The everyday objects that just keep on keeping on

In a world where nothing seems built to last, it's comforting to know there are some rugged items that keep delivering the goods day after day.

Most of us have got at least one item that just refuses to quit, so we asked RNZ staffers to share their stories of long-lived, trusty treasures.

'Swarmy' the broken-tipped Swiss army knife

This is my trusty Swiss army knife (or Swarmy, as she is known). I first saw this knife as a teen, in a drawer in my dad's workshop, and I coveted it so hard.

After some dealing, and months of after-school tasks, she was mine!

She's designed for fishers, though I have never used the fish scaler or hook remover for their intended purposes. Likewise, I once snapped the tip off the long blade trying to pry open a jammed window. This knife has enabled me to use inappropriate tools for many jobs over the years, often successfully.

She's travelled the world with me, and that broken tip really paid off when I accidentally packed her in carry-on luggage. The airport security guy snorted before pointing out the blade didn't reach the length limit of the time, so was permitted onboard. Phew. I skipped a hard choice: keep the knife, or the flight. Probably would have chosen the knife. - Liisa McMillan, RNZ Concert manager

He loves his yellow leather jacket

I love my yellow leather jacket. It's been on my back for 21 years (this image perhaps 12 years into its reign). I found it in a Newtown, Sydney second-hand store and it's become embarrassingly synonymous with me in public. Part of my identity. Maybe 10 years ago I started getting dubbed the 'art critic Wiggle' for wearing it around galleries.

I love a good primary colour for sure, but moreover it's immensely practical. A great protector against weather and road when biking. Warm. And really just so cool, I've been cooler ever since I got it.

What will I do without it? I really can't bear to think. Best go give it a clean. - Mark Amery, presenter/producer Culture 101

'Silver Lightning': the Corolla that kept rolling

No object has served me better, or given me a greater ticket to freedom, than a 1987 Toyota Corolla.

It was the first car I owned and lasted so long I'm still only on my second. It took me on countless road trips around Aotearoa, sometimes so loaded up with cousins and camping gear the suspension bottomed out on even the smallest bumps.

Apart from petrol and the odd top-up of oil and water, it asked almost nothing of me and almost never let me down. Well, okay, it did break down twice.

The first time was when a coolant hose burst, dumping the entire contents of the radiator onto a hot engine block - the result was spectacular, I can tell you - and a few years later the slave cylinder failed. It turns out it's pretty hard to drive a manual without a clutch.

Those breakdowns would have been troublesome if they'd been far from home, but both happened just as I was turning into my street at the end of a journey of hundreds of kilometres.

It was also always the first car to pull away at the lights. I put its zippiness down to its sheer simplicity. It was so simple even I could maintain it. There was little to go wrong and even less to impede acceleration.

I think you will understand why I had to name it Silver Lightning.

The one thing that let me down in the end was the bodywork. The battle against rust, and the anxiety of those six-monthly WOF checks, eventually became too much.

I sold it to a guy in a forest in the Far North who strips down old Toyotas and ships their indestructible motors off to Dubai.

So, somewhere in the Middle East, part of Silver Lightning is still tearing away first at the lights, and going on epic road trips packed with someone else's cousins. - Peter de Graaf, RNZ senior journalist

A darn good sewing tool

This useful mushroom-shaped darning tool previously belonged to my Aunt Jocelyne. She died a couple of years ago.

It has been well used over many years to mend holes, mostly in woollen gloves, hosiery and other stretchy knit garments. I have used it many times over the past two years. Every sewing box should have one.

We shared a love of sewing and I think of her whenever I use it. - Nona Pelletier, RNZ senior journalist

The old banjo rescued from rubbish

This is my 140-year-old Dobson Silver Bell Patent Banjo. My brother found it on a rubbish pile on his paper run back in 1986 (the same year as Haley's Comet was last here).

It's gone with me from flat to flat and house to house since leaving home in 1990. It currently has no strings, which makes no difference as I don't play the banjo. - Jeremy Parkinson, executive producer, First Up

The long-lived little chair

This little chair has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I think it might have been bought for my older brother before me, so it's at least 50 years old. I remember sitting on it at a little kid-sized table in the house I grew up in, drawing, colouring in and inventing games for my Daisy doll and teddy.

When I graduated to sitting on a big chair, my parents kept it for a stream of visiting grandchildren. After they died and their house was sold, the little chair came home with me so my daughter could use it. She's long outgrown it, but I haven't (not least because it comes in handy around the house, though I was pretty cross when it ended up as a painter's work bench at one point in its recent history). It's not a precious antique in monetary terms by any means, but a taonga to me all the same. - Lucy Corry, executive editor, Lifestyle & Entertainment

High fidelity: The 52-year-old Panasonic transistor radio

When we moved into our house much was left behind, which we were told we could either keep or chuck. This old transistor radio was among the keepers.

It's been carried all over the garden, the end of its aerial broke off, it's been dropped, been on camping trips, been left in the vege patch overnight and has been trampled by a chook.

It only has medium wave and short wave, but it has a good sound and picks up RNZ clear as a bell. - Graham Smith, digital features producer