This year’s National Corvette Convention was hosted by the team at NSW Corvettes Unlimited Car Club. Though based in Sydney, the club chose to hold the Convention at Wollongong on the coast South of Sydney. This idea was a winner, as it made life that much easier for all visitors who are not familiar with Sydney’s roads and traffic – good call. The South Aussies that attended were Ruth & I, travelling over with John & Jenny. Also with us (driving the 78), our friends from New Zealand, John & Julie. We left earlier in the week prior to Easter, taking our time including a couple of nights in Canberra. The second group of South Aussies were Rob & Karen, Neil & Christeen, Goof & Mel. These guys B-lined, and did the trip over two days. Across they Hay plains. We all met up on the Friday at the Novatel in time for registrations and the welcome party. We knew things were going to go well for us all from the start as Neil straight away won a fancy Corvette Lamp and Kiwi John winning a Corvette Racing Team framed & signed print. The Novatel at North Wollongong was another good call. Under cover secure parking, plenty of large rooms to host the different events and plenty of bar and lounge facilities for when it was time to kick back. The reception area looked the part with a new ZR1 C6 parked adjacent. Saturday morning broke with sun shining and all was looking good for the Show n Shine. This was being held at the lighthouse at Flagstaff Hill. The location is an elevated grassed outcrop, with three levels of car parking and a great view to the adjacent surf beach. The NSW guys continued with their good organisation skills, separating the judged cars and the non judged cars. This would have helped the judges no end keeping the judged cars together. Even though the wind blew up throughout the day, it was still a top day in a top location. The judges did a fine job too I say. The local newspaper showed up to run a story on the Show n Shine. They obviously couldn’t find any hot chicks to photograph with the cars so scrapping the bottom of the barrel, they photographed Rob, Kiwi John, Goof & Neil laying in front of the cars. Their heads made it on to a half-page photo spread in the local paper along with a heap of Vettes in the back ground. Actually that was a pretty cool photo – well done.
Saturday evening rolled around with a Rock n Roll themed Presentation night. The food was great, the band was great, and guys running the night kept the presentations brief, running at quick pace with plenty of humour which is always goes down well. Our 78 took ‘Runner Up’ in its category and John Randell took out ‘First Place’ with his 40th Anniversary C4. Well done John. John & Jenny also received at plague for ‘furthest travelled’. The NSW guys didn’t forget the international visitors either and presented our friends John & Julie, a couple from Canada and a guy from the States with appreciation plagues. All in all, it was another great night. Sunday came. There were no competition driving days at this convention. Just a Super Cruise up into the Southern Highlands. We were split up into groups of about a dozen cars with a NSW club member at the front and at the rear and each group left at approximately 15 minute intervals. Again this was a winner of an idea as we didn’t have the issues of being split up at lights and the front car having no idea where to go. We travelled up into the hills and onto a winery for morning tea and a general chill out. Then again, the groups were called and we went onto a hill top restaurant for lunch. Superb food with a great view out over the coast line. After lunch we descended down to the coast for a run through beach side towns which included the Sea Cliff Bridge. A spectacular piece of road building along the cliffs. Sunday night was another great meal with the remainder of the presentations, raffles, the guest speaker was Ian Luff a former Touring car driver and television presenter. Then came the charity auctions where everything bar the tables and chairs were sold of, the night went well with plenty of laughs and plenty of money raised. Monday morning was the usual Brekkie in the Park, farewells and parting ways. I have to congratulate the Convention team from NSW as it was a well-run, well organised fun convention. You can’t ask much more than that. They made us feel welcome right from the start. A number of NSW guys came up to us during dinners thanking us personally for making the effort of getting over there and it was nice to know that this wasn’t taken for granted. They all were a nice lot over there. Well done. – Next Year “Toowoomba Queensland” 29th March — 1st April 2013.
