. One couple had just got married in the middle of all the cars, all in period costume, and were having the official photos taken on the beach!
We left there planning to drive to Broken Hills and do some walking, but the weather seemed to be getting wetter, and the cloud lower, so we gave up the idea and drove straight back to our lodgings. As soon as we got within 20kms the sun came out, and the roads were dry. Apparently they had seen no rain all day.
Mick is now doing the laundry while I plan out the next few days of our trip. We're off to Auckland tomorrow, then driving to the most northerly bit of NZ on Sunday.
What ground clearance??
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