Southward Car Museum. Day 5

 

 

Thursday 27^th March 2025

Day 5  Wellington – Southward Car Museum

We drove 40 minutes northwest of Wellington to Paraparaumu waterfront and took breakfast at the 2 Fat Chefs. After a short walk on the beach and Susan collecting some driftwood, we retraced our steps to the Southward Car Museum. It houses a significant collection of vintage and classic vehicles, motorbikes, fire engines and a couple of aeroplanes.

 

Len Southward began collecting in 1956.  Len was an engineer and had established an engineering works in Paraparaumu and invented many pieces of equipment related to vehicles.

Looking around at the collection he certainly couldn’t help himself and continued to collect them right up until his death aged 99 in 2004.

His sons took over the engineering business and I guess they are still collecting as there were a couple of McLaren models (2016) on show and on charge, ready for the Sunday drive perhaps?

We made our way back to our hotel and I spent a couple of hours wandering the shops of Cuba Street. I found a local clothes designer and bought 3 blouses from her and a small Christmas gift for Amelia.  There’s a lot of Cuba Street that doesn’t do a lot for me. There a plenty of vape shops, charity shops, dining of course and the obligatory tattoo parlours.

We dined in this evening.  We had an Old Fashioned, smoked with rosemary at the bar before dining on some delicious Asian food at Lola Rouge. Once again shared plates.