When Robin Parker looks at an old photo taken of himself sitting on top of his grandfather's Ferguson TEA tractor, the memories come flooding back.
"We grew up on these things. Our parents used to tie us on the seat with string and we'd steer it around the paddock while they put out the hay. Obviously health and safety was a bit different back then and many people would be horrified to hear about that now, but … that's just how it was," he says.
This weekend, Parker will be able to share these memories and many more with like-minded enthusiasts attending the Wairarapa Vintage Machinery Club's Harvest Rally, a family-friendly event held every four years. Parker will bring his old tractor and a champion model 740A grader to the Harvest Rally being held at the Clareville Showgrounds over Waitangi Weekend 2018 (February 3rd and 4th).
Parker has always been fascinated with vintage equipment and is a member of the Wairarapa machinery club and on the committee for the Rally. He happily recalls how he came to acquire his grandfather's "old Fergy".
"'My grandfather was Hilton Parker who used to lease Budd's Dairy Farm at Tauamata Island in Carterton. He brought the Fergusson the same year I was born and paid 490 pounds for it. He used the tractor there and I remember it vividly as a child," he says.
"Well, a few years ago I got a tip-off from Peter Cameron, from the Vintage Machinery Club, who has records of historic sales. He rang up and said 'do you want to buy your grandad's tractor? "
