1980 MERCEDES-BENZ O303
#1091
The Peanut, as the O303s were known, came from ETA Foods, advertising their peanut butter, with 1,000 peanuts per jar. The main character of these adverts was Peanut 1001. It just so happened that at the same time, the ARA was introducing the first of the O303 fleet, with the first bus being #1001. The connection between the ETA peanut #1001 and the ARA fleet led to the fleet of O303s becoming known as "Peanuts", which has stuck ever since.
One of the last of the batch of 96 Mercedes-Benz O303s, our bus, #1091, has had a few modifications over the years. This includes a major overhaul by the YBC in the early 1990s, coming out of the workshops in Wiri with the nickname "The Waka" and a distinctive YBC livery with a sailing boat on a white bus.
In due course, our bus will see this livery once more and may even retrace its steps, albeit when it was a much younger vehicle.
In 1997, #1091 was sold to Turangi Coachlines, where it became coach #34. This vehicle faithfully served Turangi Coachlines until retirement in 2022, where we picked up the vehicle along with a sister to bring it home to Auckland.
Originally, this was meant to be a parts vehicle, however we decided it was just too good to be scrapped and "The Waka" had to be preserved and its story to continue. As a result, we have still left the door open to a standard Peanut to join our family in due course as well!
