As a bit of a petrol head Greg Bullott could be said to be in some sort of heaven working as operations manager for an oil company in Napier.
But the reality is, despite being somewhere vintage late-50s, he's more at home doing "boys stuff," where heaven emerges in the form of the Marineland Rod and Kustom Club's Hot Rod and Classic Car Festival at Meeanee at the weekend, with over 600 cars and pick-up trucks lined up and at least 4000 people expected to pass through the gates for its show, shine and swap meet on Sunday.
Bullott is an original, there when the show kicked off, having displayed his share of varied Fords over the years, including the reproduction model of a 1929 Ford Model A Roadster which he'll display on Sunday.
It'll be the 26th year of the show which started as a small event in the Meeanee Speedway inner in the early 1990s but which, from the rows and rows of shiny and chromed prized possessions to the public parking now takes over all five hectares, oddly somewhat under the radar when it comes to the significance of annual events in Hawke's Bay.
The weekend kicks in with a Hot Rod Run on Saturday with over 150 vehicles, involving about 270 people and, because of the interest, limited to those from outside Hawke's Bay.