This Bristol FLF double decker bus appeared in Palmerston North at a fair in 2005. On the front is the name 'Circus Bus' but more interesting is its journey to New Zealand. A sign by the driver's door stated the following:
''The cheapest diesel was in Iran where we filled the tank - 144 litres - for less than US$2.00
The bus had to deal with extremes of temperatures, to prevent overheating two fans from scrap Mercedes were fitted behind the upstairs radiators. Across some of Pakistan we had to rebuild the roads metre by metre. So far we have had three major sea crossings, the last one was on a container ship from Bangladesh to Singapore. The bus was lashed to a 40ft flat rack container by steel cables. We had to build our ramp from scrap materials. The other 2 crossings Singapore to Fremantle, and Brisbane to Auckland. We spent one year in Nepal and Bangladesh saving the money for the first crossing and a further year and a half in South East Asia saving for the next crossing. The bus got stuck in soft sand in Thailand, connecting both front and back wheels with lorry straps to turn her into a four wheel drive. The main bearing broke in Ipoh, Central Malaysia, the main engine was removed taking two Indian mechanics 5 months to repair."
This particular model was very popular with bus tour operators in the 1990s--Topdeck Travel had a large fleet, some named after characters from cartoon films, including Walt Disney movies, though some may not have been too confident of joining either 'Grumpy 'or 'Sleepy' for an adventure tour. (Wallace Trickett)
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