Our 1955 VW makes people smile wherever we go, including in Kelburn yesterday while I canvassed door-to-door.

 An anonymous enthusiast left a note steering me to the website of John, the expert who restored our Kafer to its pristine condition.

Here’s a gallery page of photos, including one of the commemorative toy that inspired John’s colour scheme. The toy was issued in 1955, the year of registration in New Zealand of our car, to mark the production of the 1,000,000th Kafer.

The car has also attracted the attention of  "skinny" the photographer who noticed the American provenance of the ‘typical kiwi family’ in H Clark’s recent "To-the-Householder. 

 Someone also took the trouble to leave on the car a Kombined VW Club Wellington card.

Cathy was surrounded by VW Beetles in university days (four at one flat). I did the ‘Round Europe OE trip" in a Kombi, and we had a family Beetle for a while, but I had no idea of the depth of enthusiasm they still command.