Photos / Jacqui Madelin
Day six of the Variety Trillian Bash, and after breakfast at Napier's seafront Masonic Hotel, the teams presented a $1500 cheque to Karla - who has spina bifida and needs a specialized scooter.
Then it was on the road with Tatonka under threatening cloud. Dave Millin and Barb Cooper run the short-wheelbase Isuzu Forward 4x4 for their Sustainable Landscapes business. It's got a low-ratio transmission, a tipping deck and a crane that can reach 7.5m and lift three tons, and it's been useful at the Bash's school working bees. It's very popular with kids - thanks to the Tonka toy paint job supplied by Car Colours Albany - but not with me for the first few kilometres, as those maximum-size flotation tyres are rock hard until they warm up, and it's hellish jiggly in the cab.
This is Dave's first Bash, and he's still shaking his head over a young boy from a struggling family whose response to being given his own bicycle was 'Why me?'. "He couldn't believe someone would do that for him."
Barb used to teach children with learning difficulties, and she knows the effect of bringing some sunshine to young lives. The Tatonka team is largely self funded, "Though we had some help from Cal-Isuzu, and we've found you only have to mention 'Variety Bash' and people are happy to help."
The truck drops us off at tiny Te Pohue school, on the Napier-Taupo road, where some teams have delivered pirate entertainer Captain Festus Boyle and Australian magician Super Hubert to do a show and donate a Canon printer, and Disney give-aways organized by Ford's 'Toy Story' XR8 Falcon.
Next, the Herald boarded Taniformers into Rotorua. This 1993 80 Series Toyota Landcruiser 4.2-litre turbo-diesel includes a sound system with a 1000W amp and wakeboard speakers with a fire siren, a flux capacitor forward discharge system (aka a 'smoke' machine) and a robotics sound system. Bream Bay Northland duo Ian Macartney and Paul Wickham's companies - Macsway Scaffolding and BBS Timbers - are among several supporting the Bash effort. They dress up in remarkably effective US-sourced Transformer outfits - Paul as Bumblebee and Ian as Optimus Prime, complete with robotic voice boxes.
"When your own kids are healthy, it's good to give something back," Paul says. "We meet a lot of people dedicating their lives to looking after someone with a disability," he says, "I take my hat off to them." Ian recalls a hospital visit to entertain young patients, particularly the sad lad isolated in "a glass box" and held up by his mum to watch as the teams loaded a goody bag for him - then hung it on the door handle for the day he can touch it himself.
Every day has those moments...
On Friday the crews breakfast at Green Park school 8am-9.15 and make another grant at 9am. From 9.45 the Bash takes ferries to Matakana Island for school viists, returning 1.30-3.30 and arriving Cambridge by 5pm for a Tom Sharplin Concert at the town hall.