The first Land Rover to be registered in New Zealand paid a visit to the Geraldine Vintage Car & Machinery Museum on Monday as part of a nationwide fundraiser.
The Land Rover was sent to Wellington Motors Ltd from the UK factory on September 16, 1948 as a demonstrator vehicle.
It possesses chassis number "R860020" — meaning it was the 20th production vehicle ever built, and because of that it is lovingly referred to as "20".
The vehicle belongs to Julian Paton, a professor at the University of Auckland and director of Manaaki Manawa — The Centre for Heart Research.
Prof Paton is driving "20" 1800km from Dunedin to Auckland to raise funds for heart research.
He said the aim of Drive4hearts was to raise $300,000 to combat rheumatic heart disease (RHD).
"What we’re trying to raise money to do is something quite revolutionary — make a new heart valve that will grow in a child’s heart as the heart grows," Prof Paton said.
"At the moment, the problem is that when a valve is put into a child’s heart with RHD, the heart grows as the kid grows up but the valve does not because it’s either metal or it’s come from a pig or cow.
"It will not be rejected by the body because the cells that it will be made from will be the patient’s own cells."
He said he believed it would now be possible due to the technology available.
"It’s using a 3-D printer and material that allows us to grow cells on.
"That 3-D print will be based on MRI images that we’ve taken from the patient.
"We can plug all that into the 3-D printer, and it prints out an identical valve that will fit snugly, perfectly into that child," he said.
He said at Manaaki Manawa they have a fully multidisciplinary team of tissue engineers, human tissue engineers, bioengineers, engineers, physiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons and perfusionists.
"What we’re looking for is to raise $300,000 to fund a fantastic scientist to be able to drive this research for us."
In New Zealand 1400 children developed RHD every year, a number Prof Paton said was a national embarrassment.
"RHD is not what you would typically find in a developed country.
"We want to try and do something about it.
"By the age of 30 years old, around 40% of the children are dead."
He said the fundraiser came about after having bought "20" from Dunedin and needing a way to bring it home to Auckland.
"I was actually visiting my sister in France, I got a text message from a good friend in the UK and it read, ‘Julian, get your wallet out’.
"He had seen ‘20’ advertised on Trade Me so I immediately emailed the owner and said ‘I’m on my way back from Europe please don’t sell it’.
Prof Paton said he went down, saw the vehicle and convinced the seller, Peter Marr, that he was not just any old car collector, he was a serious early Series 1 Land Rover enthusiast.
"When he said ‘Julian, how on earth are you going to get it back to Auckland?’ and I told him I was going to drive it, he took $10,000 off the price to put back towards it.
"That really set the tune for the whole trip."
The Land Rover departed Dunedin on January 31 with the goal to take a scenic off-road route to Auckland and arrive there about February 16 or 17.
The journey had been pretty smooth so far, Prof Paton said.
"We’ve had a few oil leaks, but then it wouldn’t be a Land Rover if we didn’t have oil leaks."
He said the support so far had been overwhelming.
"We’ve had a free night’s accommodation at Waipiata Hotel.
"We had someone pay for our petrol, offer us free coffees, scones, all sorts of things."
Progress of the journey can be tracked by visiting the Drive4hearts justgiving website or Instagram. Donations can be made via the justgiving website.
