Every year, as the Americarna cars roar into Stratford, I, along with most people in Stratford, enjoy taking a walk along Broadway to admire all the gleaming chrome on display.
Then along with the rest of the crowd, I watch as the drivers all return to their cars and drive them out of town. It always feels a bit of an anticlimax to head back to work after such an impressive display of motors and I am sure I am not the only one who spends much of the next few hours imagining what it might be like to head out of town in an classic American car.
This year, I didn't have to imagine but cruised all the way to Hawera in style, in the beautifully upholstered passenger seat of a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door pillar-less coupe.
The car, owned by Stratford deputy mayor Alan Jamieson, has only had three owners since it came off the production line in the USA.