In the final run towards its diamond jubilee, the only motor vehicle to be mass-produced in New Zealand is making a cheeky effort to work its way back into popular culture.
The humble Trekka, a jeep-like vehicle that wasn’t – is making its television debut in a new commercial for Bell Tea, Aotearoa’s oldest and biggest tea brand.
Meanwhile, a mostly younger generation might have spotted an animated version of the Trekka, motoring through a music video for “The Floating Opera” a single by Anamelia – behind which is Tamaki Makaurau’s Amelia Berry.
“I wanted the video to have a distinct New Zealand feel,” said artist and video maker Simon Ward, with the Trekka tootling along on a road trip through Napier, Dunedin and more, en route to a gig at the late seventies music festival Nambassa.
The Trekka would have been past its peak when Nambassa was launched in 1976, to become for a few years the country’s iconic music and counter-culture festival around Waihi.
Ten years earlier the first Trekka, rolled from the car assembly plant in Auckland’s Otahuhu, with 2,500 being built until 1972, when the previously import-restricted car market began to open slightly, offering more enticing Japanese vehicles.
Arriving into a car market where new utes and vans were expensive, and in limited supply, the Trekka found favour with urban tradies, families, and blokes in rural areas, undeterred by its modest Skoda two-wheel-drive underpinnings.
Like Ward’s music video, creative agency Havas landed on using a Trekka as a Kiwiana marker, in the television commercial for Bell Tea, a New Zealand brand which goes back to 1898.
“We feature real Kiwis from across the country and from all walks of life, each sharing what their cup of tea means to them,’ said Nick Cowper, JDE Peet’s NZ general manager.
“Given that the Trekka was the only mass produced car made in New Zealand, it felt like a natural fit to feature it alongside the stunning backdrop of our country and the people who are here,” he said.
Luckily for the concept, a Trekka restoration had recently been completed in Rangiora, finished in red, the colour needed to match Bell Tea’s brand. Filming was done near Lake Tekapo.
Ward made his own Trekka. Starting with a line drawing of the vehicle’s original dimensions, he built his in a computer, sticking with a popular Trekka colour of the day, and adding some 70’s psychedelia art to its body. Though he had one nagging doubt about the authenticity of the idea.
“I did wonder how new and expensive the Trekka would have been at the time,” he said. Possibly not a likely choice for a band on the road?
Not a problem though. By the mid-late 70s the Trekka – already one of the cheapest new vehicles in its day – would have been well down the depreciation curve.
Ironically, it was art which probably kick-started the Trekka’s revival from being a forgotten relic of an industrial past, to taking its place among Kiwiana such as the Buzzy Bee.
Artist Michael Stevenson’s “This is Trekka” was the work which represented Aotearoa at the 2003 Venice Art Biennale. With a restored Trekka at it’s centre, and elements such as a wall of butter boxes, the work told the story of an agricultural nation with industrial ambitions.
Skoda attributes the European ripples from that event, to prompting discussion about embracing the Trekka chapter of the Czech carmaker’s own history. It now has an example in its factory museum in Mlada Boleslav.
