Gas Guzzler Gone
Can anybody out there help us find it?
And now for something completely different …
It’s a stretch to report this here. My justification is the changing environmental awareness it demonstrates, and the impacts now avoided by the guzzler’s demise.
The Summer of ‘72. Oh what a time! For me it’s right up there with one of my all-time favourite movies. Summer of ‘42 was released the year before (and is strangely very hard to find these days). The 1973 Oil Crisis was just around the corner, and three years later, Frankie Valli released his Oh What a Night, where he reminisced on the summer of ‘63.
Life was simpler too. Still only one TV station (black and white) to harangue us. The Cold War and the conflict in Vietman were winding down. Global Warming and Ozone Depletion were problems for the future. For me the threat of the next ice age loomed larger.
We were students at the University of Canterbury: more interested in the Beatles and Rock music than Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. One of our group had the idea of buying a bus to tour the North Island. The idea caught on, and we found an old Otaki Transport bus for sale that we could buy if we could rustle up $400 - a lot of money for a student at that time. It was a big dull-red and cream brute that seated about 40. We recently rediscovered that it was a 1950 Ford, though no manufacturer was prepared to overtly advertise it as theirs.
It had a big V8 motor that we later found to be quite partial guzzling petrol. But that was OK. Like I said, the 1973 oil crisis had yet to come to pass. And sharing the costs multiple ways helped. It wasn’t flash - to say the least - but it seemed fine to us. As long as it didn’t rain when the motor was under load - because then the notorious vacuum controlled windscreen wipers wouldn’t work. Anybody who could put in $50 was invited.
As wannabe hippies - and with tongue perhaps firmly in cheek - we advertised our destination as “Farton”, with “Edge City” emblazoned on the back. We had a great time, but still wrack our brains trying to remember our route. We do know we made it as far as Ninety Mile Beach in the Far North. The photos below show us doing doughnuts up there, near Ahipara.
On our return to the Mainland we sold the bus for $600, a 50% profit on the original purchase price, with nothing having been spent on it other than petrol. My best deal yet. The spoils were distributed equally among the original stake-holders. For most it was our last year at University, and we all went our separate ways.
After the untimely death of one of our group about thirty years later - more than ten years ago now - our interest was rekindled by a movie of our antics that was shown at his funeral. The survivors decided to have reunions every 2 years (while we could).
Our most recent get-together last month was up north again, in the Bay of Islands. For some it was the first venture that far north since 1972. It was noted there that most of us had already received our allotted 3 score years and ten. We decided to meet every year in future, as we could all be dead in two.
We resolved to have our 2022 reunion in Hokitika, South Westland. That’s an interesting choice, because I think our old bus eventually became a deer-stalker’s hut in the same area. If so, it’s probably rusted and rotted away by now, but I’d still love to see it again. It occurs to me that its remnants might still be languishing near to our venue. If we can find where, we might just get chance to revisit the old girl again.
I’d be grateful if you could distribute the Lost and Found notice below among your networks, and especially among tramping and deer-stalking colleagues in New Zealand.
LOST. One large bus (see pictures below). 1950 model Ford V8. Originally cream and red in colour. Registered number ET 7151. Sold around 1973 for use as a deer-stalkers hut in South Westland (so likely no longer cream and red). Please contact me if you can help us find it.
Thanks for reading this (and apologies for it being off-topic). Previous posts on the intersection between Ozone, UV, Climate, and Health can be found at my UV & You area at Substack. Click below to subscribe for occasional free updates.