Kids and the community come together at the large annual Kamo truck show to celebrate all things trucking.
The premise of the Kamo Touch a Truck Show is simple – to enable the public, particularly kids, to have fun in and around trucks and other big rigs and raise funds for charity.
And fun they had at this year‘s event, held at a packed-out Hurupaki School sports grounds in Kamo, just north of Whangarei, with kids swarming over trucks, earthmovers, fire appliances and even police vehicles.
It was the sixth annual show organised by the Kamo and Ngunguru volunteer fire brigades. It is among the most interactive shows on the trucking calendar, and you could certainly hear it before you saw it. A cacophony of horns, sirens, revving motors and PA systems split the air and were testament to something big happening in the usually quiet suburb.
The 2021 show, the biggest yet, attracted 75 vehicles, 33 of which travelled in a dramatic convoy through Whangarei before the event.
The competition section attracted 37 registered entries. Unusually for shows of this type, all competition categories were judged by popular vote, including a special and keenly sought-after Drivers‘ Choice category.
Top: St John New Zealand joined the emergency services‘ support of the show.
Bottom: Impressive display by Northern Rural Haulage; with one of the DAFs voted Best Specialty Rig.
One of the organisers, Kamo senior fire officer and local police sergeant Andrew Ivey, said that while the show‘s primary purpose was to let the public get up close and personal with the trucking community, the event also had its serious side.
The organising fire brigades will donate all proceeds to the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge 2021 supporting Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand.
Andrew estimated the event had raised $8000, although a final amount was still to be calculated at time of publication.
He paid tribute to the scores of volunteers who contributed to the event‘s success, the emergency services who put on displays, and the sponsors and prize donors: Fulton Hogan, Keith Andrews Trucks, Transport Wholesale, Les Graham from Get Delivered, Hirepool, and New Zealand Trucking magazine.
LIST OF WINNERS
TRUCK OF THE SHOW (People‘s Choice) Sketchley Contractors‘ Mack Super Liner
TRUCK OF THE SHOW (Drivers‘ Choice) On Road Transport‘s Scania
BEST LOGGER Tegan Stewart‘s Kenworth
BEST CURTAIN SIDER The Produce Connection‘s Scania
BEST SPECIALTY RIG Northern Rural Haulage‘s DAF
BEST TRACTOR UNIT PTS‘s Mack Titan
PTS’s Mack Tital was voted Best Tractor Unit
