The annual Pork Pie Charity Run will be heading south on Wednesday as it finishes another successful New Zealand tour.
Organisers Keri and Kevin Hollamby and Peter Bjarnesen said the convoy of 50 was heading across to the West Coast on Monday and then down into Central Otago, over to Dunedin before the last leg into Southland.
The biennial fundraising road trip, based on the route taken by the Blondini gang in the original movie, first started back in 2009, with 36 teams involved, and now has waiting lists of groups wanting to join.
Limited to just 50 vehicles because of accommodation constraints and the general logistics of running an event of this size, the organisers say the popularity has been increasing “exponentially,” every year.
“The enthusiasm to get involved is almost scary,” Peter said. Historically the event has raised funds for Starship Hospital, Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand and KidsCan.
To date across all previous events almost $2,000,000 has been raised, with a record $416,000 in 2023 for KidsCan. Already the tour has beaten the 2023 record with $417,000 raised so far with still two days to go.
Before the mini’s arrive in downtown Invercargill they will head across to Dunedin and see if they can all fit in the lower Octagon - sticking to the original route of the movie.
