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The Great Queen’s Birthday Market: a British transformation in Auckland

22 February, 2016

There’s a right-proper celebration happening this Queen’s Birthday weekend (June 4–6) at Auckland’s spectacular waterfront spot, Queens Wharf.

The Great Queen’s Birthday Market will see lower Shed 10 transformed into a thriving hub of stalls and performances, at which you can stock up on specialty, imported British, and Scottish products, along with countless New Zealand treasures, thanks to popular local craft, art, fashion, and accessory vendors.

Fun carnival fare with classic seaside carnival games — including laughing clowns and rides — will also be on offer to keep the young ones satisfied, or they can get crafty at the children’s workshops. The real kooks in the family can try the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. In addition, there will be performances from The Puppet Man marionette show — side-slapping fun for the whole family.

Vintage car displays will be revolving daily, with a broad selection of historic motors in attendance. Clubs that have displayed in previous years include the MG Car Club, Humber-Hillman Car Club, Daimler Lanchester Owners Club, Land Rover Owners Club, Jowett Car Club, and Jaguar Drivers Club Auckland, plus luxury British cars from the Giltrap Group, including McLaren, Aston Martin, and Bentley. And keep your eyes peeled for Robbies Double Decker Fun Bus rides touring the downtown area throughout the weekend.

Three great family films will also screen over the weekend, alongside an array of refreshments for anyone who just wants to kick back and relax. The Cloud will play host to a high-tea offering upstairs, for a touch of class, while there’s a relaxed bar and restaurant area downstairs.

So, make the most of the best long weekend in winter and get the family down to Queens Wharf.

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Tradie’s Choice

30 August, 2024

Clint Wheeler purchased this 1962 Holden FJ Panelvan as an unfinished project, or as he says “a complete basket case”. Collected as nothing more than a bare shell, the rotisserie-mounted and primed shell travelled the length of the country from the Rangiora garage where it had sat dormant for six years to Clint’s Ruakaka workshop. “Mike, the previous owner, was awesome. He stacked the van and parts nicely. I was pretty excited to get the van up north. We cut the locks and got her out to enjoy the northland sun,” says Clint. “The panelvan also came with boxes of assorted parts, some good, some not so good, but they all helped.”