ABOUT US

Cars, that's all I've every been interested in! My Dad claims the first word I ever said was "Wolseley"! Of all the makes of cars why did I chose Wolseley!

Hello, my name is John Houghton.

When I was about 10, I can remember going with my father to a used car dealer in Christchurch (New Zealand) called Metro Motors. The man who owned Metro Motors drove an absolutely beautiful 1965 Chevrolet Impala SS Coupe painted bright red with white interior and nice white walled tyres. From that time on I only ever wanted to be a car dealer! Gosh if you got to drive cars like that, why not?

When I was 11 Dad took the family on a 3 week holiday to Australia. This was a big deal back in 1966! Five kids, Mum and Dad off to Australia! We flew from Christchurch direct to Melbourne on a Lockheed Electra Prop-Jet. That was a long four hour flight listening to the 4 engines droning away on the wings! While we were in Melbourne for the first week of our holiday we went to the Queen Victoria Markets. While there, Dad found a market stall selling old stock Matchbox Toys for 30 cents each. I was allowed to choose one. I picked the No. 33 Ford Zodiac in Metallic Sand colour with orange sides. That model was the start of a life long addiction!

My Matchbox Toy collection grew very quickly. I used to advertise in the local paper to buy collections and then sell off the models I didn't want. I was quite the entrepenuer for a 12 year old. One day Dad came home from work with a book called the "Catalogue of Model Cars of the World" written by Jacques Greilsamer and Bertrand Azema. Wow, this listed over 7000 different model cars from around the world! I just had to have them all!

By 1969 I had one of the largest model car collections known in New Zealand. I had well over 3000 model cars. My collection was also expanding into all types of old toys. We had a large room in our house that was dedicated to model cars and toys. Cabinets were on every wall and free standing display cabinets were full of diecast model cars and other toys. It was most impressive!

We had made contact with many collectors through out New Zealand and it was at this time that it was decided to form a model car club. So on the 18th January 1969 The Model Car Collectors Club of New Zealand had it's Inaugural Meeting at my family home in Christchurch. About a year later Dad organised the first swap meet for model cars ever to be held in New Zealand. This was extremely successful and became an annual get together. It was held at the Seaview Hotel on the waterfront in Timaru (half way between Christchurch and Dunedin).

When I was old enough to get my drivers licence, toys took a bit of a back seat and real cars came into play. I just had to have as many as I could! Some of the more obscure ones I remember are a 1953 Kaiser Manhatten, 1962 Chev Corvette, 1958 Plymouth Fury 2 door, 1954 Hillman California (that was cute!) plus lots more. At 18, I got my first job in a car dealership. I started at Mecca Motors as a car detailer. I was like a pig in mud! After about 3 months, the boss gave me a company car to use. How cool! I was driving all sorts of cars like Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV's, Fiat 124 Coupes, Mazda R100 Coupes and lots more. I worked there for about 3 years and in that time got married. The pressure was on to buy a house so I had to find a job that paid better money. I eventually ended up at Carriage Co Motors in Christchurch. I thought I was in heaven! I was eventually selling cars and earning real money and driving cars like Range Rovers, Mercedes Benz, Bentleys, Rolls Royce, Mustangs, Camaro's Thunderbirds. WOW, it just went on and on! This was the real start of my car dealing life that expaned from New Zealand to Australia for the next 25 years.

In the beginning of the new millenium, after being married a couple of times, I met my partner Di (it's really Diane but she hates me calling her that!). We are a match made in heaven! She commands, I do as I'm told! Not long after we met, I became ill and couldn't walk for some months. It was during this time of convalesing that Di encouraged me to start collecting model cars and toys again. When I was better we both decided to retire and enjoy life and follow some dreams we both wanted. So, at 48 we were retired from the corporate rat race. The first year we did nothing but travel around Australia, spend lots of money and buy lots of toys!

Our retirement didn't last long. We decided to open a die cast collectibles shop at Ettalong Beach on the Central Coast of New South Wales, about 80 kilometers north of Sydney. We opened mainly on weekends as that was when the place came alive with visitors from Sydney. After a few months we were offered the oppotunity to open a restaurant and cafe in the Sea-Sand Waterfront Resort at Ettalong Beach. We had no experience or qualifications to undertake this venture, but it sure sounded like fun, and totally different from anything we had ever done before, so without a second thought, we owned a restaurant! Neither of us knew how to work a capuchino machine or work a commercial dishwasher! We learnt real quick! We were soon known as having the best steaks and coffee on the Central Coast. Our customers travelled from far and wide to come and eat at our place and oggle our displays of model cars around the restaurant. We were soon catering to well known celebrities and others. Fishermen and Charter Operators even rang from their boats as they were coming through the point, to order food for when they docked! What a buzz this was. We had fun, but it was hard work, so when we were made an offer to sell, it was perfect timing. We sold up and moved to Melbourne.

That's where we are now, living in suburbia with our gorgeous little maltese dog, Jak. The model car collection is growing too fast and I have plenty of time to spend on my toy restorations/ reinventions. We are happy! Life is GREAT!

 

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