The Greatest Scrap Yard in the World
Horopito used to be a bustling, busy little town. It had a couple of hotels, a school, a bank and a brace of houses, all of which were there to satisfy the needs of the families of the sawmill workers. Such was the size of the saw-milling operation; a town was born rather than just a small settlement for workers as was the norm.
May 17, 2019
Wood was big business in the 1920s for Horopito, but sadly it was the only business. As such, when the native forest was milled to its maximum, the work dried up and the townspeople looked for work elsewhere and consequently left. Horopito’s future was set. In 1966 the school closed, in 1971 the post office followed suit. It wasn’t long before Horopito was nothing more than a few buildings. Though there was, and still is, one exception. Horopito Motors.
In the 1940s Bill Cole arrived at Horopito and saw an opportunity. There was no business in place to service and maintain the vehicles of the forest workforce. Bill acquired an ex-sawmill and converted it into a workshop from which he could repair vehicles. As the only man in town offering such a service, he found that even through Horopito’s decline he could thrive. And thrive he did. Horopito Motors was officially born.
The business soon grew – space wasn’t an issue, so why not? It wasn’t growing into the repair business though. Instead, Bill shifted the business focus to that of dismantling cars and selling spares. It was a savvy move. Horopito was and still is relatively isolated, making parts for cars either hard to come by if not entirely impossible. This is where Bill’s unique business model came into play.
Go to a scrap or breaker’s yard here in the UK and then go back a few weeks later. It’s almost certainly going to be a completely different landscape. The cars have an allotted time in most cases, and during that time customers have to capitalise on removing all the bits they can. If not, they miss out as the cars always have a date with the shredder. The yards have to turn the cars over and not leave them sitting. New stock comes in, the old stock gets crushed, it’s that simple.
Walk around Horopito, however, and you won’t find a crusher. Bill was completely against the idea. Instead, he was firmly of the opinion that once a car entered the Horopito yard, that is where it would stay until it was stripped of every single part. It didn’t matter if that took 20 minutes or 20 years. This, then, explains the incredible collection of cars that currently reside there.
Somewhat handily, Car & Classic has a man on the ground over in New Zealand in the form of Brit, Mark Case. He’s currently exploring the world, but to fund it he decided to stop off at Horopito and do some work for them for a while. Whilst doing that, he also had the time to get us these amazing pictures of what is, quite simply, a staggering place.
While the metal may be extremely old in most cases, don’t be fooled into thinking Horopito Motors is a thing of the past. It’s not and has been in constant operation since the 1940s. Sadly, Bill passed away in 1987, having built the yard from nothing. During his time he offered a tranquil place of retirement for thousands of cars, he facilitated the independent 1981 New Zealand film, Smash Palace by allowing production to use Horopito as the main location, and he put Horopito on the map for lovers of cars around the globe. Now his legacy lives on through his daughter, Barbara Fredericksen and her husband Colin, who run the yard today.
Our man Mark wasn’t just working there, he was also living there. In fact, during his stay, he lived in Bill’s old cabin in the middle of the yard. It was from here, and with unlimited access to the yard, that he was able to get these pictures. As you can see, it’s quite a place.
New Zealand was a common destination for UK metal throughout the ’50, ‘60s and ‘70s, and that’s reflected in the contents of the yard. Look around and you’ll see Austins, Fords, Humbers, Wolseleys, Triumphs and everything in between. This place is a time capsule, with the cars being wonderfully preserved by the dry climate that comes care of Horopito’s high elevation. In fact, you may be looking and thinking that they all look a bit rusty and tired, but that’s not actually the case.
The rust you see isn’t the result of the cars sitting there for decades, it’s actually much more recent development. In 1995 Mt Ruapehu erupted, spewing sulphur over the nearby lying land in the process. It’s actually that incident that has stripped the cars of their paint. Prior to 1995, the cars were all still resplendent in their factory colours.
Of course, it’s not just the cars themselves that offer intrigue. Bill spent years dismantling old wrecks and organising the parts. As such, within the workshops there are stacks of hundreds of hubcaps, and starter motors, and radiator grilles, and coils, and trim and… well, you get the idea. The mind boggles at how much rare and incredibly hard to find stuff must be hiding within this site. It’s simply staggering.
As we mentioned, Horopito Motors still trades today, and as such, there are more modern offerings filling up the yard. However, Bill’s philosophy of keeping the car until the last bolt has been removed is very much still in force. And because of that, Horopito Motors stands to be a constantly evolving time capsule of our motoring history. Hence why, in our eyes, this truly is one of the greatest scrap yards on the planet.
