Farewell; it's been brilliant!

Fear not; we're not going anywhere. But hundreds of vintage and classic cars, and their owners will be leaving Wanganui this morning at the conclusion of the Vintage Car Club of NZ's International Rally 2012.

VCC 2012 has been an overwhelming success. Even the weather played ball, with only some brief rain on Sunday afternoon. It is, however, bucketing down this morning as the cars hit the road; an expression of sadness from above, perhaps!




The people of Wanganui fully embraced this event, which will be long remembered. Around 30,000 turned out on Sunday to an Open Day at the Wanganui Racecourse where all the cars in the rally were on display. Vintage cars parked in the main street of the city, at supermarkets, petrol stations and shops have become a common sight, and a perfect fit with Wanganui's heritage theme.




And to say "thanks" to the people of the city, the cars split into three groups on Wednesday night, and ventured out to the suburbs where they were met by hundreds of people of the roadsides throughout Wanganui. It was a wonderful gesture by the rally organisers, and was warmly received.




We've interspersed this thread with a few photos we took on Sunday, but most of the memories we'll have of this last ten days will be in the mind's eye; it's been fantastic seeing history on display, and so lovingly restored.



And lastly, here's a comment from a visitor, sent to Cr Jack Bullock, Wanganui's youngest councillor:

I have just returned home to Christchurch after having spent a week in Wanganui. I was there for the VCC Rally and what a week it was. I thoroughly enjoyed it. More importantly I love your city and think it has many under rated attractions. I fell in love with your main street Victoria Avenue and I think your gardens are delightful. The people were so nice and friendly. I was pleasantly surprised by the value of property in the region and am seriously considering moving up there as Christchurch is never going to be the same or remotely as good as your city from the cultural side. I am retired and want to spend the rest of my days in a city that is complete.

Just keep up the good work and encourage people to continue to take a pride in what they have achieved and what they can improve on in the future.

We've thoroughly enjoyed VCC 2012 as well, and we weren't even directly involved! It's got 2012 off to the best possible start for a city that is too often in the headlines for the wrong reasons.