Those were the days……when boys were boys..!

Those were the days….. when boys were boys…..

A funny true story that did get us in a little spot of trouble away back in my younger life when I wore short pants…lol

I was working in Christchurch at an agricultural supply company, and within the office of said company I had been out a couple times before with a lovely young lady receptionist just to the odd movie nights etc and in initial conversations she had mentioned that her parents lived in Blenheim… fine…

Rolling this story forward a little while, I received a telephone call from a fellow high country mate “Food Scoop” ( as was his nick name that he travelled in life under ), one night inviting me to his upcoming 21 st birthday party in Blenheim… YEP SURE  LOVE TO ATTEND…..

Knowing this young lady’s parents lived in Blenheim, I asked her would she like a trip for a weekend up to Blenheim to a friends 21st and that she could stay with her parents while there…. yes that sounds great was her reply….

So the Saturday morning  departure day arrived and I rolled up in my old VW beetle to pick her up to be asked…….. are we travelling in this old thing…? , as last weekend I heard you and Athol had the engine out on the workshop floor fixing it… is it reliable enough..????

I just nodded without saying a word as she put her bags in the back seat and climbed in… I had a little surprise instore for her as we turned off Russley Rd towards the Christchurch Airport and pulled up at the Aero Club carpark….. what are we doing here she asked…..? again not saying a word as I gestured her to grab her bags and follow me…

What she didnt know was that I held a private pilots licence and today we were flying up to Blenheim in one of the Aero Clubs new piper Cherokee aeroplanes…. You should have seen the stunned look on her face as we walked in, signed in, did a flight plan then walked out onto the tarmac to our rented plane ZK EBC , pushed it over and fueled it up… she said I need to telephone my parents to tell them we were flying, not driving..(.ha ha I love giving people surprises in life..! )

Airbourne out of Harewood, she said I have never been up in a plane before and look at all the beauty of the below Canterbury foot hills as we made our way north….An hour and a half later we arrived up and joined the landing pattern at the little airfield of Omaka and after a perfect landing as she put it we were greeted by her parents who seemed to have a barrage of interesting questions about flying and about this young man who had safely bought their daughter  up for the weekend…. What a nice young man I overheard her mother say to her….. ( But alas after this weekend I wonder if she would have still said that… read on…!)

Agreeing that I would pick her up from her parents later they departed as I waited for “Food Scoop” and a couple of other mates to pick me up…. almost straight away we called into the first pub for a quick one… or two… as boys will be boys continued on for several hours….

Now we made it into Blenheim to his flat where his girl friend and several others had gathered and decided we need a feed of fish and chips,, yummy..

Anyway moving this story on towards the evening, we had gone around and picked up “my date” in Food Scoops Mark Four Ford Zodiac car and then  attended the “roar cuss” 21 st birthday party at the Spring Grove pub just out of Blenheim …The pub had a special late licence for the event and around 1.30am six of us all piled into the mark four to take my date back to her parent before the rest of us headed back to his flat for the night….

Now the Spring Grove pub is located next to the main north road and running along side on the opposite side of this main road is the Picton to Christchurch main trunk railway line, and as MURPHYS LAW prevails along came a very very long freight train that must have stopped at Blenheim and was slowly gaining speed towards Picton… We needed to cross the railway tracks on the short road back to her parents, as we waited and waited for this seemingly endless train to pass….. now “Food Scoop” who was by now slightly inebriated with his 21st beers and spirts and driving his car, was fascinated with the cars head lights flicking beams of light onto each wagon as it past.. next he edged the car closer and closer to the train, laughing as the beams of car lights flicked past then all of a sudden a very loud BANG as his car was shunted a bit sideways… FOLKS we had hit the train… which had ripped the passenger side front guard of his car off and the whole length of this guard swung around to a 90 degree angle and now only held to the car by the rear anchor point near the front of the passenger door but the funny thing was one of the double head lights attached to this guard was still going, but now shining out to the side of the car….

We all initially were a bit scared as we hit but after seeing the results and the light still working but not as we normally would expect the direction beam to be shining in, Food scoop started laughing, backed off and started driving around with each left hand bend the guard would swing back somewhere near forward and each right hand bend,,, yep the guard would swing away out to a 90 deg, and with this head light still going it was hilarious

But… as we all know good things dont last…… last until… YEP those lovely blue and red christmas lights on top of the local bobby patrol car gestured us to stop… O SH….t  the officer took a look at the revolving headlight and guard and looked inside at all of us young folks… he took all our names and with some fast talking we were allowed to drop my friend off and go straight back to our flat but first we need to tie to guard so it no longer did its own party tricks….. but again…. ALAS this was not the end of it…………what I didnt know was my lady friends father was a high ranked police officer and he had had word about his daughter being in an unfit for the road car….Upon arrival to drop her off we ALL got a serious grilling and sent off with our tail between our legs so to speak…Hmmmmm..

Next morning we were to meet at the airfield and guess who was asked to take a breath test before his daughter would be allowed to fly back with me….

I guess we were all guilty of this crime but then we were not driving as such…. anyway the weekend was put down as one of life’s funny moments   not that her parents saw it as funny…!

Below photo shows a sample type of the mark four Zodiac..!