.
“We weren’t familiar with all of the weatherproofing devices in the car, and it turned out they weren’t very effective anyway.
“But at one stage, we discovered that the brakes in our car weren’t very good when it was raining. So we were coming up to an intersection, and I was sort of waving to the crossing vehicles, telling them to stop because we weren’t going to. Everybody understood.
“We had moments like that. On that same trip coming home, we had pretty much horizontal rain and it came in from the sides, and nothing we had in the car would stop it from coming in.”
That car proved a popular feature at Napier’s Art Deco Festival, where dozens of vintage vehicles would be driven through the CBD as part of the event.
Ian and Esmee Rowden dressed up while standing in front of their 1935 Chrysler at Napier’s Art Deco Festival.
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The Rowdens took the affair seriously, dressing up in different themes each time — like “the ugly sisters”, a fairy godmother, penguins, cops and robbers, Charlie Chaplin, a bishop and nuns, and – the forever “audience pleaser” – clowns.
“We chose things that occurred around the 1920s and ’30s, whether it was a nursery rhyme or song or whatever, and dressed up in that theme. And so that’s how we started being different,” Esmee says.
“I mean, my face used to ache after a parade because you’re smiling so much.”
Ian chuckles as he recalls the reaction of the AA roadside rescue crew when they arrived to see the vintage car with a broken half‑shaft on one of his return trips.
“[It was] a bit different from their normal [vehicle rescues]. The car got pushed by about four or five guys onto the ferry. At the other end, it was pushed off in a similar manner.”
Ian and Esmee Rowden say their classic car has been brought up to scratch and well groomed.
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It might sound like a challenge, but Esmee says it was all fun, and she hopes the next owner of their 1969 Jaguar MK2 — which is being auctioned for Arohanui Hospice — will be able to enjoy it fully too.
“We know a guy who’s got a 1906 Cadillac. He goes down to these rallies,” Ian says. “He says it breaks down all the time. The fun of the thing, as far as he’s concerned, is the challenge of overcoming all these breakages. That’s not what I go driving for, but that’s what he gets out of it.”
“We’ve never been fussed about leaving our cars in the garage to look pretty,” Esmee adds.
The 1969 Jaguar MK2 comes with all the classic details but also has a modern touch of a reversing camera monitor.
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The 1969 Jaguar MK2 is in good condition, they say, and has been well groomed. It had already been on sale for 18 months – after Ian suffered a bout of pancreatitis – but a cancer diagnosis propelled him to make sure it was out of their hands soon.
“I thought, well, if I can’t sell it, if no one wants to buy it off me, I can give it to someone. By this time, I was being looked after by the Arohanui Hospice in Palmerston North. I knew a few Rotarians who were involved with the governance of the hospice, and it just seemed an obvious institution to offer it to.”
The classic car has all the charms of a vintage car – like a “choke throttle” flick switch (which helps the engine heat up so it’s ready to go) and the original spare‑tyre kit still remains (bar a few tools that have been used). But there are modern touches too, like a reversing‑camera monitor, an automatic gear and power steering.
The 1969 Jaguar MK2 comes with the original spare tyre toolkit (except for a few missing tools).
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“It’s a bit like old age, really. It’s inevitable,” Esmee says. “We knew that the time was up for having big adventures, and if we weren’t going to take it out, then somebody else should probably do it.
“We hope the next owner just loves it as much as we did.
“The funny thing about that is our first car, the Oakland – whom we called Bexy – was bought by three gentlemen from Auckland who took it on lots of adventures and kept on sending us photos, which was lovely.”
The cars may be gone, but the adventures continue for Ian, who ticked off the Coastal Pacific train trip from his bucket list this week.
