The Shed magazine February/March 2025 issue 119 on sale now
On the road again – new life for old caravans
The allure of a classic caravan can be strong, and many of these gems are being lovingly restored – in fact, Beach Hop even has a prize for the best retro caravan.
In this issue, we showcase three very different caravan restorations—one by a man who owns a company that has been building caravans commercially since the 1950s and is now a household name in caravans and Motorhomes.
The second is a lovingly restored 10-footer that started off a real basket case, and the third, well, friends christened it a turd emoji when they saw the project bought by Marty and Zoe.
Their caravan was destined for their annual pilgrimage to Beach Hop, where thousands gather to show off their super-primped or lovingly restored classic vehicles and caravans
A movable bench with fold-away legs
Before I down-sized my workshop, I had a garage workshop area and plenty of room to have the traditional type of sawhorses or saw stools. Now I have just half of a double-garage which means the stools have to be stored out the back in all weathers.
I was looking at a sheet of 16 mm ply that was 1200 mm square and could see it would make two stools that would fold away flat and could be stored inside. They wouldn’t take up space standing permanently in the garage/workshop and they would need very little room folded away.
Waka building – Tradition goes hi-tech
Architect, designer, sailor. Add lateral thinker, enthusiast and passionate Kiwi to the mix and you have the CV of a Christchurch man who has made it his mission to put Maori waka back on the water by marrying traditional knowledge with today’s technology.
Quentin Roake’s goal is to find a way to build waka in numbers, recreating the appearance and characteristics of traditional craft in a modern version that is portable, durable, and economical to manufacture.
“The big question is, how do you translate the traditional form of canoe into modern materials? You can’t cut down a big totara tree every time you want to make a canoe,” he says.
Quentin’s quest for a solution involved consultation with tohunga waka (canoe experts), including Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr and Sir Hekenukumaingaiwi (Hector) Busby, and led to Nga Waka Tangata kaupapa, a collaborative project to develop contemporary forms of waka.
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