Christopher Cape: Giant machines shine for viewing customers

Big Mack to go at the Truck Show and Shine Day, March 28, 2021 at Mangatainoka Tui Brewery HQ. Photo / Chris Cape

Opinion:

Fascination starts early. Evidently, starting young, they grow into it (see picture).

Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, reputedly said, "Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man". I doubt that he had any experience with big Macks, fast junk food or heavy haulage trucks but he would be astounded at the developments in technology since triremes ruled the waves, where microprocessors and computer chips now work their magic, and one machine can do the work of 100 labourers.

Remind me next time I have a spare 10 and a half million-dollar big rig lying idle with nothing to do. I will park it on show at the Mangatainoka Tui Brewery HQ at the annual Truck Show and Shine Day where the music, the beer and the food was good and, under the blue sunlit sky, families, photographers, dogs and children were generally having a really lovely time as they joined the hundreds-strong crowd viewing some 80 heavy haulage trucks from around the country.

I visited the annual Truck Show and Shine Day on March 28. The only big rig I own is a matchbox toy so I didn't need the $10 entry/display fee. I did, however, have my camera and that proved invaluable. Polished and glistening, these multicoloured, very expensive, mechanised workhorses of heavy haulage sat shoulder to shoulder around the iconic Tui Brewery tower. Brand names were familiar and new. Kenworth, Mack, Volvo, International, Mercedes, ERF, Western Star, Peterbilt and history was present to be seen. The first imported Mack truck, brought from Australia in 1973, along with the first Mack to be built in New Zealand, in 1972, were there.

Trucking, like brewing, is steeped in tradition. Rigs have colourful names like Brain Damage, Immortal, Thunder Guts, Time Bandit, Unforgiven, One Of These Days, The Thin Ice, Outside The Wall, Bounty Hunter, Blue Haze, Rattle and Hum, and Awesome Pooch.

Just like aircraft these vehicles are identity symbols and are often family investments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are some of these chromed and polished beauties that are kept indoors and only given the light of day on show days. Those have price tags, in some cases, touching millions of dollars.

Located a few kilometres north of Pahiatua the tower at the Mangatainoka Tui Brewery is an image featured on many a Tourism NZ brochure. The Tui Brewery itself has adapted to the tides of change. It closed as a production centre for DB beer several years ago. A smaller boutique brewery has been developed on site which became operational a year ago but had to close because of the Covid pandemic. It is currently in recess.

Over more recent years the brewery location has become a venue hosting a spectrum of events. In the coming months a Japanese car show and a vintage vehicle event will grace the grounds. Evidently the place is popular. The food and fare seem to be of good quality and the rusticated banqueting spaces are spacious and comfortable at first sight, and that was all I had time for on this occasion as I was heading for an open mic afternoon at another pub in Woodville. It will be worth another visit.