While heading to Mount Maunganui Port with a load of logs from Lake Taupo Forest, Raymond ‘Razor’ Bradshaw (R & K Bradshaw) stopped to talk to Mike and Alison Verran. Raymond contracts to Aztec Logging, based in Taupo. His Kenworth K200 travels around the central North Island, with the occasional trip up north.

Raymond was born to be a truck driver. “My grandparents raised me. My koro was a truck driver, so I always wanted to be one too. I started work at 16 in the Total Transport yard in Taupo, where my koro worked. I got my truck licence when I was 18, and I’ve been driving now for 26 years. It’s great. You meet loads of people, and many end up being lifelong friends. I’m still friends with the guys I rode around with when I was a kid. Those old fellas taught me how to tarp and to load wool – the proper way to stack it all.”

As a tribute to his koro, Raymond has a treasured photo of him behind the driver’s door of his rig.

Raymond reckons the main issue with the industry these days is being unable to take kids in trucks. “Kids used to turn up at a yard on a pushbike on weekends and want to help wash your truck. You’d give them $10 to help out. Kids don’t or can’t do that these days. It’s a shame. The passion has gone; it’s just a job for many drivers today.”

There wasn’t much pondering of the vexing question: Wine, whiskey or beer? Raymond was quick to answer. “Beer. I love the taste. I love it more than I should.”