Road trip: Auckland to Cambridge in an EV – the BYD Atto 3
08 October 2025
A cruisy family road trip from Auckland to Cambridge in an EV.
Wheel Love: a classic 1981 Mitsubishi Mirage
John Reisima lives in Flemington, a small rural community in Central Hawke’s Bay. While he normally drives his fleet of trucks for his company, Reisima Transport, he also keeps a retro car in the garage for special occasions – a 1981 Mitsubishi Mirage, in nuggety copper-brown.
“We originally got the Mirage for our son, Ben, when he turned 16 – so about 13 years ago. He learned to drive in it.
I bought it from a guy in Dannevirke – I think we were only the second owners.
When I paid for it I wrote him a cheque for $850, but he called me just after we’d arrived home with the car to say that I’d only made the cheque out for $8.50, so I had to send him the rest of the money.
Ben used to drive the car to school in Waipukurau and he needed it to have a wing mirror, so I fitted one on the driver’s side. It always used to make an annoying whistling noise when you were driving so you had to leave the window down and have a finger on the mirror to keep it quiet.
It can be quite a hard car to start – especially on cold mornings. Ben would push it out of the garage and then roll it down the driveway to get it going.
These days I keep the Mirage here and take it out occasionally. It mostly gets used for weddings – including Ben’s wedding last year – and parties or other special occasions.”
Story by Jo Percival, photos by Charlotte Anderson for the Winter 2023 issue of AA Directions magazine.
