CAPITAL CRUISE | NOVEMBER 27th - 30th 2025
The Team Helping Get It Done
Marty Coutts
A Drag Racing enthusiast and Hot Rodder from way back, Marty has worked in several Speed shops in his past, he is also an avid Tri 5 Chevy fan and loves his mint 1956 Belair Hardtop, although he has owned a number of other cars over the years. Having been to numerous car related events around the country and the world, Marty knows a thing or two about cars. In his spare time, he is a Race Car Engineer and mechanic.
Mike Palmer
A long-time car lover and Cadillac owner, Caddy Mike, as he is known, has a Big Block Chevy-powered 1963 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, which he has owned for a number of years.
Mike has attended a lot of car events around the country in it, with his car winning several awards along the way. Mike loves meeting people, sharing knowledge and talking cars with them. He is a fan of chrome and loves cruising in
big American cars.
Marty Burnside
A family man raised and schooled in Upper Hutt, Martin was born into a Mechanical and Racing family, so cars are in his blood. Starting his own career in the motoring industry and now having been involved in the car scene for a long time, he has worked at Rod Shops in the past and is currently the Parts Manager for Gazley Group, who sell high end prestige motor vehicles. Marty is one of the Organisers of the Port Road Drags event in Wellington and is a longtime member of Cam County.
As Marty says, cars are his job, his hobby and his passion, and is why he is part of the Capital Cruise team. He is looking forward to seeing everyone at registration on 27th November.
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Kath Armitage
Kath is a Photographer and will be snapping away during the Capital Cruise event and leading the photography team, ensuring we capture the event's essence. She loves photography - road trips in the purpose-built camper van and being behind the wheel of her Dodge Challenger.
Jenny Gower
Jen has been in the car scene for some time, she used to write articles and take photos for the New Zealand Hot Rod magazine a while back, and she did a little bit for the NZV8 Magazine as well. She owns a couple of 50’s & 60’s American Vehicles, including an all-original 1956 T-Bird and a 1963 Nova Convertible.
Dion Hunter
Cars are Dion's passion, he has been involved in cars for most of his life in one way or another, and with his father having worked on cars when Dion was young, the passion rubbed off. Dion now owns his own business, Cover Me, one of Wellington’s premier Motor Trimming businesses.
Dion has owned a reasonable number of American vehicles in his time and is currently a member of the
Wellington Chev Club.
Dion attends a lot of car events around New Zealand and he will bring his wealth of knowledge to Capital Cruise.
Amy Starry Moon
As a Pinup Competition veteran, Amy knows a thing or two about the pinup community and is well known in those circles, she is also currently the billboard model for Retro America in New Zealand.
Amy is a Marriage Celebrant, is the MC for the Miss Auto-fest event. She also owns a cool 1964 Buick Riviera, which is well known and has won several awards with it.
Amy will be looking after the Retro America Capital Cruise Queen event and will also be part of the judging panel for the Best Dressed competition, at the Capital Cruise Park Up on Sunday, as part of our overall event.
Pete Armitage
Peter is one of the organisers of the NZ Homegrown festival in Wellington, so he is very familiar with what makes a good event. He has been a Racecar Engineer and builds Cars in his spare time. He and Kath own several vehicles, one of which is a tough Holden WB Ute.
The Man Behind Capital Cruise
Hi there, my name is Paul Boden, I’m the person who is putting the Capital Cruise event together, and along with our great committee, we have come up with a formula that we think will work. Centrally located within this great country of ours, Capital Cruise will be easy for most to get to and for those based near Wellington, it’s an easy drive.
I have been into cars for as long as I can remember, and whether it was pushing Matchbox Toys around the living room floor or building cars out of the Meccano set I had when I was young, for me the car scene started a long time ago. I got the V8 bug at an early age, which is ultimately where the need for speed kicked in and I haven’t looked back since. I was putting V8’s into cars back when you didn’t need certification, and just about anything would get a Warrant Of Fitness.
Having lived in Wellington for 25 years now, I’ve worked hard in my chosen career which has allowed me to play with what I love, Cars. I have bought cars, sold cars, imported cars, built cars, restored cars, raced cars and now display cars, a lot of which I currently own. I started Cars Inc a while ago, which is the Wellington Car Museum, meaning I now get to combine my passion with my hobby so essentially, I eat, sleep and breathe cars on a daily basis.
I have organised a lot of car events over the years, I've been to or taken part in numerous car events all over New Zealand and the world, I have even been involved in organising the New Zealand National Hot Rod Show a few years ago, so I have seen what good looks like. I have been involved in several Car Clubs, Hot Rod Clubs and Car Racing Clubs over the years and am a current member of Central Muscle Cars, Wellington Hot Rod Club and Wellington Car Club. We will bring to Capital Cruise, the good parts of lots of other car events and ultimately, we want to make Capital Cruise a good,clean, fun and safe event for everyone.
The centre of the country ‘the Capital’ was lacking a Multi-day Car Cruise type event, so after thinking about it for some time, I decided that there was an opportunity to put something together. Our committee are people who are as heavily invested in this as I am, they have a car background of some kind and will have cars of their own at the Capital Cruise event.
Our objectives for Capital Cruise, are that it must be an enjoyable event, it must be fun, it’s got to be memorable, it has to be community minded and above all else, it must be safe for everyone.
