MOVING HEAVEN AND EARTH IN WANAKA
EVEN BETTER
IN 2019, 21 YEARS AFTER THE FIRST WARBIRDS OVER WANAKA, A LOCAL TRACTOR ENTHUSIAST CREATED THE EQUIVALENT FOR HEAVY EARTHBOUND MACHINERY. NEXT EASTER’S EVENT LOOKS SET TO BE
If wheels are more of your thing than wings, then 2021 is the year to go to Wanaka over Easter. Allan Dippie, local tractor and Caterpillar collector, historic touring car racer, and now Wheels at Wanaka managing director, has claimed the alternate spot, in between the biennial Warbirds over Wanaka event, to host Wheels at Wanaka.
The first massively successful wheeled machinery event was held in 2019 and it’s likely that the event currently being planned for Easter 2021 will be even bigger. It was conceived to mark the 60th anniversary of the West Otago Vintage Club but really took off when Upper Clutha contractors Kevin Capel, Robert Duncan, and Allan got involved.
As the organisers understand it, the event’s formula is unique. It was partly driven by Central Otago’s dry climate, which meant a lot of this old machinery has survived in good condition. However, you’d have to imagine this model would also translate well to other parts of the world.
When Allan does something, he goes large. He only started collecting tractors a handful of years ago but he has already amassed more than 150. Last year he acquired the Caterpillar tractor and dozer collection built up by members of the Gough family, which, as Gough, Gough & Hamer, acquired the Caterpillar agency in New Zealand in 1932 and ran it until its sale to a Malaysian company last year.
Tractor nirvana
If you can drive a tractor, then get in touch with the organisers because, while Allan is a multi-talented fellow, he can only drive one tractor at a time. He needs a host of tractor-capable drivers to get behind all those wheels for parades and displays. If you are going to be fussy about what you drive, based on your allegiance to Massey Ferguson, International Harvester, or John Deere and the like, best make that known early.
Allan says if it’s got wheels — or tracks (although that doesn’t fit neatly in the title) — it’s likely to be on show at Wheels at Wanaka. Last year more than 15,000 people attended the event at the Three Parks site. Displays are organised into the extensive car, motorcycle, and truck show; a tractor and farm machinery exhibition; the earth-moving display; and a diverse vintage fair and farmers’ market with market stalls and trade exhibits. Expect the parade ring in the centre to get a heavy workout over both days.
Cars outnumber everything else but this will undoubtedly be the best place to see the tractors and trucks that shaped this country, especially during the infrastructure boom years of the 1950s to 1970s.
Owners from all over the country have shown a willingness to truck their heavy machinery to Wanaka to take part in the earth-moving displays. That also means their trucks, which are often just as interesting, can also go on
We have three copies to give away. The first three entries to tell us what Waikato town the pigs live in will win a copy. Good luck.
Send entries to editor@theshedmag.co.nz with the subject line competition’.