The Country 27/02/25: Laura Koot talks to Jamie Mackay

Is the woman behind the Real Country Farm at Kingston - the venue of a Hilux World Record attempt on Sunday.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Queenstown is the place to be this weekend. Not
only the New Zealand Golf Open would love to be there.
But down the road are we But at the bottom
of the lake is a place called Kingston. It's raally
starting to grow. And just down the road from Kingston
is the real Country Farm. A woman behind it is
Laura Coop from the Fairlight Foundation. And Laura, you're going

(00:20):
to set a world record on Sunday for the most
high luxes Toyota high lux UITs gathered in one place
at one time. You're very confident you can do that.
What's the number you've got to beat?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
We are really confident and we are going to do that.
The number to beat was set in twenty ten in
South Africa four ninety five, and because we've already got
over a thousand registrations, we are going to smash that record.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
So how far and wide are they coming from? I
can understand Otago and south and rocking into Queenstown or
Kingston for the afternoon a bit of a Sunday cruise.
But you're telling me this people, I think from the
North Eyde.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
There are there's people that are bringing their highluxeres down
on trailers from the North Island driving down in convoy
from the North Island. This highlight zone is coming from
all over the country and this is where GWd and
I it's underestimated just how dedicated and passionate highlight z
owners are in New Zealand. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Of course g WD is your local dealer in Southland
and central Otago. They do a great job, just as
Cook Allison does here in the Dunedin area. But this
is now a Toyota, New Zealand event because it's got
that big In fact, I mean you're a bit of
a super celebrity in your own right there, Laura. But
they've but they've they've pulled out the big guns. I
think Mark Allis is going to be there, the Toyota Ambassador.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah he is, and I hear he's coming in by helicopter,
whereas old to be rocking up my highlights. But I
think I've got the better deal there. But yes, Twyer,
New Zealand's on board. Mark Allis is coming down, so
we will be co hosting the event and seeing the event,
and you know myself GWd. All of the local volunteers
that are helping make this event possible are working at

(02:06):
uts Off, and my aim is to on the day,
I just want to talk to as many owners and
see as many trucks as I can, and I'm sure
that things that will be shared by every single person
coming to the event.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
I'm sure there'll be some of those great old uthes,
the Barry Crump ones from the eighties. They were revolutionary
and they were great trucks. I owned a couple of
them back in the day. So you're going to have
right up to the new ones that the hybrid highluxes
like you and I are driving around them, to those
glorious old ones that Crumpy and Scottie used to drive
around them.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
I know. And you know the best thing about this
event is I'm getting messages. People are posting on their
Facebook event page pothos of their trucks, stories of their trucks,
so we know what's coming, we know the caliber, the age,
the number. It's just it's so so exciting. And we
even have a friend of Barry Crump, sysin his nineties,

(03:01):
a local from Gore Heat coming along to share the
story of how Berry Crump came to be on all
the Toyota TV commercials. So that yarn is fantastic. It's
just it's going to be an impressive, impressive event.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
They were the best commercials ever, especially the dog one,
the bugger one. It's going to be a wonderful afternoon.
Do you need to register to turn up? Can you
just turn up on the high lucks.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
We're definitely encouraging people to register before they turn up
because it's great for us to have an idea of
the amount of people that are coming. But we do
have a car park for I wish I was a
high luck people, so you know spectators that do want
to come and be part of the event, even if
they don't have a high luck, So we know there's
going to be a few of those. You can turn

(03:46):
up on the day that we would prefer you to register.
Full traffic management will be in place on the highway,
so everyone in the community just consider that there's going
to be an extra thousand highluxes on the road around
the region.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
So what's the website to read?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Are on Laura, So the GWd website has the registration
page for you to go onto. All event details are
on the Highlights World Record Attempt Facebook page and the
gates open at twelve pm this Sunday at Kingston Station
Real country farm just below Kingston.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, it's a great location. Thanks for your time, good luck.
We'll catch up on Monday and just get a beat
on those numbers. See what that new world record is.
Laura always good the chat you two.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Jamie