Following a successful three-day event held over Easter, Wheels at Wanaka Charitable Trust will be donating $100,000 to a range of community groups.

The major recipients are event charity-of-choice organisations Cure Our Ovarian Cancer who will receive $15,000 and the Wanaka Community Workshop MenShed will receive $5,000.

Wanaka community groups whose members volunteered at the event also stand to benefit with nearly $26,000 to be distributed between Aspiring Athletics, Aspiring Gymsports, Aspiring Rotary, Mt Aspiring Kapa Haka, Rotary Wanaka, Wanaka Biathlon Club and Warbirds Over Wanaka flying scholarships. In addition, the Land Rover 75 Year Anniversary Rally raised $9,000 for LANDSAR Wanaka thanks to the efforts of rally director Rod Corbett.

Free market space and fundraising opportunities were also provided to the Upper Clutha Plunket, Hepatitis C Awareness, Wanaka Lions and Wanaka Rowing and Pioneer Netball Club’s BBQ.

“The team and are I delighted with this year’s results and can’t thank the vehicle owners, partners, volunteers and patrons enough for the vital roles they play in our show” said event general manager Allan Dippie.

“Wheels at Wanaka was established to give back to the community and to encourage the preservation of precious vehicles and their history. We’ll also be distributing a percentage of profits to some of the passionate clubs who work tirelessly towards this common goal also”, Dippie said.

The West Otago Vintage Club will receive $10,000, with a further $8,500 shared between the Southland Steam and Traction Engine Club, South Canterbury Traction Engine and Transport Museum, Binders Down Under, NZ Vintage Machinery Club, Vintage Car Club NZ Central Otago Branch and the Tuapeka Vintage Club.

Wheels at Wanaka can now claim the title of Australasia’s biggest all-vehicle show as this year’s attendee numbers topped 40,700, nearly double that of the previous crowd size of 25,000 achieved in 2021.

This resulted in an injection of $19.2 million of total direct spending into the Queenstown Lakes economy in April 2023 ($10.3m in 2021) and $13.5 million of event motivated expenditure ($6.9m in 2021).

While there’s always room for improvement, post event research resulted in a 99% patron satisfaction rating (98%, 2021) with many sighting the Terra Cat Earthmoving Extravaganza and OceanaGold’s Cat 789 dump truck as highlights.

Wheels at Wanaka is scheduled to return from April 18th to 20th, 2025.

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