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!
