The Country 03/03/25: Laura Koot talks to Jamie Mackay

A new world record for the most Hilux utes in one place at one time was set at Kingston yesterday. We talk to the Toyota driver behind it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we caught up with the on Thursday show ahead
of the world record attempt at Kingston, the most Toyota
highluxes in one place at one time. We said we
would catch up with her again today to see how
it went, and Laura Coot from Real Country Farm, you said,
a world record. Well done.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
We almost tripled the existing world record and when the
official numbers are finally tallied, I wouldn't be surprised if
we reached my fifteen hundred prediction. The GWd Highlights world
record could not have been more successful. What a day
to be a part of Jamie.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
So people came from the far north to go all
the way to Kingston, which is that at the bottom
of Lake Wakatipoo down the road are from Queenstown. I
could understand why High Luck's owners would come from Otago
and Southland. A great sunday cruise, a bit of a
day out, beautiful day, beautiful climate. But gee, you've created
a bit of a monster here. Hey are you going

(00:56):
to follow this up?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I don't know that it's anything that's I've created. I
think the community has done that all by themselves, because
all we did is set a place and time and
the high Lux community just was needing this and wanting it,
and the passion and the dedication and the community minded this,
the attitudes that I just could not get over. How

(01:21):
many great humans were there yesterday, Thousands of great humans
all there for such a great cause and event and
burg thanks to GWd tried to New Zealand and their
local community because the volunteers were outstanding to create such
a day for all evers it is.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Did you create a trafit? JM.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
There definitely was congestion on the highway for a short
amount of time until we ripped open the fence and
until I got out of the bloody way and stopped
talking to every driver as they came in, because I
wanted to shake as many hands and think as many
people as possible, because without the attendance of the Highlux owners,
it just would not have been the event that it was.

(02:02):
So there was a little bit of congestion, there was
a little bit of line waiting to register, but everyone
had smiles on their faces. We had all our volunteers.
My dad included walking up and down the lines with
sausage sizzles, basically selling the pants off sausages and meat
patties and it was just an incredible vibe. And I
tell you that many thousands of people descending on a

(02:24):
farm the respect showing there's not a bit of litter
on the farm today. It just goes to show the
caliber of people that we had here yesterday.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
And it was a huge weekend for the WALKERSIP who
based and of course you had the New Zealand Golf
Open at Millbrook, the Motorcar Po Marathon, so there were
a lot of people in the area. One of the
real celebrities was a ninety three year old from Gore
by the name of Alex King, who was a mate
Barry Crumps and we all remember fondly. In fact, there's

(02:54):
no good TV commercials on these days, Laura, no one
watches commercials on TV anymore. But the Toyota ads with
Barry Crump and Scottie in the eighties and even the
Bugger ad with the dog were.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Brilliant, absolutely outstanding. And Alex actually called me off the
landline a few weeks ago, and I was laughing to
myself because I said to people still have landlines these
days and several miss called one evening. I called him
back and we talked for about half an hour. His
stories that he had about his time with Barry, and

(03:28):
you know, some of the things that Barry got up
to were just fantastic. And he over the phone told
me how Barry became the toy out in New Zealand
ambassador for highluxes, and long story short, it was a
cold phone call to a manager of Toyota saying you
need me to be your ambassador, and he wanted a
free truck, and you know he and true Barry Crump

(03:48):
style ended up getting it. And I just said, Alex,
we need to get you to this event. So GWd
and Gore gave him a high lux, spoke with his family,
and we got him here. And he was the real
celebrity on the day yesterday because he sat up on
the curtain sider. A lot of people came to shake
his hand and have a good yarn and his stories
were just fantastic and really set the time. There were

(04:10):
a lot of Barry Crump fans in the audience.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
They still are right nearly fifteen hundred Toyota High Luck
shoots in one place at one time and at Kingston yesterday.
Laura Coop, well done to all your team and your
local community and I know you had a big barbie
to finish it all with the Garston Dog Troll Club.
So that is rural New Zealand at its very best.
Well done. I'm looking forward to seeing what you're going

(04:33):
to do for your next trick.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
We'll take a little bit of time out, I think
and reconvene, but CDWWD and I I'm sure will come
up with another amazing community event next year, but give
us twelve months to recover from this one.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Well, well, you've earned a bit of a break, Laura Coop.
Well done.