Our History
The Kombined VW Club has been around since the '80's!. Below is an article written by long time member Philip Coyle outlining the complete history of our club.
Kombi Club of Wellington
The Wellington Kombi Club was set up in February 1988 by Doug Hay and Brent Mewett.
As the name suggests the club was for type 2 Volkswagens. The club was run on informal
with no fees and a short monthly newsletter.
The club grew to 26 members and the runs averaged 6 or 7 Kombi's. Some of the events
included going to the Pinnacles in the Wairarapa, Steam train museums, swimming pools
in winter and even a bird sanctuary near Masterton.
Due to the club having a static membership it was decided on the second anniversary
of the Kombi Club to trial a run for all aircooled VW's, 58 vehicles turned up ! The
name of the club changed when it was decided to open it up to all VW's to the Kombined
VW club of Wellington.
Kombined VW Club of Wellington
The structure of the club was set up in February 1990. The clubs main objective was to
bring together people who share an interest in Volkswagens.
The regularity of runs has varied from monthly to quarterly depending on the interest
by members. The Kombined VW club has produced regular magazines and for the last couple
of years the club has had a web site. At one stage the club had 110 members but in more
recent times the membership has hovered around 50 members. The only foundation member
still in the club is Brent Mewett.
The Club had a hand in organizing the first two Nationals (91 and 92) in Taupo through
the involvement of Ben Spencer. This occurred out of a growing interest in VW's in Auckland
and Wellington. It was decided to organize an event half way between the two centres.
Some of the Club's memorable events include a run where Porsche and VW owners drove each
others cars including 3 911's (1991). The Kombined club organized the 4th Nationals in 1994
which were held in Masterton. In 1996 the club organized a run to protest at the substandard
96 fuel that was being introduced. A regular event that has been well attended is
International Day of the Beetle on the 22nd of June each year. In 1997 we had 78 beetles attend.
Also well attended and enjoyed have been a number of the overnight runs.
After attending the Auckland Nationals (2001) it was decided that the club would explore
the possibility of hosting another Nationals. As the 2002 Nationals were being hosted
by John in Nelson the Kombined VW Club decided to put up their hands for the 2003 Nationals.