Huge parade to open new Whangarei bridge

Bands will blare when what could be the biggest parade ever held in Whangarei rolls across Te Matau a Pohe after Whangarei MP Phil Heatley cuts the ribbon to open the new bridge on July 27.

Leading the procession will be a Packard which the late Ben Jagger operated as a service car in the 1930s between Whangarei and Taurikura at Whangarei Heads, where his family still farms.

With Fenton Craw from the Packard and Pioneer Museum at the wheel and Mr Heatley in a passenger seat, the 1925 American convertible will be the first of a line of up to 50 classic and vintage cars, hot rods, trucks and other vehicles to make the historic first crossing on the new link between Riverside Drive and Port Rd.

And much more than just wheels will roll past the bridge's distinctive twin fish-hooks of Ngati Kahu chief Wiremu Pohe. Colin Twyman, from the Kamo Lions Club, has been recruited to co-ordinate the procession and he is organising an entertaining spectacle expected to make the bridge opening the Greatest Show in Whangarei.

"There will be pre-opening entertainment with gymnastic and rock 'n roll dancing," Mr Twyman said.

"The parade will include pipe and brass bands, a group on roller skates, members of the Medieval Society, Riding for the Disabled and the Steampunk Society."

Rest home vehicles will be there with pensioners while 50 disabled and other deserving folk are set to ride in a double-decker bus.

Behind them all will come Whangarei's residents, ratepayers and visitors eager to step out on the city's new landmark, which cost $32 million with the Government contributing $14.9 million.

Meanwhile, on the river a flotilla of boats, organised by Whangarei Marine's Brian Caulton, will add to the spectacle.

The Combined Lions Clubs of Whangarei will marshal the procession and in return for the service it is understood the council will make a contribution to Lions' community projects.

Illness caused Ben Jagger to sell the 1925 Packard leading the parade to his neighbour Percy Wright, who eventually retired it from the Whangarei-Taurikura run.

It was stored in a barn until 1950, when it was bought by an American, shipped to the US and restored.

The founder of the Packard and Pioneer Museum at Maungatapere, the late Graeme Craw, spotted it at an auction he attended in California about 10 years ago and bought it to add to his collection of 55 Packards, believed to the largest of its kind in the world.