Tours of duty

After its tour of duty with Austin Logging, returning to Hawke’s Bay in 2018 with Angels Share was a significant moment for Storm Harrison. He, too, had not too long returned home from his own tours for duty, one with the New Zealand Defence Force, followed by time spent at road-train operations in the red heart of outback Australia.

Storm’s journey to becoming an independent log transport operator started with him riding around with his Dad Ellie Harrison in the sleepercabbed ERF Ellie drove for Freightways out of Napier.

“My earliest memory would be sleeping in the back of that ERF while Dad drove along, shooting up to Auckland all the time, going as hard as they could until they got tired and then pulling over and having a ‘moe’ somewhere.”

Spending time with his dad was the backbone of Storm’s education in driving and operating a heavy vehicle. But, growing up in and around Napier in the 1980s saw Storm in the passenger seats of iconic trucks owned and operated by legends of the industry.

One such truck was the ‘Mighty Mutt’, a V8 Mack Super-Liner with a formidable reputation on the Napier-Taupo Road, owned and operated by Storm’s namesake, Storm Hema, Ellie’s best mate and affectionately known in the family as Uncle Storm.

“It was a favourite and was always a great day out. Uncle Storm, as he was known to us kids, was a big burly man with a real deep voice, and he always called me ‘boy’. He was really humble and a good laugh. I remember sitting in the cab of the Mutt and listening to