Like all dynamic living things our Club and our projects continuously evolve and develop. One of our current cornerstone projects, fund raisers and generally FUN activities is our Rally from Half Moon Bay to Bluff at the bottom of the “Mainland”. For reasons that will become clear it is called “Bangers to Bluff”
Once upon a time, circa 2014, Stewart, a founder member of our Club was watching Top Gear. In that episode Jeremy Clarkson and team were tasked with buying an old car and doing some feats that would challenge the car's robustness and make the old “banger" jump though some hoops!
This made Stewart think! It could be really fun to try something similar, with a group of friends, where everyone would buy a car for under $1000 and drive it from Auckland to Bluff. He tested the idea on a bunch of mates and within 1 minute of explaining it had five "signed up" and raring to go. At that early stage they called it "The Grand Challenge" ( ref $1000)
A group of mates it was, but they still set some rules. Firstly the cars must have a current WOF and Rego, the tool kit was to be no more than a roll of duct tape and a hammer, and the cars were to be sold /disposed of in Queenstown after getting to Bluff. In addition they strove to stay in holiday camps where ever possible. In this way a legend was born, giving 15 odd teams a memorable time of their lives, whilst raising significant funds for “blue chip” NZ Charities year after year.
