Tauranga truck show charms locals

Truck drivers Nick Monk from HEB Construction and Brian Van Beek from Rowe Motors showed Lily Neilson and Jaxon Storer, both 3, their trucks. Photo/Andrew Warner

Tauranga's first truck show is set to become an annual event with almost 80 trucks turning out to take part and more than $2500 raised for Tauranga Hospital's children's ward.

Many trucks convoyed to Tauranga Hospital and parked up for patients to look at before heading back to Tauriko to join up with the other trucks and drive to Baypark on Saturday.

Event organiser Alex Salter, of Auckland-based company Salter's Cartage, said she was blown away by the response.

People all along the route the trucks took stopped to watch the procession go by, she said.

"I burst into tears. It was just so overwhelming looking back along the flyover all I could see was Hewletts Rd full of trucks."

About 50 truckies from as far away as Napier and Auckland registered their trucks to take part in the show at Baypark but Ms Salter said she had so much interest she could have had 150 trucks on the grounds.

Neither Auckland nor Tauranga had a truck show so Ms Salter took it upon herself to organise one in Tauranga because of the city's central location and the ideal venue Baypark provided.

Entry to the show was free but the truckies who registered their trucks were asked to make a donation and donation buckets were handed around at the show.

Ms Salter estimated they had raised between $2500 and $3000 for the hospital.

Part of Ms Salter's decision to support the children's ward stemmed back to her pre-school years when her mum spent three months in hospital after a truck racing accident. "The nurses from the children's ward kind of adopted me while my mum was in there," she said. "They were there for me."