In 2008, I received an email from Phill Newborn, then living in the UK. He explained how he and his wife, Judi, had visited friends here recently and Judi loved the place so much that she did not want to go home. Thus began the process of getting through the red tape and paperwork of the New Zealand immigration process that would take about 18 months.
The main reason for the email was that Phill wanted to bring his Westfield with him. As it was 99 per cent through a nut-and-bolt restoration, he wanted to know how to get the car road legal here.
The couple arrived here in early October 2008 and eventually settled in Upper Hutt. Interestingly, Phill and I have two things in common – cars and teaching – and we both ended up working at Taita College, a Hutt Valley secondary school. Judi taught fashion in another classroom just down the corridor. Thus began a friendship that has lasted for almost two decades.
His beautifully restored Westfield is now on the road and leads quite a pampered life. In England, it was his everyday driver, spending a reasonable portion of time with the roof up as it was driven through the salt-soaked rigours of English winters.
