Trucks in Colour

In the 1970s I bought a great little view-finder Minolta from a friend. This was a brilliant camera for holiday pictures, but a bit limited if you wanted to take pictures of trucks on the move. Finally I had saved enough to buy my first SLR. With the assistance of a friend in the photography business I purchased a Nikon EM. I chose, on my friends advice, to get it without the standard lens and instead chose a 36-72 zoom.At last I could take some good photos.

Dominion Breweries at Mangatainoka operated several different brands of trucks, but like this Isuzu they were all in this distinctive livery.

An International T2670 of Powell's of Makuri comes to the crest of the Rimutaka Hill Road. For the next 10 minutes or so the Jake brake will get a good work-out at he descends into Featherston. Makuri is on the road from Pongaroa to State Highway 2 near Mangatainoka. The trip through the Makuri Gorge is a pleasant motorcycle ride, but that's another story....

MANs were not that common in NZ in the 80s. I can't even remember where this photo was taken of this forward control model towing a self-steering semi-trailer. In NZ we got Australian models of these which as you can see had the headlamps mounted in the front panel, unlike the European models which had them in the bumper.

This Kenworth K144 stock truck is parked up in Masterton on a vacant lot while the driver stays in a nearby hotel.
This 1981 model looks  little different to the latest models on the road now.

Road-Air operated a large number of refrigerated trucks for many years from their base in Havelock North. This Volvo F12 is parked at Solway Park Motor Lodge in Masterton.

In the 1980s NZ built a synthetic petrol plant at Motonui in Taranaki, on the west  side of the North Island. This Detroit Diesel powered Oshkosh was one of the vehicles used to transport the components of this plant from the wharf at New Plymouth to Motonui.  Motonui made it's last synthetic fuel in the late 1990s as fuel prices did not rise to the levels expected and the manufacture of synthetic substitutes was not economically viable. With the worlds fuel sources running out I wonder if it's viability will change in the future.

This 1975 Mack R797RS was also used to transport components for Motonui.

Normal control MANs are even rarer than the forward control models in NZ. This 1977 25256NC sits idling in Opaki Road in Masterton, while the driver nips in to the dairy (Kiwi name for corner store) for a pie or a milk shake.