Get your trek on: 2017 Trillian Trek — day six

24 March, 2017

Trillian Trek (formerly Variety Bash) has always enjoyed a great relationship with NZ Police — whether it be the good-natured wrapping of the local cop cars in metres of coloured plastic or sending the town community constable up a 10-storey ladder and then drenching them with blue-dyed water or foam! 

Another organisation that works closely with Police is NZ Blue Light. For the past 30 years the charity has been working in communities around the country empowering young people to be the best they can be and helping the Police to build positive youth-police partnerships.

For the folk behind the Trillian Trek and 27 years of raising money for Kiwi Kids, choosing NZ Blue Light as their new partner charity was a no-brainer — and for the Blue Light team, well, they came to play! 

The first grant of the week-long non-competitive event was a $25k van that will be used for a new Blue Light initiative for 15 and 16 year-olds struggling to find their place in their communities and getting into trouble. The six-month programme will be an opportunity for the young men to top up their life skills and start the process of becoming employable. 

Throughout the week, the Trekkers gave grants to all the local Blue Light branches around Northland to help them with their community work but when the serious business was over there was plenty of time for fun.

Spending the week in a white, minimally decorated, late model, air conditioned people-mover meant the guys were in for a serious amount of ribbing — what were they thinking? 

That vehicle spent plenty of time ‘under wraps’ as did the cars of the cops we met along the way. At one stage there was a playful commandeering of a local cop car, it was moved from one end of a school playing field to the other, and an attempt on the most kids in a cop car record was made. We got to 37 but struggled to get the people from Guinness to return our calls. 

The Blue Lighters joined in on a community project at Ahipara School and eagerly competed in a sports day at Dargaville High School. They helped give away bikes to kids at many of the schools we visited; some very cool GoBabyGo cars for kiddies with severe mobility issues; posed for promo shots with local radio stations; and enthusiastically helped Trekkers (and a couple of unwitting tourists) out of the sand on 90-mile beach. 


Continuing with the police theme, we also got to spend some time with old friends of the Trek, Constable Bryan and Bobby in their 8th year supporting the event and their 11th year delivering a kid-friendly vehicle safety message to young ones. Bryan and Bobby are always a hit with the kids and the mums and dads as well.

When Trekkers were not involving the local police in hijinks there was the ferry to Russell to negotiate and more exceptional back-road driving. And yes, that is Tom Sharplin on the big 1960 Seagrave — Tom is a Trekker from way back!

Official route of the 2017 Trillian Trek:
19th March Day 1 — Matamata to Orewa
20th March Day 2 — Orewa to Dargaville
21st March Day 3 — Dargaville to Omapere
22nd March Day 4 — Omapere to Taipa/Coopers Beach
23rd March Day 5 — Taipa to Taipa
24th March Day 6 — Taipa to Russell
25th March Day 7 —  Russell to Whangarei

For more information about this event, or how you can support Kiwi kids by donating, head to trekevents.co.nz or visit the Trillian Trek Facebook page

Grand Routier — in the french tradition

Sitting in Paddy and Patsy Williams’ Dunedin garage is a stunning example of one of these rare French grand routier sedans. It is a 1949 four-door Lago-Record Factory Berline sedan, to give its full name. Daughter Cath let us know how proud she was of her dad, who had been tinkering away in his garage on this car for so many years.
Without exaggeration, it has been a mammoth task. I first saw this Talbot-Lago in mid 2019. The long-nosed, sweeping, curved four-door saloon, clothed in its misty green metallic paint, was quite breathtaking. There’s more than a little English influence in it, too, harking back to company owner Tony Lago’s involvement in the Clement-Talbot-Darracq era. The long front wings and bonnet, usually multi-louvred, highlighted with artful touches of chrome bling, are typical of the era, but these were indeed luxury length. Interiors provided leather-clad, armchair-style seating and ample legroom, with touches of wood and surprising details such as dainty childproof interior locks — a far cry from today’s lozenge boxes.
Paddy, a retired civil and structural engineer, knows his way around a lathe. He has a well-equipped garage-workshop to assist in any machining tasks along with his other passion for restoring classic motorcycles.

The Great River Road

A few years ago my family, knowing my fondness for driving, gave me the book Unforgettable Road Trips: Thirty-Six Drives of a Lifetime by Martin Derrick. Most of the road trips listed take less than a day in places like Scotland, Monaco, and Australia, plus one in New Zealand. Most of these places were too far to go just for a short drive but four of them would take several days. My interest was piqued, and those four drives were added to the bucket list. To date, I have done three of them: ‘Route 66’ (USA 21 days), ‘State Highway 6’ (NZ 10 days) and ‘The Great River Road’ (USA 22 days). You can drive all of them in less time, but you could also fly over them. We wanted a decent immersion in their charms.
The great river referred to is the Mississippi. While the name conjures the deep south, the river actually starts at the bottom of the great lakes, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 3800km later. The great road is more of a concept than a specific strip of tarmac, as you can drive down either side of the river on various routes. Regardless of which side you drive, time should be kept aside for detours to places such as Nashville, which is famous for something or other.