Mangakino HOP 2020

Yep, back into it for the second year running at Lake Mangakino again and what a massive day out!

After the success of the first event, it was obvious this one was going to go off with more cars and people turning up. Registrations for the day had to close off early due to the number of entries and the limited parking available. 420 registered early but as us car people do, we just arrive anyway making for a unofficial show up and down the road with even more cars.

Being pretty much central in the North Island, it’s an awesome opportunity for pretty much anyone in the Island to stop in for the day or make the most out of it, rent a house and party up for the weekend. Coming out of our National lockdown and this being one of the first major shows on, the talk coming up to the day was all about the cruise, catching up with mates and this crazy car family we seem to be in. The cruise over was the usual Waikato foggy cruise but rolling down towards the lake was such an awesome sight to make it all worthwhile!

The hill was lined with hot rods, street machines and trucks right to the bottom field on the lake front which was fully loaded with more shiny cars. The spill-over resulted in the top reserve being half full with the Mustang Clubs together making for a journey through time from the early sixties to right now! On the lake edge was a cool collection of bikes from modern, American, classic and even made-up bespoke bikes built from stationary engines in a Steampunk style complete with horse saddles as seats! These were actually running so you could watch it all work - now that’s pretty cool! Hot coffee and food waited for the masses who needed to warm up and take in the amazing view across the lake before wandering about the show. Music provided by a DJ gave the show a real festival atmosphere and the buzz from everyone finally being able to get out and about to go cruising again was fully alive. 4 Guys Auto Barn had a cool collection of modern American cars for sale lined up across in front of the stage. Being Mastercraft boat dealers, they also grabbed a locals late model wakeboard boat which suitably got dunked into the lake for a quick demo on how to do wakeboard flips in case anyone wanted to freeze just watching!