Rotorua woman finds incredible object buried in back garden

Amie Watson with her son Oscar, 3, were both shocked and thrilled to find what was hiding in their back garden. Photo / Stephen Parker

A mother-and-son gardening session at their Rotorua home has unearthed a piece of Rotorua history. Utuhina resident Amie Watson and her 3-year-old son Oscar were digging in their back garden yesterday afternoon to plant a tamarillo tree when the spade hit something hard. Rotorua Daily Post reporter Caroline Fleming popped around to see what they dug up.

A mother-and-son gardening session at their Rotorua home has unearthed the remains of what is believed to be a century-old car.

Amie Watson immediately thought she had struck a pipe and messaged her brother, who was a plumber, to see what she should do next.

Her brother joked "keep digging, you might find some treasure."

Sure enough, as she dug the earth presented a range of body pieces from an old car and a bunch of dated medicine bottles, one with a lid still on.

Before Watson knew it, she had two antique wheel rims, some old suspension springs and a rusted chassis, along with other small car parts.

She took to social media with her find and was quickly informed that what she had unearthed was likely the remains of a 1920s Ford car.

Watson, who had owned the Kahu St property for about a year said it was "unbelievable" that all of this had been found in a hole only about 2 to 3 metres in size each way.

The parts found looked like old wheels, a chassis, and other antique car parts. Photo / Stephen Parker

As the local car club caught wind of the news, Watson was told she should keep digging for more parts, which she was both keen and wary about.

She said she was interested as to what may lay underneath and how the car parts had got where they were, but she did not want holes throughout her well-kept garden.

The call has now gone out for any car fanatics who may want the pieces, otherwise, Watson said she would be making them into garden ornaments.

If nothing does come from it, it would be a "great conversation piece around the firepit" either way, she said.

A local car club believed this is what the car may have looked like in full form. Photo / Supplied

When her brother enquired what had happened with the pipe saga, Watson told him to his disbelief.

Watson laughed as she said "I found a car, sucker!"

Old bottle collector and local antique fanatic Soren Thomasen said the items were not a common find in the area.

He said the Utuhina area used to be all farmland back in the day, so the remains and the bottles could be the result of an old farm dump.

More excitingly, he said people could have stolen the car back in the day and that location may have been their dumping ground.

The bottles, in particular, could have various markings on them with a date or chemist engraving which would be of interest to collectors, he said.