Bri readied the Cobra for the trip & we were off & racing at 4am in the morn, down the highway off on our adventure. We wanted a leisurely trip or rather I did, taking in a few sights on the way. We stayed the first night in Port Macquarie, & then went via Newcastle. I found the driving into Newcastle so very moving & cried all the way in to the City. I was remembering from my Childhood how my beloved Dad had always spoken so fondly of Newcastle where he had spent time pre World War 2 & during. He had joined the Merchant Navy in 1939 as 5th Engineer in the SS City of Delhi & served on her until February 1940, then sailed on the SS Wairuna from 26th Feb 1940 and sailed in her until 13th Nov 1941, then onto the SS Waitaki from the Nov 1941 to Feb 1942. They sailed Auckland to Newcastle to take on coal, then to Sydney, New Yolk, Boston, Montreal, US, Canada coast, Wellington Dunedin, Fiji, Tahiti, San Francisco & Vancouver Island, continuing along the coast to Powel river, up to Ocean Falls, back to Vancouver & down the coast to Eureka in the state of Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tasmania, Napier & Rarotanga, not necesalily in that order. In May 23rd 1942 he applied for enlistment in the Royal New Zealand Air Force & trained as a Fitter Armorer & spent his War years in the Sth pacific rim mostly Bougainville & Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrites, now Vanuatu until ceasing to be a serving member of the RNZAF on the 6th July 1945.
Well enough of the history lesson!
We headed away just as the rain started to fall & this continued on all the way to the hotel arriving at 5pm. What a treat this was it was a trackside suite, yes indeed, looking out over the Raceway, couldn’t have had a better spot. Saturday the rain was still falling, we took the Cobra over to its designated area, all in all 14 Cobras had made the trip. This is the day the dream really took hold, when he spied the Group A touring car for sale!!!!!
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