LUCKY # 6

When I was 18 my second car was a Triumph Herald. It seemed pretty neat at the time but really, it wasn't exactly a muscle car. The 948cc Standard motor barely pushed the thing around. It was a bit dinky.

I bought it on Christmas Eve 1970 from a car sales yard in Cambridge Terrace. The salesman seemed quite pleased - I assumed that he was a really nice chap. I remember that it cost $399 which was a lot of money in those days. Having just sold my Austin 8 to Tony though, and with my earnings from my holiday job (Todd Motors in Petone) I was flush. By the time the paperwork was done it was about 4.30 (Christmas Eve remember) and getting insurance sorted was going to be impossible so, naively I just drove home. I was excited about the 'new' car and early on Christmas Day I went for a drive around the neighbourhood. Rounding a corner, a cat ran across the road and I had to swerve. Right in front of me apperared a car's front grill. My brain computed that a car was coming straight for me so I swerved left to avoid it. Wrong. The car was parked (on the wrong side of the road facing downhill). My swerving left meant I crashed fully into it damaging both vehicles. My Herald's bonnet and front bumper were all scrunched up and the other cars grille, headlights and bonnet were a mess. I spent a good part of my part-time earnings in 1971 paying for the damage to the other car. My car had to be dealt to with a crowbar and a hammer. The result was that the bonnet (a weird lift-up arrangement with the Triumph Herald) had to be tied down with ropes.

Sometime in January I was driving home just after midnight from Waikanae. I had been visiting my girlfriend. Richard (of RBB) will be surprised at this because he thought that all my girlfriends were a figment of my imagination. Jen was in fact my third girlfriend whom I had met at the skating rink in Paraparaumu (well it was only just past the sixties remember). As she lived in Waikanae though it was difficult to maintain the relationship. Why is it that in those days Wellington to Kapiti coast seemed such a great distance. People living in Wellington had holiday houses there! Anyway, as I was driving back from Waikanae late at night I grew sleepy. I woke up with a jolt (actually a bang) as the car slammed into a bank. Shaking my head (I bumped it on the front windscreen) I realised that I was on the other side of the motorway. This was on the stretch of road between Porirua and Tawa. I had fallen asleep, probably travelling at about 60 mph, crossed the two southbound lanes, bumped over the big ditch in the middle of the motorway, crossed the two northbound lanes and crashed into the bank on the other side. Holy shit! Realising where I was I reversed back across the two northbound lanes intending to get on to the southbound ones. I had forgotten about the big ditch in the middle. The back of the car went down leaving the front sticking up at a 45 degree angle, the headlights shining up into the sky, catching the fog and mist creating an eerie glow. Bugger!

There was no traffic in either direction. This was 1971. Pubs closed at 10PM. There was very little nightlife even for a Saturday night. After a few minutes I could see lights coming from the south. I waved the vehicle down which turned out to be an ambulance. The two St John's guys got out and inspected the damage. They had a non critical patient in the back and were on their way to Porirua hospital. I was worried that they might take me there as well (Porirua hospital in those days was better known as some kind of insane asylum). The three of us manhandled the car out of the ditch (Triumph Heralds are pretty small) and I set off (northbound this time) to Porirua where I was able to make my way southbound again. It was about 2 AM by this time and I was tired so drove at a moderate speed with the windows open letting the cold breeze  keep me wake.
Whenever I travel down that motorway I always look across to where I hit the bank and marvel at how lucky I was.