 The 25th Variety Bash is here at Parliament. The 25 years has been one heck of a journey. And speaking of journeys on this bash, we're on our way from New Plymouth to Auckland. Join me, Mark Wright and Susie Cato on the 25th Trillion Variety Bash. Cato! He the children's charity had its roots in a theatre in Philadelphia in 1929 and today helps disadvantaged kids all around the world. In New Zealand, Variety's work began 25 years ago with a hiss and a roar and a popular bash concept jumped the Tasman to light up the faces of Kiwi kids. I'm proud to have been associated with the bash since then and the wacky way it raises awareness of Variety's work. The Penelope's, Virgil and Parker are ready for the day, the first day of the bash and what a wonderful way to start the day with a very special presentation to Sydney Mitzvah. I had to organise through the Rotary Club $2,000 to go towards the cost of the bike and Variety came in with the other $2,000. They are imported. They're absolutely amazing. Apparently it completely folds down and once you remove the battery it actually only weighs 14kg and it can take a weight of up to 145kg so I can ride on it. Especially in the shopping malls and that I can take this into the shopping mall instead of using my wheelchair which is cool. I think it's really good having organisations, workers, joint ventures. Everybody throws a bit at it and we get the end result. One happy kid. That's what the bash is all about. Very, very special. We better get on the road. Parker, if you wouldn't mind, the honours please. Sydney's special trike epitomises what this is all about. Along the bash route, dozens of grants will be handed out to recipients who have been identified for or requested help in various ways. Funding comes from the bashes themselves who have spent the last 11 months raising an entry donation of $2,000 each. This week is about celebration and seeing just where the money is going. Right now though we're going south and the weather's not on our side. Mind you, it's not just the rain getting everyone wet. In true bash spirit, putting the fund back into fundraising, we've stopped off at a farm. In Promptu Stops, a commonplace. Brightly painted cavalcade is a kid magnet on a wet Saturday afternoon. We saw some kids standing outside a community hall and we've come in and here they are so the bashes can give them their giveaways. It's actually a wedding. It's the day after the wedding. And we've gate-crashed it. Sorry about that. It's okay, we'll forgive you. Are you okay? Does this sort of add something to it for the kids anyway? Yep, definitely. And who's this? This is Paige, my friend's little girl. She's showing off the cap that she's just been giving the higher cap. Hey Helen, congratulations on the wedding and sorry to gate-crash. I hope we've added something else to it. Day one of the 25th annual trillion variety bash may not have all gone to plan, but you have to say it's been pretty incredible. What is incredible is the number of waterfights on the bash. With a dozen firetrucks, many of them operational, some form of waterfighters never far away. Departing our overnight stop at O'Huckier Air Force Base is far from a dry affair. The bash enjoys generous support from the RNZ AF's mechanical workshop team. Deployed each year to ensure these old cars stay on the road. Some of them are over forty-five years old. Fifty years old, some of them now. So, yeah, there's a lot of little niggly things that are easily enough fixed on the side of the road if you've got just the right amount of gears. And if it's too major, then we can usually stitch things up just to get to the next major town and borrow someone's workshop. Everyone seems to be pretty accommodating around the country. It's also a great fit for the AA. I think it's a community thing. The AA is out there in the community delivering what it can and helping women to care. After all, we are a club and we are a member of an oriented base and a very community feel. And for us to get involved in a modern organisation, because that's who we are, it's a real positive for us. And we just like to muck in and do our part. Bruce Davies loves it so much, he's become a basher himself. Teams come in all shapes and sizes and numbers. From the all-girl duo from Aussie in the cupcake mini to the fishpot cafe entry, a dual-staring seventy-foot extension ladder fire truck imported from Los Angeles. This morning, the trip to breakfast is short and sweet. We hitched a ride with the fishpot cafe truck and we ended up at Clifton Street School and we met a very special young lady, Ella. Now, Ella, you're receiving one of our checks today. What are you receiving it for? Swimming lessons. And you're doing something very special with your swimming lessons now. You're doing the special... Olympics. And representing Manawatu. An absolute star. It's the Thunderbirds kite-flying competition that's the star attraction this morning. Teams having to build a kite from a still-shop plastic carry bag. Actually, it's a mixed bag, really. Some work and some don't. This year, there's a couple of new teams and our resident team profiler, Mark Hellier, went in search of one of them. Team captain of NYPD. Big Willie. Big Willie, you guys are Virgin Bash's 2015. We are. What attracted you to the Bash, pal? This vehicle is starting to attract all sorts of attention. Mate, what attracted us to the Bash was the Southern Dash that we were involved in last year and, man, did we have a great time doing that. Opened our eyes up, seeing that there was a lot of gaps needed fooling around New Zealand, helping Kiwi kids. So here we are now doing the main bash. Awesome. And the car itself, mate, you want to tell us a little bit about what it is and the notifications that you've made to it. I know that you've spent a lot of time on it. Yeah, we have spent a bit of time on it. We found it down in the cargo, had to get it driven back up into Taronga. From there, we've then cut and polished her, news breaks, service, the whole lot. She's all ready to go and a lot of fun doing it, Mark. Absolutely. And I see that we've got a reasonable theme going here. What is the NYPD stand for, pal? NYPD needs your precious donation. So please give it. We'll be happy to receive it. Light bar up there, what else have you done to the interior? In the interior, we've had to just clean up a little bit. Sheepskin's all through, as all in most should have. And yeah, the light bar's great. We've got a siren under the bonnet, just all the stuff that makes the kids laugh and have a good time. Main sponsors, we're for small business people. And we've dug deep in our own pockets, but we're also people that supply us with product have given us product to carry on and try and raise more money for variety. Glenn's involvement, ironically, is through his son Mark who suffers cerebral palsy. He first came on a bash two years ago, thanks to Mark Helia. Now, he's got his dad involved. And ironically, that makes his dad a virgin. A bash virgin, that is. David Drake, though, is far from a virgin basher. A long-standing basher, a long-standing bash team, Dave. What brings you back for the 25th bash? Well, I've done so many now, and I think this is the 18th, and it was the 25th, so I thought, well, you've just got to come back and do another one. I didn't intend to, but here we are. It's a pretty hard thing to get away from, isn't it? Definitely. Once you're a basher, you're always a basher, I think. So I brought my wife and daughter along this time, and we're having a great time. The vehicle itself, Dave, can you talk through what exactly we have here? Well, it's a 1965 Ford fair lane. It had done a couple of bashes before we bought it. We bought it in 1995, and it did our first bash in it in 1996. So she's three on the tree. She started off its life as a cocky's car in Stratford and then a cocky's car in Hunterville, and then Barry Hitchings from HarperCollins bought it. There's a couple of bashes in it, and took it back to, put it back to a classic car, and we persuaded him to sell it to us. We said we'd look after it, so we tried to look after it the best we could. In Waiuru, the bash hands over one of Variety's most visual grants to a small school in the Ohakune region, the home of the sub-bus team. So congratulations, and it'll be really good because this is a fantastic environmental school. Cathy does a lot of work with the children about the environment and looking at the sides of it. In terms of the 25th trillion Variety bash, this is possibly the most important and special moment. What we're seeing here is a Variety Sunshine coach being handed over to Ngamatea School. Ngamatea School is very, very isolated. It has nine students on its roll. Ministry of Education doesn't want to close it down because those students live so far apart they can't actually get to another school, and the Sunshine coach will make a huge difference. The principal, Cathy, has been using her own car to transport the kids all around. This is where the bash makes a difference to local communities in a way that simply can't be calculated. The bash's long-standing partnership with Ford New Zealand has been so enduring that several years later some coaches are now being redistributed back into small communities like this one. For the parents who don't have reliable transport themselves, this will be a godsend because they have felt a little uncomfortable that the teachers have to pick up their children. Not that I've minded, but it'll be much better. We have a person that's prepared to be the bus driver and so that will actually free up myself and the other part-time teacher so that the time that we were spending transporting children to and fro from school will be taught preparing the lessons. Variety's relationship with Ford is not the only commercial partnership. The warehouse also teams up to help provide tablets to schools. The payoff is amazing. We're here on behalf of Shana Steel to thank you all for coming and gifting us with some iPads and Chromebooks. Well, we'll use these tools for learning and this will help us engage our learning focus in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We would all need to engage our learning focus even more. This will also grow young minds for many years to come. And it's a pleasure for us to have you all. I'm sure I'm not the only basher but the few tears in the rose. To hear these kids speak and speak so clearly and so well, and talk about their future. It just touches your heart and your eyes. The increase in technology will bring the children into a modern generation When you leave, you can leave with your heads lifted up and know that you've just helped us to dive deeper into our learning and took us a few steps closer to reaching our hopes, dreams and aspirations. Also you have made children smile, learn and enjoy school more. Again, a big thank you and we hope this all lasts for a very long time, even maybe reach 100 years. Yeah. Hopefully we'll see you next time. We believe that strong businesses need strong communities and strong communities need strong businesses. They're interdependent and every business has a place in helping the communities that they're part of be strong. So it'll allow more children to have access to one-on-one digital devices, which is really important. You know, we're moving into that world, we recognise that and we can just see in our real benefits from the children already. So, yeah, it really will add to the children who already use them. For the second time today, Susie's glasses fog up, but for a very different reason. The team on the phone truck that's friends on a mission is up to no good. But it's all in the name of the kids, Susie. Massive day and so many highlights. Waiuru Army Museum this morning, amazing. And of course the ability to hand over a sunshine coach, very, very special to a school with just nine students. And then this afternoon, for the drivers on the bash, something really special. The Akataroa Hill Road, 28Ks of winding, torturous bends. It's only one lane wide, but there's two lanes of cars. Professionals. Yes, I have. Good morning. Another beautiful day in Wellington. Just perfect for the bash, of course, but also for an outdoor breakfast with the lovely kids of Larbae Primary School. They have looked after us so well, and they are just gorgeous. Now, we haven't got too big a day today. Off to Masterson with a few stops, lots of schools, and a very special appointment with the PM. Our Australian superhero import, Super Huberth, catches the attention of I'm the ambassador. Hello, Your Excellency. You're really the Prime Minister. Oh, yeah, well, I'm... Peter will explain it. Over the years, Variety has attracted plenty of media personalities who share the same passion for helping Kiwi kids. As ambassadors, they're the frontline for Variety to showcase itself to the world. Prime Minister, I'd like to introduce you to two of our ambassadors, Kato and Mark Ryde. Hello, Mark. How are you? So, I'm the wonderful work person in the background right through the year. Just a big kiss. So, we're at your show start. Peter Drummond might be the chief on the Fishpot Cafe firetruck, the only team to have continuously taken part in every bash, but he's also the president of Variety International, the parent body to Variety New Zealand. Lucky for us, he's a very keen basher. He's a great big part of it. I've been to a number of charity events along the way, and it's just a fantastic cause, and there's so much energy and enthusiasm, and people are happy. And Lyndon Tamplin from the Bulls team is happy, too. He's managed to press some of his Bulls source into the PM's hands. Unbelievable. All the commotion outside the beehive has drawn out Minister for Disabilities, Nikki Wagner to share in some bash spirit. These are people who are doing things that they care about. It's for a great cause. It's for a good time, and everybody's coming along. So you can't do much better than that. Dear boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, apologise for using the whistle, but we're spending a week on the road, and I have to shout everywhere I go, so I tend to blow my whistle to get your attention. I just have to make sure, first of all, that we're at the right school this morning, because we're visiting so many schools. So what school is this? Come on, I'm sure you guys can make more noise than that. Excellent. Well, my name's Mark, and I'm an Ambassador of Variety, the children's charity, and what you see behind you is just about one-third of our variety bash of this year. We're travelling around the country raising funds to help children in New Zealand, and as we go, we're also distributing the funds and making grants to deserving children whether they be sick, disadvantaged or disabled. The kids at Taita Central School get a lesson in the bash, but it's the lesson from Super Hubert that's their favourite. Would you like me to stay here all day so you don't have to go back to class? Despite the temporary ill-fitting Super suit, thanks to his luggage being lost on route to New Zealand, Super is just that to the kids. Super. I just take one card, the ace, leaving the King, Queen and Jack up there. The one card, the ace, I place there. See? Now, see these cards? I place my hand over them. Have they gone? No, they haven't. I'm not that good. The kid there's still there, right? What's this with all my power? I cover them up. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to squeeze them and squeeze them and squeeze them and squeeze them. See, I squeeze the cards because look at them now. See? See why I kept one back to show you the difference, see? Would you like me to do that again? Yes! I take the cards. What do I do? Squeeze them and squeeze them and squeeze them and squeeze them. It's here at the school visits that the firetruck swings into action. This time it's teacher Robin Fairbrough strapped to the ladder, much to her pupil's delight. The chanting is music to Peter Drummond's ears. His sponsor, Whitegoods Manufacturer Hire, has made 10,000 caps to give away this bash, so none of the kids we visit this week would go with him. A byproduct of travelling Aotearoa is the scenery. The Rimatuckas are renowned for the spectacular climate of the Wellington Basin. It's only a short drive to Masterton, but turn right and you'll head to the southernmost point of the North Island, home to fur seals. Cape Palliser is also home to one of the region's oldest lighthouses, originally lit in 1897 and manually fuelled by oil. These days it's electric and fully automated. Nearby Nawee is a unique site with bulldozers lining the beach. It's the only way to launch fishing boats from the tiny settlement nestled in Palliser Bay. Well, this morning we're in Napier, the Art Deco capital of New Zealand, in the sunny Hawkes Bay. Although it's not that sunny, it's a bit damp underfoot. Last night though, a fantastic meal up at the Mission Estate Vineyard where Argus won the most points of the day award. I have no idea, neither do the officials. We head to Tolonga today via Taupo. The Westie GT limo is back. Sadly, no Ewan Gilmore, but his memory is well and truly at large on the bash. His brother Lyle and former teammate Ed Finn joined by Rich Manick and Taryn Moenbigh have dug deep to be here to honour one of our most enthusiastic bashes. We need to get out here on the road again. We're down to team member. We thought we'd get another Gilmore to fill Ewan's shoes. He did have Ewan's jandals on the other day. Well, if he has filled Ewan's shoes, there we are. So we've loaded up the limo. We were only able to get on the bash from about Wednesday night onwards, but we've been doing half a bash but doing it twice as hard, so it's about a full one. Do you boys are looking to get out of the last couple of days of this variety bash? The Grants actually, yes. We've worked hard on the Grant situation, Grant Dalton. We've been in touch with him. There's some other Grants that we're thinking about getting in touch with and we'll present some more Grants later on. Nice, nice. You're not going to change Skipper on us, are you? Well, Dean's looking for a new go, I've heard. And it seems we have another celebrity joining in mid-bash. Well, I've finally caught up with the bash. Good to be here. Good to see all the arm-mates again. Caught them in Napier this morning and we left reasonably early and reasonably nice weather to get to Tipperbury School where we delivered a beautiful printer and met some great country kids. They're really fun. Yeah? It's so great. The best aside of our life. Then it was off down the Napier Taupo highway to lunch at Taupo where it kind of had its ups and downs and a 70 foot drop for some of our bash members which went really well. And then it was from there on to Rotorua and everything started to go downhill as far as any weather, entertainment. Yes, it was the Luge and the Luge was absolutely fantastic. The highlight of the Luge Trip course was the daily double between Elmo and Bull. On the last site it was Elmo leading the pack going into the final corner. No bull. On Matacana Island, the Trillion Variety Bash doubles the local population making a huge impression on the local school. Thanks to Resine Construction Systems we're painting the island red and much, much more. I really do like my job. Make some noise! Come on! We're painting the inside of the library and we're painting the lilac colour. Just sort of brighten up a wee bit and we're also painting all the tables you can see over there and they're doing a marvellous job of doing all that painting. So we've got about 15 or 20 people just doing painting. Nice and there's plenty of stuff going on outside here today. Everybody seems to have bought the expertise to the table. You can look around and see everybody sort of contributing in their own way. Those two trucks came in last night refitted themselves as dump trucks so we could bring everything to the island. Isn't it special just bringing stuff out to a place that's reasonably isolated the kids don't get to see a lot of this kind of stuff and what a very special experience with them. Well they don't. To get to see someone else you have to go to the tower on itself and for us to come here we bring a lot of fun a little laughter and I think the kids are going to enjoy themselves today. So on the bash it's not all hard work we're here on a golf course but not to play around but to play. Have some fun. Four disciplines First one here the drive This one's slightly unconventional much larger balls and much larger holes. See putt as opposed to the mini putt This is sometimes referred to as the sandcastle building competition or the chip and what's usually frowned upon on a golf course the golf cart racing I don't think she's got a driver's license The sun rises on the final day of our journey and the 25th anniversary trillion variety bashes on the home straight having raised almost $150,000 We've travelled more than 2,000 kilometres, visited more than 4,000 kids in 26 schools and along the way distributed $65,000 in grants to individuals and communities Dozens of books, iPads computers and other equipment have been handed over to those who need it most Bash is always doing it with genuine passion and always with a glimpse in their eye never missing an opportunity to have some fun It's fundamental bash spirit it's the fun and fundraising the trillion variety bash sure does that as this journey and story come to an end We've made at the end of another fantastic bash, 25 years the 25th anniversary bash what a milestone what an absolute milestone, it's been brilliant behind me all the groups, all the teams and the visitors too and of course the children, this is what it's always all been about, making it fun for the kids If you want to be part of the bash you've seen it go past, really just get in touch it's an experience I can promise you you'll never forget We're at our shoulders our knees and can you find your toes, come on boys in the back knees and toes