Trusty Triumph and Venerable VW

An Unwelcome Visitor

During the first 10 years of the new century I helped bring H & E’s family to 2719 to have fun together in the house, the bush and the beach. H & E slowly ran out of energy and were no longer around for me to drive them to the Sounds. This meant I now lived in the garage with the green and yellow JD. We were good friends and both had important jobs to do. Driving the PEBO’s and their family and friends safely was very important.

While I was asleep in the garage on Mothers’ Day, 13th May, 2012, someone broke down the door and gave me a big fright. He was a big, strong man who wanted to steal the petrol cans that P&E stored for the JD and the weeding machine.

I tried to call out, “STOP!” “That’s not your petrol!”. But I couldn’t. He was a thief and had bad thoughts in his head. “What was he going to do with petrol!!!”.

He carried the petrol cans down the track to the house and made a big fire with it. Soon the whole house was completely in flames and quickly burnt to the ground. The top floor just collapsed down on to the bottow floor and the ground below. It lit up the sky and woke our neighbour in the bay at 5 0’clock in the morning - he looked up to see the fiery inferno!! He called 111 and the Picton Fire Brigade came to try and put the fire out getting water from the sea.

The firemen turned the siren on and rushed to 2719 and connected their hoses to water from the sea. Our water tanks had been burnt and emptied. Unfortunately it was too late to save the house but they were able to save the precious trees close by.

The next thing I knew was the thief (now an arsonist) was kneeling down by my right front wheel, lighting some old rags to set me on fire!!!

“Help, help, I’m getting very hot and smelly, I can’t breathe!!!”

My tyre was burning and quickly making lots of black sooty smoke. Under my bonnet above the engine the fire began to melt all the electrical wires that help make me go!!!

“Oh dear, I won’t be any help to the P&E now”. I looked down a saw my tyre shredded and burnt to the rim! There was a hole in the floor of the garage! It could easily burn down with me in it!!!

All of a sudden the big man ran outside. He heard another fire engine coming! He quickly escaped capture but on his way he dropped a bank chit on the drive. This would prove his downfall as the police tracked him down and he was sent to jail for many years.

I was deafened by a loud noise on the outside wall of the garage. The fire hoses were putting out the fire on me and the floor.

”Phew, what a lucky escape for me!!”. However it was a huge shock for P&E when they found out that morning in Wellington. Their hearts sank with sadness. Oh dear, what to do? Minds racing, P decided to fly over the next day on a little Sounds Air plane to meet up with the Picton Police.

In the meantime my insides were hurting badly. I was choked up with black sooty smoke from the burnt out tyre. How would I be able to drive again with such damage? How would I be able to help P&E in this disaster? I was stuck in the sooty muck!! Perhaps my mechanic friend, Owen could be called to help rescue me? He knew all about my engine and inside. But, how would I get out of the garage??

I couldn’t move! Could my friend the VW Kombi pull me out and up the drive? I would need the spare tyre to keep me balanced. I am very heavy because I’m made out of strong steel but the Kombi is strong too. P called Owen and he brought a car trailer to the top of the drive ready to take me to his workshop. Now, to get me up there!!

We were connected with a tow rope and slowly in first gear the VW started to pull me up the drive.

“Slowly, slowly, you can do it,” I called out to my friend. It was no good. No matter how much I tried to help, his tyres just spun around in the gravel and ground to a stop. Oh dear.

“I know, said Owen, we’ll connect my Toyoto ute and we’ll both pull together.”

No sooner said than done. But, even with two strong vehicles pulling they couldn’t get me to the top of the steep drive.

“Oh no, I’m going to stay stuck and never be able to drive P&E again.” I didn’t know that help was on the way.

P&E were at the top of the drive discussing further strategies when an old, strong Toyota 4x4 pulled up to see what our problem was.

“Got a bit of a problem here?” P&E explained how I was stuck at the bottom of the drive. “No worries at all. My Toyota can easily pull the Triumph up.”

No sooner said than done, again. I was connected to the Toyota and within a minute I was slowly rolling up the drive with Owen at the wheel. What a good samaritan to come along and rescue me. Owen towed me to his workshop in Omaka and I stayed there to be completely brought back to my healthy self. He and his team were miracle makers!

The JD had to go in to be cleaned up and fixed too. We were both in vehicle hospital!!