Mack Trucks celebrates 50 years
Manfield Park in Feilding hosted the Mack Trucks 50 Year Anniversary Truck Show on Saturday 22 October as part of events held over Labour Weekend celebrating 50 years since Mack Trucks arrived in New Zealand. We headed along to take a look and join in the celebrations.
Proud owners of Mack Trucks new and old travelled from all over the country to take part in the show. Some of these Macks are working trucks, while others are kept in storage and are only brought out for special occasions like this one!
The show was a huge success with Manfeild reporting that they had the most people through the gates in 20 years!
I went to the show with my parents who were over on holiday from Australia and my children. We packed a picnic, it was gorgeous weather and there was plenty to see and do including some race cars going around the track. It wasn’t only cars that raced around the track though – yes, you guessed – some trucks did too, and boy are they fast! It was an awesome family day out. The day started off with a convoy at 7.30am where all the trucks met up to then travel to the park together.
The day ended with most of the trucks doing a lap around the track tooting their horns before they exited the park after an amazing show day! There was a voting booth and the public got to vote for which Mack Truck they liked the most, and Truck of the Show went to Glen Allingham from JAKS Trucks Auckland.
Top drive in New Zealand
There are some pretty epic drives all around New Zealand and Australia. We talk to Robbie Lilburn, managing director at Lilburn Transport, about his favourite drive in New Zealand.
What is your favourite drive?
The Napier-Taihape Road.
Where does it start and where does it finish?
The road starts at the top of Taihape Deviation and comes out at Omahu, Hastings.
What are some highlights of the journey?
The challenges from start to finish, the narrow bits, the steep climbs, sharp corners and the scenery.
How long does it take?
The drive takes around four hours, depending on road conditions.
Logged and loaded
Dustin heads out on a logging truck with his mates at Steve Murphy Limited, a transport company in Canterbury.
Name: Dustin
Age: 13
From: Hawarden, North Canterbury
Can be found in a: K200
One spring afternoon, I jumped in a K200 logging truck with Steve James from Steve Murphy Limited (SML) and headed for Greta Valley, North Canterbury, 83km north of Christchurch.
We got to the skid site and loaded up. It was cool how the digger loaded the logs on the truck. We threw some chains on then went down the hill. Then we got on the road and headed for Belfast. When we got to Stoneyhurst Sawmilling in Belfast, we took the chains off the logs and unloaded.
We headed back to the yard. When we got back, there was a Mack Super-Liner going to get picked up so I went with a man named Bert to pick it up.
My favorite part about the K200 is the bull bar – it’s Steve’s favorite part too.
“The Kenworth K200 has more grunt than a wild pig,” Steve says.
Steve Murphy Limited
There are 48 trucks in the SML fleet. Steve says it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I’m lucky to know Jake Terrell & Will Cowens that work at SML, they are family friends and I look up to them. I hope to work at SML one day.
Big thanks to Chris and Steve Murphy who own SML for letting me go in their trucks. And thanks to Steve James for looking after me for the day, and to Jake and Will for organising it for me.
Bobbin' along
Check out these Bobbins Transport SAR Legend and K200 Kenworths at the recent KW Klassic, held at the Hawkesbury Showgrounds, Clarendon Australia.
This sharp fleet of silver and blue trucks are based out of Pambula on the far south coast of New South Wales.
Transporting general freight and refrigerated goods, they’re a common site hauling the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne.
Truck show time!
The Historic Transport Museum Trust is a group of people dedicated to preserving transport history in the upper South Island. They hold a show each year and in early October I went out to Pigeon Valley, south of Nelson, to have a look at this year’s event.
When Dad and I arrived, the event was already in full swing and the grounds were full of trucks.
We made our way around the grounds and there was much to look at. Trucks of all different shapes and sizes, old and new, scrubbed clean and ready to be viewed.
Many local transport companies had put in an amazing effort to get their vehicles looking their best for the show.
Some trucks that really stood out to me were three stunning Kenworth Aerodynes, belonging to Austin Transport Services, that were polished to perfection.
Four heavy tow trucks were lined up down the back of the grounds. It was neat to be able to get up close to them and Dad explained how they recover trucks that get stuck or have broken down.
We also spotted a big red truck that looked quite old-fashioned. I asked Dad about it and discovered it was the first ever Hino to come to New Zealand, brought here from Japan, all the way back in 1960.
Later on in the day, we came to my favourite part of the show, the truck pull! Teams of three people from different transport companies competed to see who could pull a truck along a short road, in the fastest time.
I watched some epic pulls by teams from the local companies and organisations (even the New Zealand Army soldiers, who had brought their military truck to the show, joined in).
The winning team only took 17 seconds. As we made our way out of the grounds, I farewelled the awesome show. The Pigeon Valley Truck Show was not one to miss!
By the time you guys read this, the holiday season won’t be very far away. Have a good time with your friends and family. I plan to get out in a couple of trucks over the school holidays and I will tell you all about it next time.
Happy holidays,
Milly
