Dotted around New Zealand are numerous dilapidated caravans; the likelihood of refurbishment slowly dwindling with each harsh winter. However, this plucky little West Coast caravan approaching the end of its life was fortunate to be spied by Simon and Corina Gillard and treated to a reno rescue and new life. Peta Stavelli finds out more.
Simon and Corina, who currently have their hands wonderfully full with the recent arrival of their new baby (George), have poured care and love into this once tired-and-neglected caravan, which was hibernating on a West Coast farm.
Simon’s West Coast connection is to Whataroa (population approx. 300), where he spent time as a teenager with his aunt and uncle on their farm, which also housed a sawmill and engineering workshop.
Skills learnt during this time proved particularly useful when Simon went on to found his own automotive parts rescue business: Canterbury 4WD Spares Ltd. Returning regularly as an adult to the family farm of so many special childhood memories, events took an unexpected turn when in 2022, Simon’s Uncle Rodney went into cardiac arrest after a solid day’s work tree trimming.
Simon called 111, but Whataroa is one of the most remote parts of the country and phone reception is scant. It took a while for the ambulance to get there. Meanwhile, a local paramedic provided first aid until the ambulance and then a helicopter eventually came. Fortunately, the story has a happy ending with Uncle Rodney recovering in hospital.
Meanwhile, Simon stayed on for a few days to care for the farm, which is when he stumbled upon an old caravan in a shed, previously the old sawmill, to which he had until then paid very little attention.
Right: The caravan’s original features were damp and in a state of major disrepair
The caravan had been brought over from Christchurch in 2001 by Rodney and his wife Michelle to provide a base for them when the farm was leased, as they still had a huge engineering workshop based on the property.
Rodney and his brother Kevin owned Giles Engineering. They designed and built the Duzgo – an ATV farm vehicle considered the precursor to the quad bike. Scottish comedian Billy Connolly drove #8 of the 10 Duzgo models built (and mostly sold to local farmers). A further 13 of the versatile cross-country vehicles were ordered and business was brisk until a visit from the tax man and threats of a manufacturing tax put paid to their small-scale production. Still, the coveted little cars remain collector’s items, and Billy Connolly was clearly on to a good thing when he described #8 as “the best car in the world”.
Simon can certainly claim to have acquired some important life skills from working beside his uncle. While he didn’t grow up caravanning as his wife Corina had, something about the forlorn vehicle in the farm shed struck a chord and he began to imagine a future that would incorporate elements of Corina’s past: happy childhood memories of caravanning with her family. The reality, however, was a caravan that was somewhat worse for wear, having experienced the full brunt of a storm, which brought a tree down, smashing the caravan’s front window and “frying” the power. Fortunately for Simon and Corina, when they made enquiries about the caravan’s future, it was presented to them as a thank-you present for Simon’s heroics in helping his uncle after his heart attack.
Right: Corina had a clear vision from the beginning, which basically involved gutting the original caravan
It’s fair to say that Simon’s own heart beat a little faster while towing the dilapidated caravan over Arthur’s Pass to his Christchurch workshop. While experienced in towing, it was his first time with a dubiously tired old caravan behind him and a challenging drive at best.
“Despite the drive, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to restore the caravan. Corina and I drove over to collect it, and fortunately, we have a 2018 Ford Ranger for work, which is up to the job. After 22 years sitting stationary, we towed the caravan out of the shed on its ripped and broken wheels and set about getting it ready to tow. It felt like an enormous brick behind the car. No warrant, rego, number plates, etc. The journey home took eight-and-a-half hours to complete.”
Anyone who has driven this route will need no description of the size of the undertaking. For those who haven’t, suffice it to say that Arthur’s Pass is a steep and rugged road over the Southern Alps, both spectacular and awe-inspiring. Terrifying for a novice tower. Worse still, with no modern anti-sway technology and a dodgy brake cable, which eventually broke at Springfield, it’s the stuff of nightmares. With the vehicle finally home in their Christchurch driveway, Simon had a real crisis of confidence.
“I thought: what have we done?”
Corina on the other hand had a clear vision for the restoration, which she managed to convey to Simon.
Simon says he finally got it. “I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s cool’. I finally understood that we really could do it. And I said to her that whatever it needed, we would make it happen.”
The caravan had to be made watertight. The front windscreen needed to be replaced. Simon called Sublime Auto Glass who came out to measure it and constructed and installed a new windscreen. Next, the twin single beds were replaced with a new double bed, which the couple bought off Facebook Marketplace.
Corina painted the cupboards in Resene Resevoir and also used large swathes of Resene White elsewhere and on the exterior. She also sewed new bench seat covers and curtains, seriously impressing Simon in the process.
“When I saw it, I was blown away. She did such a great job. I was fully invested in the project then and said: ‘You take care of the inside and I’ll do all of the rest.’”
With the help of a friend skilled in DIY, the caravan was jacked up and the wheels were removed to be sandblasted. The underside of the caravan was steel-brushed, and everything was painted with rust killer and black chassis paint. Brake cables (yes, those brake cables that had given so much grief after negotiating Arthur’s Pass) were replaced.
“We gave her a good birthday. A good clean and replaced the tyres, and we got someone to redo the electrical wiring. Seriously, she was in such rough shape that if she had not been dry-stored under a shed roof for most of her life, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”
Corina (20 weeks pregnant at the time) painted the entire outside with a new blank canvas of white on the outside to “make it respectable”.
However, Simon admits that he and Corina remained undecided about the eventual exterior finish for some time.
The decision stalled between turquoise and white, or the eventual winner orange and white, which Simon says is a nod to the ’70s when the caravan was built.
The caravan looks like a Zephyr, but the original ownership papers say it was home-built, so the couple accepts that its pedigree remains uncertain. Finally repaired, updated, and ready to create new memories with Corina and Simon, the next decision was around its maiden voyage.
“I thought we’d opt for somewhere local, but Corina had other ideas. She thought Tekapo would be good for a shakedown cruise. I wasn’t keen at first, but then I thought ‘What’s the worst that can happen? I needn’t have worried. She was good as gold.”
On the return journey from Tekapo, Simon said the caravan did get a bit “tail happy”. They stopped and dragged the heavy mattress from the rear to the front to get more weight over the towbar, but he says they’re planning to eventually invest in an anti-sway stabiliser system.
Right now, they are temporarily off-road for the winter but have plans to take baby George on his first road trip eventually.
“Corina has such happy memories of caravanning as a child, and we’d love to share that with George. Corina’s parents are still going away in their caravan, and we’d love to join them someday. And then it would be a real family holiday.”
