It was all for the best, perhaps, that directly across Pukepoto Road, Kaitaia, from Friday morning's start of the 2013 Pork Pie Run was a funeral home, where no one was likely to be woken.
So one of the participants in the fundraiser for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ said
as the cars took of in the pre-dawn gloom, each sent on its way with a blast from a klaxon accompanied by raucous tooting of horns, and in many cases a surprisingly deep roar from under their bonnets.
Forty-seven cars set off on the first leg to Taupo, having converged in Kaitaia on Thursday from all points between Whangarei and Invercargill. Only one didn't make it, suffering fatal mechanical problems in Hamilton, a generous Aucklander lending the crew a replacement.
And although the rally was restricted to Minis, they came in all varieties, from the traditional, somewhat spartan boxes to the latest, more luxurious models. One had even been converted into a roofless ute, its occupants rugged up for what promised to be an increasingly cool journey on the road south.
By the time the cars lined up the kitty held $157,365, almost double the $80,000 raised at the same time in 2011, and that was confidently expected to grow significantly over the next six days.
