For the first time in more than a decade, the 2026 MG National Rally is coming to Dunedin in February.
Hosted by the MG Car Club Otago Southland Centre, the week-long celebration of an iconic British brand will involve more than 60 vehicles and their owners touring Dunedin, Southland and Central Otago.
For club secretary Ngaire Donaldson and her husband, club captain Clive, the event will have special significance.
The couple, who met through internet dating, began looking for a two-seater they could enjoy in about 2019.
"I have always been a car enthusiast, but I have never had a sports car," Mr Donaldson said.
"So it was my mid-life crisis, you might say."
They first considered Mazdas before they took a test drive in an MGF.
Although that particular vehicle was not quite suitable, Mrs Donaldson began looking far and wide for the perfect Rover MGF.
She spotted a candidate in Auckland and although Mr Donaldson was initially reluctant to travel that far, a favourable report from his brother — who threatened to buy it himself if they did not — sealed the deal.
"His brother went and had a look at it and said, ‘right, if you don’t buy it, I will’," Mrs Donaldson said.
In the interim, the couple got married in February 2020, before the Covid-19 lockdown.
"Seeing we had not had a honeymoon, we used that as our honeymoon."
They bought the car and turned the journey south into a summer holiday, driving the sporty green convertible from Auckland to Dunedin.
"We spent most of the time on the trip with the hood down," Mrs Donaldson said.
"Over the Remutakas, we had torrential rain, and we thought, ‘oh, it’s going to leak,’ and no, not a leak."
Mr Donaldson said their MGF, a relatively rare variable valve control model with 145hp, was originally owned by an Auckland couple who only used it for MG club runs.
With several northern MG owners travelling to Dunedin for the rally, he hoped there might be a reunion.
"It is going to meet up with a whole lot of other Auckland cars that it has associated with."
The national rally takes place every two years, alternating between North Island and South Island clubs and has not been held in Dunedin since 2014.
Otago Southland Centre was planning to host the event in 2022, but Covid-19 scuppered their preparations.
"The rally booklet was about to go to the printer ... the accommodation had all been booked," Mr Donaldson said.
"Covid came along and we had to cancel the whole thing."
The 2026 event was scheduled to be organised by the Canterbury branch but a generous gesture enabled it to take place further south.
"They offered it to us and we were pleased to accept that."
The classic cars will assemble in the afternoon at the Victoria Hotel on Saturday, February 7 and there will be a Concours d’Etat display held in the Octagon on Sunday, February 8, where the public will be able to vote for their favourite MG.
This will be a special day as it will also be the Donaldsons’ sixth wedding anniversary.
"That’s just a happy coincidence," Mrs Donaldson said.
The vehicles will then travel to Taiaroa Head, before embarking on a few days’ cruising that will take in The Catlins, Invercargill, Te Anau and Cromwell. Most entrants are from other centres, with MGBs dominating the field alongside rarer TCs, TDs and even a 1949 YA saloon.
Although the event will showcase the beauty of these classic machines, the real joy was being able to connect with other enthusiasts.
"It is the people," Mr Donaldson said.
MG National Rally
Concours d’Etat and Public Display
The Octagon
Sunday, February 8
8.30am to 12.30pm
