The Senioritas - Claire Eyes, Sue Eyes and Sharon Graham - with their Toyota Carina, La Cucaracha. Photo / Bevan Conley
The Senioritas - Claire Eyes, Sue Eyes and Sharon Graham - with their Toyota Carina, La Cucaracha. Photo / Bevan Conley
A group of colourful visitors in cheap cars made their way to Whanganui as part of the Bangers to Bluff rally.
The rally, organised by the Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay, tasks participants with buying a car for less than $2000 and driving it from Bucklands Beach in Auckland to Bluff on a 12-day road trip.
The event raises money for charity, with teams fundraising and gathering sponsors before all the cars are auctioned off at the end of the rally, the proceeds going to their selected charities.
This year, the primary charities were Multiple Sclerosis (MS) New Zealand and the Hopeworks Foundation, a charity that assists people and families with brain trauma injuries.
Half Moon Bay Rotary team leader David Jamieson was taking part in the rally and said so far, it had been fantastic.
“We left Auckland a couple of days ago now, and the weather turned inclement for part of it as we came down through the Waikato area, but arriving here is magnificent,” he said.
A total of 15 teams were taking part in this year’s event.
None of the bangers had suffered any breakdowns so far, but one car’s engine blew up in Taupō while it was on the way to the start of the rally in Auckland.
The team then had to buy a second car to make it to the rally start.
On the first day of the event, the teams went from Auckland to Te Kūiti through Raglan and Kāwhia, with the second day taking them through New Plymouth and around the west of Mt Taranaki to make it to Whanganui.
“Today we leave and we go to Martinborough, and we go via the Paihiatua Track, and then hopefully we’ll catch the ferry the next day,” Jamieson said.
Team leader David Jamieson and Multiple Sclerosis Whanganui community adviser Sharon Mesic. Photo / Bevan Conley
He was confident all the cars would make it to Invercargill for the end-of-rally auction and expected the trip would raise between $50,000 and $70,000.
One of the other teams taking part was from MS New Zealand.
MS Whanganui community adviser Sharon Mesic said the rally had been going really well for the team, and the donation the organisation would receive at the end of it would help keep it alive.
“We don’t get any funding from the Government at all ... so in Whanganui, we survive on donations and lottery grants, so it’s great having awareness,” she said.
The organisation was also using the rally as a way to raise awareness about MS, which Mesic said had been working.
“They [the rally team] said they’ve been shaking their buckets when they go into different places,” she said.
MS got involved in the rally when committee member Jeff Silvester took part in the first edition 10 years ago.
Silvester is taking part in the rally again this year, now as part of MS’s own team.
MS New Zealand vice-president Graham Walker is undertaking a different kind of challenge for the rally.
Every day before the rally participants get under way, he heads out on his bike to get as far as he can along the route before the other participants catch him.
The $2000 entrants to the Bangers to Bluff charity rally. Photo / Bevan Conley
Walker has been diagnosed with progressive MS himself and uses cycling as his exercise vehicle.
Silvester said last year Walker rode around 300 kilometres during the 12-day trip.
“And he’s quite disabled down one side, he’s got no power on one side, so he’s virtually cycling with one arm and one leg, and he goes right around the main roads and up the hills - it’s quite incredible,” he said.
Walker was hoping to cycle at least 20km a day this year.
MS Whanganui chairman Russell Goldsworthy said they were happy to be involved in the rally, and the people who organised and took part in it were wonderful.
“They’re a jolly lot of people, but I tell you what - if you volunteer to drive in this cold weather, and [on] the roads they’ve been driving over, you’d have to enjoy it, wouldn’t you?” he said.
He expected the organisation to be involved in the rally again next year as it was great publicity and a great way to raise awareness about MS in New Zealand.
“It’s not well-known, MS. There’s about 5000 [people with MS] in New Zealand, but there’ll be more that aren’t recognised yet, so the more publicity, the more people will understand what they’ve got and what they can do - that’s the main thing,” he said.
