Who What and Where?

[Chris Read]

Now that can be another story. My late uncle went down and retreived them from Antarctica and bought them back. He was one of first to Scott Base back late 50s early 60s. He designed/built alot of it back then. Mum has photos somewhere.

I also had an Uncle who was the Director of the DSIR and in charge of NZ Antartic Expedition. As well I used to have an old mate in Dunedin who was an all round engineer who looked after my BCM, the ex Palmer Lotus 20B and a Ferrari 330GT. His name was Dave Mills and he was a wizz with Jags and Italian motors as well as bodywork, fettling and anything mechanical including being a diving engineer and stints as an engineer in the 60's, I think, 'on the ice'. He had an XK120 which went pretty well..
Well he died suddenly age 65 quite a few years ago after looking after my cars for over 20yrs and I lost a good mate. At his funeral an old friend said for us all to take out a $5 note and look for the tractor - it was much bigger on the note then. Well the story was that Dave had time on his hands during the Antartic winter and he saw these tractors sitting on the ice ready for the melt when these old bits of machinery would sink to the bottom - so much for environmental awareness. Of course these were some of the left overs from the Hillary expedition to the Pole which I had a 2s and 6p (2/6) pocket money share in, having supported it as a 6 yr via my uncle - I still have the certificate today. Dave decided to 'requisition' one and put it in his workshop and spent the winter-over restoring it. The story of how the tractor got back to Christchurch is another one but it was the initial Fergie shown off in CHC at the early Centre and featured as the model for the engraving on the $5 note.
So it was a good story to finish on for a guy who had a full life and built me a racing engine 26 yrs ago that was still going without a rebuild until last year when a timing chain let go at HD's. Chris Read - Arrowtown.