The annual Autospectacular show was a drive down memory lane for a Christchurch couple reminiscing about their eventful honeymoon.
Cars old, new, quirky and likely to break the bank returned to the Edgar Centre at the weekend.
Colin and Jenny Hey brought back their 1980s nuptials with their wedding and honeymoon car, a 1964 Wolseley 1500 Mk 3.
Mr Hey said the couple bought the vehicle a couple of months before their big day and when the wedding came it was used as one of their wedding cars and for their honeymoon getaway.
Unfortunately, it was not until the morning after their wedding when the newlywed couple tried to leave for their honeymoon that they discovered a lovely new set of decorations adorning their vehicle.
"We’d thought we had escaped with the car, but some friends of ours had tracked us down and found it parked up in the Christchurch Autolodge carpark," Mr Hey said.
That morning they found the car painted all over with the words "just married", and completely wrapped in toilet paper.
"We had a bit of mess to clean up when we got to it the next morning."
After the cleanup, the couple hopped into their car and went on their honeymoon, a road trip around the North Island.On Saturday, the Heys re-created the morning discovery at Autospectacular by embellishing their car with toilet paper and writing "just married" all over the vehicle just as their friends did all those years ago.
The couple celebrated their 44th anniversary last month.
"This car has very much been part of our married life," Ms Hey said.
One car down was the "freedom wagon", a 1955 Wolseley 4/44 offering to drive anyone to liberation from a spouse they want a divorce from.
In contrast to the "just married!" painted on the Heys’ car, this one celebrated with a big "just divorced!" on the windscreen. Despite the moniker, owner Gavin Turner has been happily married for 48 years and insisted the car had not been driven happily away from a lawyer’s office with fresh divorce papers in the glovebox.
"Congratulations or commiserations on that fact. I’ll let you pick," he joked.
