It's been anything but a routine existence in the James household since my knee replacement at the end of last August.  The surgery itself was pretty much painless and testament to the wonderful surgical team lead by surgeon Melissa Rossaak at Ormiston private hospital in Auckland. Rehab has been anything but painless. Getting started with a proper rehab programme was delayed due to a shortage of public health service physios in our region so I went privately after losing patience.  The rehab pain was due to the exercises to regain flexibility.  It's unavoidable that these will ..read more

For the second post running, we feature some classic cars.  Every year barring Covid or natural disasters, the Coromandel Car Club puts on a car fair with vehicles from all around the peninsula and beyond.  The majority are American classics, with a smaller number from other countries, including some really rare vehicles.  It was held yesterday in perfect weather in a farm paddock just south of the town (village).  Entry was via a gold coin donation - fantastic value for money and extremely well organised with food and live music too. The following photos only scratch the ..read more

What with cancellations due to Covid and the tropical storms in NZ last year, I've missed attending Wings and Wheels at Thames until now.  The location is only an hour down the coast too.  What a great day it turned out to be, with excellent organisation and everyone chilled and simply there to have a good time.  As I've remarked previously, there appears to be little or no snobbery or a hierarchy among NZ classic car owners which leads to some great discussions. Even better, any classic cars or light aircraft owners were admitted to to the airfield for free and had a ringside s ..read more

Tropical cyclones and lesser storms, a change in government, significant surgery, spending more time out and about in our classic car, a major time-consuming project of Jennie's and a host of other things made for an unusual year in New Zealand.  However, there was still much to be thankful for.  In this review, I've used photos wherever possible which haven't been previously posted.  January Our region got hit by a series of tropical storms which caused widespread flooding and landslides, including a major arterial route which has only just reopened.  This caused significa ..read more

 Along with bikes, classic cars and sea fishing, I like gardens; if not the actual act of gardening!  Where we live in NZ, it's a very mild climate and frosts are rare.  Much of the area is bush-covered including a fair bit of our property but there's still space for interesting stuff to be grown which is generally low maintenance.  We're not into formal European-style gardens so in addition to various citrus trees, apples and plums, we like to grow colourful plants and have plants in flower the whole year round.  As we're only a few days into summer and just for a cha ..read more

Although we haven't actually met up for 20 years, my UK-domiciled best mate Rick and I stay in regular touch.  There's little in the way of topics that don't get dissected but motorcycles and classic cars are a regular topic because of our shared interest.  Of late, I've been sending him some photos of bikes that I've owned since moving to NZ in 1975, together with some ramblings about ownership. I started this blog in a moment of boredom in 2009 and over that time, have produced a few reviews of bikes I've owned, normally at a level of technical detail which would bore the pants off ..read more

This post isn't about motorcycles or cars, but a bit of local history in New Zealand which I've only had minor involvement with, but has consumed massive amounts of my wife's time.  I'm enormously proud of her and her team of volunteers in achieving a wonderful conservation outcome. Firstly, a bit of background.  European settlement of the Coromandel Peninsula really started in the early to mid-1800's although sporadic visits by sailor/explorers like Capt James Cook were even earlier.  Native Kauri trees were a sought-after resource for ship spars and general high quality timber ..read more

 After an uncharacteristically wet NZ summer which continued into winter, Jennie and I were looking for a midwinter break somewhere warm and sunny.  One of our favourite places is the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, approximately 3200 km NE of NZ.  It's only 70 sq km in area without the commercialisation of places like Hawaii or Tahiti.  A great place to just chill and eat fresh food.  The Cook Islanders themselves are wonderful - laid back, great humoured and really friendly.  They have a long association with NZ and are free to travel and work in NZ. Mo ..read more

NZ has had more than its share of bad weather in 2023 and the peninsula we live on has been directly in the firing line for most of the storms.  Although there has been an improvement in recent years, power cuts often occur due to trees falling on the power lines.  Outages these days typically last from as little as a few minutes to half a day or more.  We have a gas BBQ on our covered deck which is handy for cooking when we lose power and have various gas and battery lights so that we can see ok at night. One backup power source we've used for a few years is a 12v sealed lead a ..read more

We bought the MG nearly 2 years ago to actually drive, as opposed to spend time restoring it. This was particularly relevant with both Jennie and I being in our mid-70's.  Buying one with most of the restoration done has really paid off.  The upside of most classics is that that they're not all that complicated to work on, don't need too many special tools or computer-based diagnostic equipment.  The downside is that they need a bit more maintenance than modern vehicles.  Much of that work will be D-I-Y as most main line auto shops won't want to touch them as they all have ..read more