New life for double decker bus

Lizzette Britton is reunited with her old bus. Photo / Paul Brooks

Give Lizzette Britton some time and there will be another double-decker bus in service in Whanganui.

It won't be cruising the streets, looking for passengers: this bus is going into the hospitality trade as two-storey accommodation, says Lizzette.

The 1952 AEC Regent originally worked in Sydney, Australia, and it was green and gold.

"It's only red because I painted it 30 years ago when I owned it, and I didn't want it in green and yellow, which are the Australian colours," she says. "The bottom is a half-cab complete bus and the top half was bolted on."

Many years ago the bus was parked up and visible from the Auckland motorway.

"I had another bus and sold it to get this one."

The previous bus was a Leyland Comet that Lizzette had lofted for use as a mobile home for her and her three children.

"I couldn't drive, but I bought it so the kids and I would always have a home."

Then the single mum got remarried and bought the Regent for the larger family, which now included husband David.

The family and the bus had moments of fame, even appearing on Country Calendar.

But, the marriage didn't last, he got the bus, but now, 25 years later, he offered the bus to Lizzette for free. It meant towing it to Whanganui from Tauranga.

"It still goes, but it's not road legal and it's got a lot of rust in it. I am going to do it up as accommodation."

The roof leaks so Lizzette has been up top taking out roof lining, seeing how many windows she can do without — they leak — and will replace the ones she keeps.

"It's going to be lovely and warm and watertight."

The bus served its time as a mobile home, with the rear platform enclosed and homely touches added like antique-looking woodwork, brass, wrought ironwork, a shower, kitchen and all the facilities you would need for travelling around the country. The cabinetry is built around the wheel arches.

A genuine coffin handle opens the roll-out pantry. It includes a cast-iron wood burner — a Champion Dover no.6, a housetrucker's standard cooker — with beaten copper fireguards on the wall for heat protection.

"We used to have open homes here: people would pay a gold coin to come in and have a look."

That was when they were travelling with the Gypsy Fair and the bus was called Jeramiah's Travelling Bizarre. Oddly enough, Lizzette's husband of 22 years, John Britton, was one of the gold coin customers when the bus was with the fair at Kowhai Park. Naturally, he supports the project.

"I'm really looking forward to doing it all up," says Lizzette.

She has already put a bug bomb through the vehicle.

"I want to do everything properly. It's a lot of work, but I've done it before."

She wants to restore it as a traditional, but modern house truck and keep it in character.

"I would like to put it on the road, because it still goes and fires up easily."

There are still some original 1951 features, including the 9.6-litre diesel engine and pre-selective epicyclic gearbox, the winding stairs to the top deck and the convex mirror the driver used to keep an eye on things at the back.

Lizzette has chosen the red to redo the coachwork paint, but thinks she may rename the bus for the next stage of its life ... or not. She will consider after she and her daughter have "saged" the vehicle — a ritual to remove the old and invite new energy. In the meantime, a big job awaits.