If driving is one of the greatest things in life, you’re almost duty bound to enjoy it because it won’t last forever.
That’s the view of 97-year-old Holden fanatic D.N. (Neill) Boak, who has held a driver’s licence for an incredible 82 years.
Neill is a positive type — his farewell ‘benediction’ to the folk he meets and chats with at the Takapuna Countdown supermarket cafe is always, “have fun”.
This phrase sums up his philosophy to life (more of which later), though for Neill having fun is a lot harder since an eye problem robbed him of his licence last November.
Macular degeneration reduced his peripheral vision below levels permitted, though Neill can point to a near-perfect driving record since 1937.
The only exception: a single crash in the 1970s which wasn’t his fault. A drunk pulled out of a Warkworth gas station, skittling Neill’s Kingswood. The assailant’s car was nearly totalled, while Neill’s came away virtually unscathed. But don’t get him on to Holdens ...
Following World War II (in which Neill served with the RNZAF as a Noumea-based Catalina pilot) he was too short of the overseas funds required to buy another Chevrolet.
So, in 1956 he bought what he then considered the next best thing, an FJ Holden, which in his mind turned out to be far superior to any Chevy.
Eventually, he’d own 18 of the famous Australian marque — all purchased from Giltraps or Schofields.
“They were the only work vehicles capable of coping with awful rural roads of the Post-War era.”
Neill has a lifetime achievement award from the National Institute of Surveyors, and his early career was spent surveying Auckland’s North Shore, as it transitioned from paddocks to suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s.
The 1963 EH Holden “which drove just like a sports car”. Photo / Getty Images
Then later, as a Kaitaia-based county engineer, he needed cars which could cope with everything the Far North could throw at him.
“And if you think roads up there are bad now, you should have seen them 50 years ago,” he says.
“Auckland to Kaitaia was an eight-hour-drive. Unlike other cars, bits didn’t tend to drop off Holdens.
“I’d buy them at about 30,000 miles (about 48,000km) run them up till about 100,000 miles (about 160,000km), then trade them in. It’s amazing how well they held their value.”
Yes, a couple had body issues, as in premature rusting, but these were the exception, according to Neill.
His favourite was “the best car ever built”, the EH Holden, “which drove just like a sports car”.
His last Holden was a 2003 Commodore (VY) Calais, which is loaned out to friends. He misses driving it but glad it isn’t sitting in the garage. “There’s nothing more tedious than having to start up a vehicle every couple of weeks, when you can no longer drive it.”
Yet none of this stops Neill’s determination to have fun whenever and wherever possible.
“I say go after your passions in life — and aim for the job which brings you the most pleasure.
“If there’s no longer any fun in your life you should have a good think, decide what it is you’re doing wrong, and fix it.”