I know exactly one person who has never ever tried McDonald’s food. She is a co-worker of mine and I find that very strange, as virtually everyone else I know has eaten from the golden arches at one time or another.
One of the coolest branches of the popular fast food chain features a decommissioned Douglas DC-3 as part of the facility. Yes, really, and you can even go inside it.
McDonald’s Taupō
Taupō is a town of around 26,000 people located on Lake Taupō on the North Island of New Zealand, approximately 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of Auckland. That is where our aircraft is located.
The plane was originally manufactured as a C-47 for the US Air Force in 1943 and it spent most of its life in Australia and New Zealand, being passed around various airlines. It was registered ZK-CAW for much of its life and you can find its history here.
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- Tables and chairs setup inside the fuselage.
Happily you can take your meal inside the DC-3 and enjoy your food in there. The cockpit is also available for viewing through a glass door, which must be interesting.
Apparently McDonald’s Taupō was named the world’s coolest McDonald’s in 2013, which I think is well deserved. It’s become quite a landmark in the town and long may it stay there.
Overall Thoughts
Time to move to Taupō, right? I think it’s fantastic to see an old aircraft preserved in this manner for people in the future to enjoy. It’s certainly a talking point anyway!
I know I’d happily spend time eating a Quarter Pounder, some Chicken Nuggets and chips in there. Looks like I’ll have to add it to my list of places to go. Everyone loves New Zealand anyway, so it’ll be no hardship, that’s for sure.
Have you come across any old aircraft repurposed somewhere you’d least expect it? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Fuwuyuan via Wikimedia Commons.
Interior shot by Ruthann on Flickr.
As a 15yrold, in Rotorua New Zealand, I used to watch in amazement as the Fieldair pilots used to throw these babies around crop dusting the hills and valleys. The bellow of those radials was awesome then and still is today. Happy memories. Thanks for sharing. Cheers
Awesome memories, I would have loved to have witnessed that! Thanks for the comment 🙂
The only one I’ve been to was the Constellation at JFK, which is now a cocktail bar. But there used to be a restaurant/bar near my house in St Louis that had a DC-3 propeller on the wall, angled “just so” to fit in the space. A real conversation piece. The bar was owned by a former TWA pilot and his F/A wife and had excellent bar food. Sadly, he died and the wife sold the business and it got turned into a noisy sports bar with overpriced “food” that a ULCC would be embarrassed to sell as BOB. Progress?
I’m going to be visiting that Constellation in a couple of weeks time. Of course, it’s closed on the day I am going as it’s only open certain days of the week, but even so it’ll be fun to see. Definitely not progress to have something like that changed into something so generic, that’s for sure!
Have a drink in the Sunken Lounge, you can see the Connie from there, listen to some great old music and watch the planes take off. Have fun! Great people watching too, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Oh I definitely will! I can’t wait go right over that terminal during my overnight there. Even going to swim in the pool. In January. Sucker for punishment, me!