Fraser Thomas ensures world’s longest ice cream measured up

Fraser Thomas ensures world’s longest ice cream measured up

Thursday, 5 March 2015

Press Release: Fraser Thomas

A world record attempt took surveying to new lengths at a family event where the community joined forces to topple a world record.

The Manurewa Local Board called on the surveying expertise of Fraser Thomas to measure and verify that the world’s largest ice cream sundae was long enough to beat the Guinness World Record.

Not an everyday job for surveying director Gary Blyth and technician Ula Aso, who work in the Papatoetoe branch of the engineering and surveying company, but they were happy to help out.

Hundreds of families gathered at a South Auckland park in the early evening to scoop almost 600 metres of Tip Top ice cream into Marley spouting and then top it off with wafers, hundreds and thousands, and chocolate sauce.

Before the eager crowd could set to work, Gary and Ula had to get an alignment on the spouting to ensure it was long enough to beat the world record of 540.16 metres, set in Florida, USA on November 9, 2014.

“It’s great being part of a family event and it’s a bit of fun helping verify the official length of the world’s longest ice cream sundae,” says Gary.

Event organisers used a wheel to measure the length of the spouting when it was set up but to meet the official rules, a surveyor had to verify the distance.

Precise measurements were picked up from GPS satellites orbiting the Earth and comparisons of the data between the surveyor’s base station and the ice cream sundae were recorded in an electronic field book.

The tension mounted when the data was downloaded into Ula’s laptop and it was discovered the spouting was slightly short of the anticipated distance and was in fact, 596.50 metres.

The Fraser Thomas team took their responsibilities seriously and re-measured the spouting once more before the ice cream scoopers went into action.

The organisers were happy the spouting was long enough to break the record and then the families went into overdrive filling their length of spouting with the quintessential summer dessert.

Ula and Gary measured the completed sundae, checking for gaps and the attention to detail was also scrutinised by a lawyer.

It was the last day of summer and the heat took its toll on sections of the 600-metre sundae, especially on the home stretch but when the sun was nearly setting, it was jubilantly announced the effort was successful.

Then hundreds of kids, mums, dads and two hungry surveyors tucked into a tasty dessert to celebrate their successful effort.

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