Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

Location: Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand

This is a strange museum, a sort of jumble of sheds for a single man's collection. Cars and planes are packed in as closely as they can be, and then toys are piled on top of them. There doesn't appear to be much focus beyond that, with odd piles of vintage telephones or firemen's badges or tabletop cannon. The beds of the trucks are full of old bikes and farm equipment, and the toys range from a pencil sharpener collection (I used to love that shit) to a section of Jar-Jar era Star Wars "collectibles". There's so much stuff I can't imagine how he had the time to buy it all. Moped and small motorcycle lovers will flip at his collection, as will fire engine enthusiasts.

Not being able to catalog the whole three hangars, I chose some vehicles that might appeal to Steampunks:

From Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

1960 GAZ Merk: This was some sort of GAZ-derived Merk made somewhere in Indonesia. I thought it had style.

From Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

1975 Land Cruiser Fire Appliance: Maybe not the classiest, but I'll bet it's a goer. Remember, utility vehicles are low-mileage, schedule-maintained, and garage-kept! This one has some kid's hovercraft project sitting on the hood.

From Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

1923 American La France Fire Appliance: I bet you anything this bastard runs.

From Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

Hub motor on delivery bike: On some of these old hub motors, the pistons are stationary and the engine rotates around them.

From Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

1942 Ford V8 Centerdrive: Now this is a beast! This thing's V8 sat right over the rear axle. The sign said it was built as a gun carrier until converted for forest service use. I suspect that this is simply a four-wheeled version of their tracked gun carrier.

From Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

From Wanaka Toy and Transport Museum

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