by HOLDEN RULES
My son and I went to Invercargill earlier in March — to pick up a car.
We flew from Auckland to Christchurch on a cheap flight, then drove from there, arriving that afternoon.
Why buy a car in Invercargill?
This was a 1979 HZ Holden Kingswood. The HQ Holden has become a modern classic, and the HZ is the last of the HQ sedan series.
An excellent example will cost at least $15,000.Ours was much less. And, having had previous experience of buying like this, we travelled with a careful selection of tools and other supplies.
The seller was interesting. He looked like he would fit in to the Outrageous Fortune kind of culture — mid 30s, hair cut short, sunnies on top of his head, and — in my judgmental view — ready to be just honest enough.
He knew we were going to drive the car back and made a play of the fact that he hadn’t done long trips in the car. He even had two copies of a document ready for signature absolving him of responsibility if the car broke down.
We were committed to buying the car, provided it was as advertised. It appeared to be, and so the deal was done.
We headed to a service station and added 40 litres of fuel. As my son drove out of town, me following, I began tooting and flashing my lights. “What’s up?” he asked, after he’d pulled over. “Have a look at the back,” I said.
His heart sank like mine already had as we watched petrol pouring from somewhere unseen at the top of the fuel tank. I knew at once this was no quick fix.
I am by nature a worrier and, before our trip, considered all sorts of things that could go wrong. I pondered this before we left and came to a helpful conclusion — whatever happened, between us we would cope.
Even so, feeling some tension, I walked back to the service station, bought a 20 litre fuel container and filled it. I also prayed for the reliability of the car, and for our journey.
For the rest of our 1561 kilometre trip from Invercargill to Auckland, we added no more than 15 litres of fuel at a time to the tank, and carried extra fuel.
We left Invercargill about 6.30pm on Friday, and arrived home exactly three days later. The car had used lots of fuel. My son and I had not used much — burgers, fish ‘n chips and the like — seasoned with prayer.
— Holden Rules lives in west Auckland, a centre of Holden appreciation.