Classic Alpine Tour New Zealand.

Hi All,

Now that the CAT (Classic Alpine Tour) has been cancelled, I'll report on the VCAT (Virtual Classic Alpine Tour).

We left my place yesterday in the early morning hours and met up with Myles and Ross at the BP station on SH 1. Then we made a slight detour to New Plymouth to have a look at Lloyds newly restored A110 and have lunch there as well.

After lunch, we left and made our way to Wellington to board the Ferry late night. (10:30 pm). We got our cabins and had a 4-hour sleep overnight while cruising.

We arrived this morning at Picton and started making our way to Christchurch.

To be continued......

Arrived at Christchurch and Rubyalpine set us up again with a meal to die for. We talked and spent some time looking over and commenting on his beautiful R10 Alconi. Then we went to bed late and started our Thursday trip.

This was a casual drive to a little place called Temuka and the shortest stage for us on the way to Queenstown. We will have a good rest and an early morning start to start the last leg to reach the starting point of the Official Tour.
 

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Friday morning arrived and we set off to Queenstown. This is a 350 km section that is very twisty and beautiful scenery road. The first snow top mountains greet us en route.

In Queenstown, we had some time to ponder the trip up to now and wash the cars. Remember the Tour hasn't started yet! We got dressed and attended the entry cheese and wine party. After this, it is back to our accommodation for a good sleep.
 

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There should have been a prize for the car with the most doors! It looks like the Renault 8 was the only four door car at the party.

Henry
 
Hi All,
The real CAT is on and we have prepared the Matra as good as possible. Window rubbers are in but what a job!!!

The start for the two cars that are going all the way, (the others are transported down) are the Lamborghini Espada of Myles and Ross, and the Matra Jet of me and my son is tommorrow morning (Tuesday) around 6:00am for us to meet Myles and Ross at the BP station at 7:00. The day will take us down to Wellington where we will board the Ferry to start on the South Island Wednesday morning.

I will update as time allows so wish us luck!

Regards, Frans.
 
Hi All,
The real CAT is on and we have prepared the Matra as good as possible. Window rubbers are in but what a job!!!

The start for the two cars that are going all the way, (the others are transported down) are the Lamborghini Espada of Myles and Ross, and the Matra Jet of me and my son is tommorrow morning (Tuesday) around 6:00am for us to meet Myles and Ross at the BP station at 7:00. The day will take us down to Wellington where we will board the Ferry to start on the South Island Wednesday morning.

I will update as time allows so wish us luck!

Regards, Frans.
Have a great trip! We were scheduled to be in New Zealand this month at a conference in Christchurch, with a South Island holiday to follow, so we would have seen you there with luck!
 
Sounds great Frans. Never been to NZ. Perhaps next year if I can persuade SWMBO that we should do a tour tour. I am not really a fan of touristy tours. But SWMBO will not admit she is now too old to navigate in France but NZ may be a bit easier. At least you chaps speak English.
 
Hi All.
Tuesday morning arrived and we left Auckland early to avoid the peak hour traffic. Then we met Ross and Myles in the Lamborghini Espada at Bombay Hill and set off on our trip.
We are the only ones who have the courage to do the CAT in Queenstown and drive down from Auckland. The CAT only starts in Queenstown with 3 official touring days.
We casually drove down to Wellington and arrived in time for the Ferry, crossed Cook Straight and arrived in Picton on Wednesday morning.
This is where our first hitch started with the Matra. The clutch wouldn’t release and the fault was traced back to the master cylinder. We got down to Christchurch and had a lovely stay with RubyAlpine. Thanks Henry. Much appreciated. We had a few attempts to get the clutch working again and succeeded but it lasted only for the first few kilometres.
We drove to a place called Te Muka where we stayed with Myles’s friends and tried another fix. No luck. The next morning we went to a clutch and brake shop and replaced the seals. Again it was only for a few kilometres.
We reached Queenstown Friday afternoon and entered the CAT officially. Then we had another go at the clutch and we were working on the forecourt of a Filling station to get a level surface for the jack. The Caretaker came around to see what was going on. What a luck. He was a Petrol Head as well and a South African. We got a drilling machine from him and I managed to drill another hole to increase the travel. Clutch working!!!
Saturday morning and we left Queenstown on the first leg. Drove some spectacular roads with amazing scenery. The drive took us down too a place called Gore. That is where we are now and tomorrow morning we will go to Invercargill. The most Southern town.
I hope to report back tomorrow evening. Regards. Frans.
 

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Hi All.
Tuesday morning arrived and we left Auckland early to avoid the peak hour traffic. Then we met Ross and Myles in the Lamborghini Espada at Bombay Hill and set off on our trip.
We are the only ones who have the courage to do the CAT in Queenstown and drive down from Auckland. The CAT only starts in Queenstown with 3 official touring days.
We casually drove down to Wellington and arrived in time for the Ferry, crossed Cook Straight and arrived in Picton on Wednesday morning.
This is where our first hitch started with the Matra. The clutch wouldn’t release and the fault was traced back to the master cylinder. We got down to Christchurch and had a lovely stay with RubyAlpine. Thanks Henry. Much appreciated. We had a few attempts to get the clutch working again and succeeded but it lasted only for the first few kilometres.
We drove to a place called Te Muka where we stayed with Myles’s friends and tried another fix. No luck. The next morning we went to a clutch and brake shop and replaced the seals. Again it was only for a few kilometres.
We reached Queenstown Friday afternoon and entered the CAT officially. Then we had another go at the clutch and we were working on the forecourt of a Filling station to get a level surface for the jack. The Caretaker came around to see what was going on. What a luck. He was a Petrol Head as well and a South African. We got a drilling machine from him and I managed to drill another hole to increase the travel. Clutch working!!!
Saturday morning and we left Queenstown on the first leg. Drove some spectacular roads with amazing scenery. The drive took us down too a place called Gore. That is where we are now and tomorrow morning we will go to Invercargill. The most Southern town.
I hope to report back tomorrow evening. Regards. Frans.
Wonderful. I remember driving up the Bombay Hills on our way to Morrinsville many years ago.

Good you sorted out the clutch. You South Africans are everywhere of course, but you know that!!!

Enjoy. You might even see an Aurora Australis!
 
Some photos of the entry and tour and then the end. I won't bore you with the travel and beautiful scenery but I can say is that it was an experience not to forget. We have covered 2500km since we left Jacques's (my son) house and the used 280 litres of fuel. We have about 25 litres left in the tank, that gives us about 10km/litre. A Gordini was never the best economy model out but that was okay for sitting at 4000 to 4500 with fuel squiting down the 4 chokes o fthe side draughts????

We also won the prize for the most unique car on tour! That includes the only French car on tour. We will make another long-weekend in February, fly down to Queenstown and bring the car back, it is stored there for the time being.

Regards, Frans.
 

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Hi SZ,

No, it is a Lamborghini Espada.

Full marks for the identification of this blue one without Google.

Frans.
 

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The tour is now in this month's Classic Driver and I photographed it. I hope that it is clear enough so that you can read the article that describes some of the roads that we travelled.
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Sounds great Frans. Never been to NZ. Perhaps next year if I can persuade SWMBO that we should do a tour tour. I am not really a fan of touristy tours. But SWMBO will not admit she is now too old to navigate in France but NZ may be a bit easier. At least you chaps speak English.
Hi Sunroof.
I don't have anything useful to add about the classic alpine tour, but I 1000% recommend a visit to NZ.
My partner and I have been there 7 times in last 10 years, can't get enough of the place.
Expect to cover only short distances in a day, and stay several days in a place. It is easy to create an itinerary that leaves you exhausted running from place to place. NZ is densely packed with places to stop and enjoy, you don't want your holiday to be full of driving past interesting places because you are booked in further down the road. We did that in earlier trips. Pick a region and explore it thoroughly. Learn a bit of Maori language before you go - it is sprinkled through NZ English. It helps you understand the many Maori place names.
If we didn't already own a home we love in a town we love, we would be moving to NZ.
Sorry for darting off on a tangent, back to talking about French cars...
Oh, there are car museums everywhere, too.
 
Well done Franz, some great South Island scenery and a fantastic lots of cars. Good to see Greg Chapman's 124 spider still kicking around.
There's all sorts of classic car collectors down south tucked away just for events like this.
Thanks for sharing
 
The return trip started with our flight down to Queenstown on Monday afternoon. That gave us an hour or two to do some preparation before we hit the road.

We had 2 things to do: the clutch and a better engine cover seal. The solution for both were made at home before we left. On Monday eve we had a look and started the clutch issue. The parts I made at home worked perfectly and the additional tensioning idea of Jacques to add adjustable buckles to the engine cover belts were fitted and that worked perfectly as well. Oh lord it’s hard to be humble .

That night the rain came down in buckets and the Tuesday looked grim. Then at around 11-ish and within an hour the sun was shining, and we decided to start the journey.

We slept at Franz Josef Glacier and started off with the most beautiful roads under a roof of trees and cliffs and scenery to dream of. These roads took us to our second overnight spot that I can’t remember the name of as we went through so many small towns.

That morning we set off early to be in Blenheim where we visited an excellent aircraft museum and spent half a day to catch the Ferry to the North Island.

On the North Island we spent two sleepovers before we left for Auckland on Saturday morning after a huge farmer’s breakfast and then it was “Home James and don’t spare the horses”. We arrived home around 6:00pm. No photos, no scenery, just get home asap.

We had a trouble-free trip and I have to mention the little seats in the Matra. They were so comfortable that at no time did we go “oh shit not another 400km!” It was no effort to get into the car and finish another tank of fuel.
 

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A few more photos and the cars in our convoy.
 

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