They were part of one of the biggest crowds Wellington has seen at the Vintage Fair, with people lining the streets from one end of town to the other to get a glimpse of the John Fowler steam engine (which helped build the roads of the town) and so many beautifully restored cars, tractors and antique machinery.

The Hendries travel Australia and even go overseas in search of events like this, and they dress in vintage clothes every day.

"Everything was simpler back then, maybe it was the movies, but everything seemed more pleasant," Mr Hendrie said.

Before their obsession for vintage things began they led a pretty normal life.

"It was when our children had grown up and left home that things changed," Mrs Hendrie said.

"One night we fell asleep on the lounge at 8pm! From then on we decided it wasn't going to be like this," she said.

The pair went to rock and roll dance classes and while Phillip Hendrie had to be dragged along, he too became obsessed.

It brought him out of his shell and these days if he hears "some good Elvis" at the Parkes Elvis Festival, he will quite happily dance on the footpath.

"It seems that everyone you talk to back in those days had a better lifestyle," he said.

Almost everything the Hendries now own is vintage, except the sofa.

Yvonne Hendrie makes her own clothes which she sells, and she picks and chooses from the past; she loves 1940s dresses, 1950s hair and all things 1920s.

It rained the last time they came to the Wellington Vintage Fair, but this year they were determined to make another go of it and now a weekend in Wellington is written down in their busy calendar for years to come.

They even hope to see more people dressing up in vintage clothes when they come to admire the magnificent cars and machinery of the past.

"Even if they introduced hot rod clubs to join the parade and got buskers and dancers," Mrs Hendrie said.

"This is wonderful, it would be lovely to see this keep growing."

A spokesperson for the fair said it was a sure sign of success when an event drew people together to share their obsessions.

One of the founders of the fair, Ken Roughan spent ten years restoring his 1928 Chevrolet which he drove in the parade.

It was his third Chevrolet to restore, timber framed like many pre-1936 cars in Australia, and built from a chassis off a farm and panels from Sydney.

"I think it's the different shapes that make vintage cars special," he said, adding that it was the crowd that kept him coming back. "It's the looks on the kids' faces. People have never seen the shape of these things on the road; they grew up with sleeker aerodynamics."