The most famous Land Rover in the country - and the man who owns it

Sunday, 17 August 2025

Julian Paton was the unwitting accomplice when David Seymour drove a vintage Land Rover up Parliament’s steps. He tells Stewart Sowman-Lund how he ended up there - and why the unplanned stunt masked the bigger story.

When David Seymour drove a Land Rover up the steps of Parliament in February, it dominated nationwide news. The ACT leader was dubbed a naughty boy. Some commentators went so far as to say Seymour was attempting to ramraid the Beehive. The prime minister’s ability to keep his coalition partner in line was called into question.

On the sidelines of this hoo-ha was Julian Paton, a distinguished heart expert and Auckland University professor. He was the passenger in the Land Rover, securing a front-row seat to Seymour’s telling off by a parliamentary security guard.

But being a bystander to the media circus wasn’t just an amusing anecdote for Paton, it was frustrating.

His appearance outside Parliament had been as part of a national fundraising drive to raise awareness of and money for rheumatic heart disease research - an issue close to Paton’s, well, heart. But the stunt became the talking point, not the campaign.

“They had four nights [of coverage] and they refused to engage [with the campaign],” says Paton.

“And I was termed … the ‘organiser of the event’. That was my title, the organiser.”

The stunt was notoriously unplanned; Paton didn’t have permission to drive up the steps, though had asked in order to re-enact a similar feat performed by the very same Land Rover when it first arrived in New Zealand in 1948 to show off what it could do.

Seymour, who was behind the wheel, did it anyway - and the rest is history.

Paton calls New Zealand’s rates of rheumatic heart disease a “national embarrassment”. If it was up to him, that would have been the headline on the 6pm news - instead, it was barely mentioned.

It’s for this reason, and to see the Land Rover in the flesh, that the Sunday Star-Times has visited Paton in his Remuera home.

‘I'm after George the Sixth’s land rover’

Paton’s passion for Land Rovers started at a young age. Born in a remote part of Somerset, in England, he was surrounded by agriculture and became curious about “understanding how things work”.

At the age of 12, his father gifted him an old Land Rover that was in desperate need of repairs. Paton wasn’t mechanically minded, but had an uncle that was wiling to lend a hand.

“We set to work on it, and I just became very interested in being able to make something functional again after it was completely dysfunctional,” says Paton.

In part, that also explains his journey into medicine. “It's only when you take off the skin or cut through the skin that you can see our blood vessels and veins and arteries and hearts and lungs and things - it all comes alive, and that just causes more intrigue.”

Jump forward to the present, and Paton has owned eight Land Rovers - and still has six.

When he first moved to New Zealand about eight years ago, Paton had a default response when asked about why he was shifting across the world: “I'm after George the Sixth’s Land Rover.”

George VI - Queen Elizabeth's father - was due to visit New Zealand in about 1950, but never made the journey.

“But what they did ahead of his visit was to ship his Land Rover, which is the 101st Land Rover ever made.” It never got returned to England.

But his most prized discovery came through an unexpected discovery on Trade Me.

He stumbled across something else - as close to the “holy grail” (the first ever Land Rover) as possible: number 20.

“We know that there are only two other vehicles other than number one. So number one exists, and then there are two others before 20.”

He won’t disclose how much it cost him, though admits it could be worth several hundred thousand if sold to an international buyer. Paton agreed to some specific terms before the previous owner was willing to sell it.

“Number one … you have to be an enthusiast. So I put together a PowerPoint presentation from when I was 12 all the way to the present day, demonstrating that I'm definitely an enthusiast, I'm not just a car collector.

“And the second term … The vehicle must never leave New Zealand because of its historical importance.”

‘I’ve never been afraid of challenges’

As for how 20 came to drive up the steps of Parliament in February, Paton says he committed the cardinal sin of mixing work and pleasure.

Paton is a physiologist, and is investigating the possibility of creating a living replacement heart valve; one that could grow with the heart rather than needing to be replaced via invasive surgery as someone ages.

“It would be a world first. I think there should be a lot of motivation to do this - because of rheumatic heart disease being such a national embarrassment.”

Rheumatic heart disease is inequitable, affecting Māori and Pasifika people at higher rates.

But it’s also totally avoidable, so much so that it’s been eliminated in China and the United States.

By contrast, New Zealand has the highest rates in the developed world.

Why? “Part of it is awareness. Part of it is education. Part of it is damp housing.”

Often developing as a result of an untreated streptococcal throat infection, rheumatic heart disease can be a death sentence for young people. The treatments available are costly to the taxpayer and debilitating for the patient - reasons, again, for why Paton is so passionate about finding a solution.

“It's expensive, it's hugely traumatic, and we know that some children can't tolerate that surgery, and so they die on the table,” explains Paton.

“And even if they survive, they may need another surgery. That second surgery becomes more challenging for the surgeon … and we know that 40% of kids with rheumatic heart disease are dead by the age of 20.”

To help fund his research, Paton initiated Drive 4 Hearts - he would drive 20 from Dunedin to Auckland, raising awareness and money along the way. He’s raised about $132,000 at the time of publication, nearly half of the goal of $300,000.

This, “despite the fact that 20, over the last 40 years, had only done about 100 kilometres. And we did 2172 - we did more kilometres on the first day of the voyage than that vehicle had done over 40 years,” he says.

“I've just got so infuriated and frustrated by the lack of funding for … what we call ‘discovery science’. I understand, it will take a number of years to make that impact that the Government wants from science - because they want applied science, they want high-technology science, they want to fix problems tomorrow and they want big profit.

“Our science takes longer than 24 hours.”

But he’s unapologetic about the importance of this type of science. “I'm sorry, but when you've completed a project such as this living valve project, you will save billions of dollars from healthcare costs.”

The chances of getting any money out of the Government for this type is research is slim, especially following recent funding cuts.

Instead, he’s planning another roadie - in 20 - though he’s not quite ready to announce where he’ll be heading.

“It's been life-changing,” he says of his last trip.

“I think the main reason that I'm so uplifted is the generosity, the interest and the humanity of people that we've met and continue to meet.”

He recalls one story that stays with him. A young boy came up to him and asked if he could sit in 20. He pulled out $20, to donate to Paton’s cause, and said it came from his own pocket money.

“I said, ‘Are you sure?’ and he said, ‘I just love your Land Rover’. I said to him, ‘these are the most treasured $20 we've collected’.

“I'm very uplifted by this. And, I think because we have some momentum, it might be an idea to keep going.”

You can find more about Drive4Hearts at justgiving.com/page/drive4hearts

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