For Love and a Beetle

You can have a relationship with an object and, in the case of a car, that object can have such an impact in your life. Such was the case with Ivan Hodge and his beloved Volkswagen Beetle car, the subject of his gorgeous biography For Love and a Beatle.

The Volkswagen Beetle (also known as the Volkswagen Bug) is one of the truly classic cars from the post-war era and probably reached it’s peak of popularity in the 1960s. Everyone had one! The Herbie film franchise (Herbie goes to Monte Carlo etc) probably fuelled their popularity too.

I had the great honour of meeting Ivan Hodge and his wife several years ago now, at the launch of the new model Beetle. The invitees all had something in common: a relationship past, present or potentially in the future, with a Volkswagen Beetle car.

Everyone’s opening question to each other at the event was what type of beetle do you have?  And when did your love affair begin with your beetle? I myself had a 1962 Ruby Red Volkswagen Beetle affectionately called ‘Scarlet’.

Ivan Hodge was there because he had penned the cult beetle book called For Love and a Beetle. Ivan’s story is not only a travel story, or a story just about a car, but also a story about his wife and their adventures. In short For Love and a Beetle is a love story. It’s a romance between two people with the love of a cute car in the middle of it!

In 1961, after a two-year honeymoon in England Ivan and Beth Hodge decided to return home. Before they left England they convinced Ivan’s parents to loan them the money to buy a brand new Volkswagen Beetle. They would get a newish exotic European car at the cheaper price then they would get at home and the deal was that they would bring it back home for them. It was an attractive deal – soon Ivan and Beth were packing their possessions onto the roof racks of the car, prior to setting off on the adventure of a lifetime.

What transpired was a trip that took them through and across Europe into the Asian subcontinent and finally catching a cargo boat from Calcutta to Auckland.  The focus of the book however is their recreation of that original trip after some thirty-five years of marriage, in the same car, which, in the intervening years had given many years of loyal service to Ivan’s parents.

It is often said by seasoned travellers that if you have had an amazing time in a particular place, you should probably never go back – the reasoning being that things never stay the same and they often decline (or maybe we do!). With the passage of time Ivan and Beth’s perspective was indeed one of many changes: in cultures, in the landscape and they also witnessed first hand the changing faces of several countries’ political situations. Most crucially perhaps, they could observe the many changes in themselves.

For anyone who has ever fallen in love.

For Love and a Beetle by Ivan Hodge is available through New Holland Book publishing.

Photographer: Nathan Ponchard