Before
Neglected and unloved...
I
have always admired the old
retro/vintage caravans but never
thought of owning one until my
friend Barbra and I were both
looking for somewhere to do our
crafts. We were both looking at putting
girl sheds onto our properties. Barbra
found a shed and had it moved to her
house and now has a wonderful space in
which to do her craft work. I still wasn’t
sure whether a shed was the way to go
for me. I asked a few friends to keep an
eye out for a bubble shape caravan. A
few months later another friend Tomsqui
came with a photo on his phone and said:
“I have found you a caravan”.
Well, I was so excited. Tom gave me the
address and I went and had a look the
next day.
Chrissie, the lady whose property it was
on, was only too pleased to let me have
a look and told me that it belonged to
her son who didn’t want it and that it had
been sitting there for about seventeen
years. Chrissie wanted it gone. Chrissie
rang her son who said that I could have it
as soon as he had removed all his tools.
I rang Parks in Christchurch and asked
them a price for bringing it home.
When the lovely man from Parks was
winching it off the trailer at my place, a car
drove by and did a U-turn, and an old man
got out and admired my new acquisition.
“Herb” told me that he lived just around
the corner and that he lived in a caravan
and had a few in his yard. He was really
interested and asked if he could call in
and watch the progress. Herb turned up
the next day with books on old caravans
and old newspaper cuttings etc for me to
read. There the obsession began. Herb
has since become a good friend and we
often have coffee together.
Once home I realised that the whole
inside was rotten and soon realised that
it would never be road worthy, but not
to be deterred I set to making this tiny
caravan into my craft room. My partner
Tony thought that I had completely lost
the plot, but I had a vision of what she
was going to look like. I had to start
My partner
Tony thought that
I had completely
lost the plot, but I
had a vision of what
she was going to
look like.
6 | vintagetrailermagazine