Wheels at Wanaka
Leah headed to the Wheels at Wanaka show earlier this year, and after a little road trip seeing all the stunning sites, she checked out what was on display at the amazing event.
After arriving in Dunedin, we met with my sister who studies at the University of Otago. She picked us up and we headed to Wanaka, making a few stops at Milton, Alexandra and Clyde. On the first full day in Wanaka, we had lots of fun seeing the amazing scenery as well as driving an hour out to The Blue Pools and seeing the clear, blue, cold water glisten as the sun bounced off it.
On the second day in Wanaka, Saturday, we got our tickets out and ready for Wheels at Wanaka. We arrived at 9:30am and were greeted by the friendly staff. As soon as you walk in on your right there’s a bunch of classic trucks – we’re talking Macks, Internationals, Kenworths, ERFs and more. After window shopping the trucks, we left Dad to go to the motorcross area, where we watched the dirt bikes practising for the Sunday competition of semifinals and finals. We watched a dirt biker jump over eight cones as well as two people! After checking that out we made our way to the parade ground whilst walking past the steam engines and steel wheel tractors. At the parade ground we watched the last bits of the 100 Years of Kenworths and the whole of the 50 Years of Mack truck parade.
We headed to the food trucks for lunch – I got pork dumplings! As we ate our lunch, we watched the scrapers parade. Next, we watched Haydon Paddon drive the PRG Hyundai Kona EV car around the parade ground and make a few donuts on the grass. On our way to the earthmoving pit my sister bought me a snow cone. At the earthmoving pit we watched the 1960-1980 classic earthmovers. Next, we checked out the vintage cars, some looked like they were old, like 1900s old! Next to us we had the modern tractors, classic muscle tractors and tractor pull modified show, so we watched that. Whilst my dad and sister went to the Mack pop up shop, Mum and I went to a shuttle stop near the earthmoving pit. On the way to it I was shocked by the size of the CAT 789 dump truck. Mum and I hopped on the trailer of a tractor for a free ride that took us back to the entrance as a fun way to end the day.
I loved it and will definitely come back again in two years!
After fun at Wanaka, we travelled to Te Anau to have a day trip at Milford Sound, Bluff at the bottom of New Zealand (it was very cold!), Invercargill to see the world’s fastest Indian, the highly modified 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle made by Burt Munro, and back to Dunedin to stay at my sister’s flat for the night! I had the best trip ever!
Top 5 highlights of the 2023 Brisbane Truck Show
Hey, Little Truckers! I was lucky enough to head across the Tasman to Brisbane with the New Zealand Trucking team, to attend the 2023 Brisbane Truck Show. The event was held at the Brisbane Convention Centre and covered two separate floors, where over 40,000 people of all ages attended. Many major truck brands including Kenworth, Volvo, Iveco and Daimler (who represent Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz) had exhibits with their best-looking trucks on show. Not only did they have these trucks on display, but there was the opportunity to get inside trucks and have a good look around at the inside of the cabs. While there were SO many amazing things at the show, here are my top 5 highlights!
1 Family-Friendly
One of the biggest highlights of the show was seeing all the families with young people just like you walking around, looking at the exhibits and spending time together. Little Trucker Down Under had a photo booth – where kids had the option to get dressed up and get a photo taken behind a mock- magazine background that made them look like they were on the cover! How cool. It is always so great to see how many young people have an interest in the transport industry.
2 Favourite Truck
My favourite truck of the show would have to be the Lawrence Transport Kenworth Legend Series SAR. With hand-painted details, it was one of the most stunning trucks I had ever seen. It was parked on South Bank (a popular shopping and eating district in Brisbane), where it attracted plenty of attention as many stopped by to take pictures. I was lucky enough to get a picture beside it in the evening where the city lights made it look even more impressive.
3 Lego Truck
The best feature of the truck show in my opinion would have to be the Lego Truck. To celebrate Mack’s 60th anniversary, they commissioned a brick builder to build an entire life-sized Mack Anthem out of Lego! The truck took eight weeks to complete, and the model is made with more than 800,000 Lego bricks – wow! Mack is hoping to break the Guinness World Record for the largest truck model made out of Lego bricks. The Lego Mack was incredibly detailed – equipped with all of the usual truck parts such as a fuel tank, detailed mud flaps and steering wheel, sleeper cab as well as fully working doors.
4 Different Exhibitions
The exhibits themselves were incredible. It was a very cool experience to walk around the two separate floors and view all of the stands, whether it be the largest exhibitions for popular truck manufacturers, or equipment and products equally important to the trucking industry such as trailers, workshop equipment or even essentials such as oil or workshop supplies. There were also exhibitions specifically catered for little truckers like the BP and Castrol stand that offered a turn at changing a car tyre with virtual reality. There was always something new at every turn, however, most noticeable would be the range of stunning trucks that were showcased all over the show, in all different colours, shapes and sizes.
5 Favourite Event
As well as attending the truck show I also had an opportunity to meet some very cool people within the transport industry. I got to sit down and have dinner with Charlene Clarke, who is the editorial director of Focus Transport Magazine from South Africa, and Martin Dammann, who is the customer success manager for TruckScience, a truck software company. It was a privilege to be able to meet both Charleen and Martin and hear all about their work in the sector. It was eye-opening to meet these people involved with transport, and it reminded me just how many diverse options for work there are within this industry.
Container Cartin
Motueka has been called “The Fruit Garden of New Zealand” due to the expanse of orchards filled with apples, kiwifruit and hops. I spent some time with Min Wells, who carts containers of fruit from where it is grown and packed to the port at Nelson.
I met Min at a local packhouse in my hometown of Motueka. She drives a Kenworth T410, which tows a Fruehauf quad (four) axle skeletal trailer for AC Palmer & Sons Limited. Some of you guys may remember Min’s truck being on the cover of Little Trucker Down Under’s first issue back in 2021.
We climbed in the Kenworth, which had a 40-foot container on the trailer loaded with cartons of locally grown apples destined for a country on the other side of the world.
As we made our way along State Highway 60 past the Motueka estuary and up onto the Ruby Bay bypass, Min told me that both fruit and wine is being exported to far flung places by ship; this is the main cargo she carts.
We chatted away as we drove through Richmond and around Rocks Road to Port Nelson and I thought the 12-speed AMT transmission made the stop-start motoring through Nelson’s traffic very easy.
I have been to Port Nelson a few times with Dad, and because you must be over 16 years of age to enter the site, I waited outside the gate and watched the endless stream of trucks coming to the port with containers, timber, and logs.
Fortunately, Min explained exactly what went on inside the Port.
After entering the port and driving through to the transfer area, the full container is lifted off Min’s trailer by a large Hyster (container lifter) which has an attachment that hooks into the top of the container.
It is then stacked in a row with other containers waiting to go on the ship, and if required, hooked up to electricity, which is to power the refrigeration equipment responsible for keeping the fruit fresh inside the container.
An empty container is put back on the trailer and secured to it by ISO twist locks, or container locks as they are sometimes called, basically very strong metal pins which have a handle you turn to lock them in place. It means the container is not able to move off the trailer. With an empty container secure on the trailer behind us, we retraced our earlier steps back to Motueka where Min reversed into a specially constructed pit in the ground called a dock.
Once the container’s rear doors had been opened, a steel ramp was put in the gap between it and the floor of the packhouse so the forklifts could bring the pallets of fruit from inside the cool rooms straight into the container.
It took very little time for two forklifts working together to fill the container with pallets neatly stacked with cartons of apples. Once the container doors had been closed, a steel locking tag was put through the door handle to secure it which is equipped with an identification number used by the importers receiving the container.
We hopped back in the Kenworth and travelled the 45-minute trip back to Port Nelson. I said farewell to Min, who headed through the port gates to repeat the unloading process.
I’ve seen so many trucks around the Nelson area carrying containers and it was great to see what they do first-hand. Thank you to Min and AC Palmer & Sons Ltd for having me along.
