Trusty Triumph and Venerable VW
Here is a key to the names I use in my story:
Max is Malcolm Gibbs, Kay is Kathleen Gibbs, E is Erris and J is Joan are the Gibbs sisters, PEBO are Peter, Erris, Bronwen and Olwen Thomson, JPLK are Joan, Peter, Lachlan and Kathleen Elliott, H&E are Hugh and Esther Thomson, Owen is Owen Packham my mechanic.
This is me, T.T. parked on the pad outside my garage on Queen Charlotte Drive. I am a Triumph 2000 Mk1 1969.
A Triumph 2000 Mk1 is a bit of a rarity on the road these days but I can still match it with the best for reliability and steadfastness. This is my story from 1969 to at least 2023. My life has been full of adventures and friendships.
My Triumph design was born in Coventry, England in 1963 and I was assembled at New Zealand Motor Corporation's Nelson plant in 1969. In 2020, I was 51 years old. When I came off the assembly line I was driven to Dunedin, New Zealand.
The Triumph was manufactured in England and in Nelson, New Zealand.
A Garage for me in Fairfield
Max, a connoisseur of cars liked the look of me and bought me from his friend, Wattie. I lived with Max and his wife Kay in their lovely dry garage under their house in Fairfield, Dunedin. I lived happily with them for many years.
Max washed and polished me regularly. He called me his T.T. - Trusty Triumph. My job each week was to take Max and Kay to do their shopping, get their hair done, go to church and take them to visit their relatives. I even took pride of place at a family wedding! I looked very smart. I liked to take them on holiday to Wanaka and around Central Otago. It was very hot in the summer time so my fan belt and radiator had to work very hard to keep my engine cool.
Max used to wash and polish my lovely cream-coloured paintwork until he could see it shine. He even polished my ‘head’ on the engine under the bonnet until he could see his face in it!! He took pride in keeping me in topnotch condition both inside and out. I was his favourite car.
T.T.’s engine showing (from the top down) the battery, red spark plug leads, ‘the head’ and the carburettor.
Max and Kay had two lovely daughters, E and J. By the time I arrived they had left the family home in Fairfield and were married. Two new families were born - the JPLK’s in Townsville, Australia and the PEBO’s in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
The PEBOs, used to come and visit Max and Kay at least once a year. They loved to spend time with their parents and grandparents. The PEBOs had a Volkswagon Kombi van which was born in 1972 in Germany, remodelled into a Kombi in England and travelled to New Zealand on a ship.
I am a 1972 Volkswagon Kombi van parked on the pad outside the Sounds garage
It was holiday time and the PEBOs were driving the Volkswagon Kombi van on their way to Dunedin to visit Max and Kay. Without warning the VW let out a loud ‘Bang’ and slid into the gravel on the side of the road near the Waimate turnoff on State Highway 1. Oh dear, the valves had broken into pieces and shattered the engine!! Poor VW.
The Waimate turn off near where the VW broke down
Max got an unexpected phone call from the PEBOs on the side of the road half way down the South Island!
“Help! Our Volkswagon Kombi has broken down near the Waimate turn off. Please could you bring T.T. and rescue us?”
T.T. to the rescue! I drove Max to Waimate where he helped the PEBOs put a tow rope between the Kombi van and me.
“Would I be able to pull such a heavy van? I had to be strong and brave.” Kia kaha.
Max told the PEBOs to keep an eye on my towbar as I pulled them along and all would be well. I took it very slowly and carefully and with the PEBOs doing the same we arrived safely in Dunedin. I was “The little T.T. that could”. I was very proud of myself and so was Max. This was my first encounter with such a handsome VW Kombi van. Little did I know that we would be friends and in the same family before too long.
A Garage for me in Blenheim
In 1991 Max and Kay were ready for a change of car. Max convinced the PEBOs to keep me in the family and sold me to them for the princely sum of $2000! I drove from Fairfield, near Dunedin to Blenheim, at the top of the South Island where I stayed in a cosy dry garage at Hugh & Esther’s place. (H & E).
Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand….and Blenheim across Cook Strait
By now the PEBOs lived in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. The VW Kombi lived in a cosy dry garage under their house. It was only just able to squeeze in by half an inch! B and O liked to wash and clean the van in the summer time. They used to get the hose out and have great fun washing the VW and themselves!!!
Olwen and Bronwen having fun washing the van
One Christmas in the 1980s the PEBOs packed the blue Kombi van and set off across Cook Strait for a holiday round the ‘Top of the South’. They explored the many bays and coves of the Marlborough Sounds and discovered many beautiful spots to camp on the side of the road. On their way back to Blenheim to visit H & E their parents and grandparents, they noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign on a property on Queen Charlotte Drive not far from Picton. They thought what a nice piece of land that would be.
Cook Strait - the ferry crossing from Wellington to Picton, the gateway to the Marlborough Sounds
In 1990, New Zealand’s sesquicentennial year the PEBOs bought 2719 Queen Charlotte Drive and set to work to build a drive down from the road to a pad where my garage was to be.
This is my cosy dry garage in Queen Charlotte Drive
While this happened I stayed in Blenheim with H & E who kept me cosy and dry. I used to drive H to Owen where I would get my warrant of fitness every 6 months. Owen loves old cars like me :)
Owen and Granddad (P) checking my engine
Every month the PEBO’s crossed Cook Strait in the ferry to stay with H & E in Blenheim. From there they worked on their new section to measure whether the VW van and I could drive down a steep slope into a garage. The section was covered in scrubby bush and some taller kamihi, kanuka and manuka trees. We all loved being in the bush.
With careful measuring with P’s abney level and scrabbling in the bush they found a place for a drive, a turning pad and a garge on poles. Yay!! I could stay there safe and sound. In the meantime the Kombi van provided a place to live while the pad and garage were being built.
After many monthly visits and a huge amount of digging deep holes for the long, strong poles, the garage was built. I couldn’t stay there yet, though, because this was where the PEBO’s lived while a track was formed down the steep section to the house site overlooking Queen Charlotte Sound.
It took years and years of hard work to make the track. It was made with passion, energy and the love of the beautiful bush, birds and insects. I was happy to help the PEBO’s in any way I could.
In 1997 the new house was built. The PEBO’s took all the beds, furniture, clothes, kitchen things and tools from the garage down the lovely new track to the house. It was very exciting living in a 2 storey house instead of a small garage!! Only some of the walls inside were lined and a long extension ladder was put up to go from one storey to the other.
In December, 1999 the Townsville family, JPLK’s were the first to come and stay. This was Y2K when there was such a lot of superstition about what could happen at midnight on 31st December. The JPLK’s played a trick on us by turning the electricity off at midnight, 2000!! It gave us all a fright but then the laughter gave it all away - we had fun.
Our cedar-clad house with yellow water tanks below
In the year 2000 I was 31 years old and feeling my age. However, I could still easily drive the PEBO’s and H & E back and forth from Blenheim to the Sounds house. I was very happy and well looked after. One day I had a big surprise! When I arrived at the garage with H & E there was a shiny green John Deere tractor and trailer parked in the garage. I first thought I might have to give up my cosy garage to a newcomer but then I realised I’d be able to easily drive in to one side of the tractor. We would be friends and live in the garage.
The John Deere and trailer parked beside the VW Kombi van
You can see more photos of our time in the first Sounds house.
Family Fun in the Sounds
Sounds Adventures 2007-2012