The Variety Bash diaries: Day eight

Team Kidicorp. Photos / Jacqui Madelin

Kidicorp communications manger Rachel D'Cruz clearly didn't know what she was getting into when she met the Kidicorp team at Greenpark School in Tauranga this morning for breakfast with the teams on the Variety Trillian Bash. Many of the fire engines in the convoy have fully working tanks and hoses, and her team packs goggles at all times. Would sunglasses do, she asked hopefully? No...

Truck owner Morris 'Moo' Danks bought the bright-blue 1981 V8 petrol fire truck five years ago, and first joined the Bash in 2012 with another team. "I loved the passion of the other Bashers, and it's rewarding to meet kids we help, and hear their stories of overcoming adversity," Moo says. His team seems to fluctuate in size - the crews on the fire engines often swap tenders - but pulling up at a school they are a well-oiled team, grabbing the rag dolls they'll give to the littlies, the Kidicorp-themed balloons and wrist bands and working the crowd, or providing entertainment by engaging other fire tenders in battle.

Many teams are self-funded or are sponsored by local businesses - this crew follows a national network and soften divert to call in at Kidicorp childcare centres en route, some of which use their visit to explain to their kids the concept of helping others by raising their own donations.

The F.O.A.M team.

The fire engines stayed dry at Greenpark, but at Tari O Te Mohere O Matakana Kohanga Reo on Matakana island, where the Variety Bash teams spent two hours on a working bee and Ford's Toy Story team handed over Disney goodies, it was a different matter, and the famous FOAM truck cranked up its pumps.

Friends On A Mission was started by Richard Varcoe using a safari-themed Land Rover, hence the pattern on the 1973 Ford D10 13 he bought 12 years ago. It carries about 1000 litres of water, with soap added to create foam, and needs two fills to last a day on the Bash.

This time FOAM is also running a 1975 Mercedes, which has proved a challenge for the AA and RNZAF support crews and at one point had a carburetor rebuild in the middle of a roundabout. The two vehicles carry Richard and his 19-year-old daughter, Natalie, plus Claudine Murray, Bruce and Tanya Davis, Liz and Budgie Burgess, and TVOne's Matai Smith.

They all keep Bashing for the 'Bash Moments'. This time it came for Natalie, dressed in a 'minion' costume, when a boy stepped tentatively forward, paused, and tentatively raised one hand.

Natalie stood still, glove raised, as the lad slowly extended two fingers and gently touched her glove. A teacher gasped, "he doesn't touch!" she said ... and he leaned slowly forward, to awkwardly gave Minion a hug. They'd never seen him do that either, and it's encounters like that which keep teams fundraising and returning every year.

Saturday marks the final day of the Bash. The crews gather for breakfast at Cambridge Raceway at 8-9am, then depart for Rhodes Park, Thames, and finally Ellerslie to finish around 2pm, with the final grants to kids after 3.

For details of the route, YouTube clips and updates, head to facebook.com/VarietyNZBash.