Meet one of our Moola Mania winners

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$40 of petrol turns into $1,000! Beachland's mum of three Gemma McCallister couldn't believe her luck when she recently won $1,000 at GAS Maraetai in a summer holiday promotion.
Gemma, a regular at GAS Maraetai, filled up with $40 of petrol in early January and went into the Moola Mania competition offering a share of $10,000 of cash prizes "When they emailed me to say I had won $1,000 I was in shock," says Gemma. "Wow! What a great start to the New Year."

Gemma says she regularly fills up at GAS Maraetai when she drops off her youngest daughter to Maraetai Beachlands Kindergarten.

GAS Maraetai owner Liz Annette says she is excited for Gemma. "It's the first time we have had a major winner here and it's so nice that it has gone to a local," says Liz. "$1,000 cash is a great prize and Gemma's was the fifth weekly prize GAS had awarded".

Is this New Zealand's oldest service station?

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Bruce, Toia and the team at GAS Waimamaku have been dedicated to looking after motorists in their area for over 33 years. Their coverage area is vast, not only in the geographical sense (meaning all of South Hokianga including the Waipoua Forest where the big Kauri trees live), but also in the many makes and models of vehicles and machinery they take care of.            

The workshop is split in two, one side of the workshop houses two vintage cars, a vintage motorbike and machinery of yesteryear. Step into the other side of the workshop, Bruce is busy servicing and issuing WOFs for his local customers.

"We have fresh fuel, stock a range of tyres, batteries, oils, filters, parts and accessories, to cover a large range of vehicles on our roads, and we back that up with fully trained technicians and high quality test equipment to diagnose all vehicle faults that occur on these highly sophisticated vehicles that we drive these days"' says Toia, who runs the office and manages the forecourt. The service station has a happy, laid-back vibe to it but make no mistake, Bruce and Toia know exactly what is going on around them! Customers are warmly greeted and are happy to stop for a chat.


Bruce has trained many apprentices in the past through to the highly desired National Certificate in Automotive Engineering. Both Bruce and Toia are passionate about the Automotive Industry being members of the Automotive Solutions Group and Bruce has held positions in the Northland Branch of the Motor Trade Association including President for two terms, has served as an MTA National committee member and holds an esteemed position on the MTA National Guild.


 

 

Heart of the community

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When our Retailer, Pam Holmes at GAS Maungatapere heard about local school kids walking long distances along the Mangakahia Road to get to the school bus stop she instantly felt terrified for them, “It didn’t sit right with me, there’s so many trucks driving along that road ” she says, “I was driving around talking to myself saying I have to do something about this”. Not long after she’d bought a mini-van and swung into action.

Pam has now added two school runs into the weekday routine, the van will pick children up from their home and deliver them to the bus stop and will be there waiting for them as they arrive off the bus in the afternoon. Not surprisingly, Pam does this for free, or where affordable, a small donation. GAS Head Office offered to get the van sign written, which delighted Pam however she was very specific (and community-minded) about what she wanted included in the design. She told us that we must incorporate the beautiful mural that the pupils at Maungatapere School made for above the entrance into the shop (seen on the left) and also the locally iconic, ‘Brutus’. Brutus first came to Pam’s attention when he arrived at the shop next door. She says “I feel in love with him and couldn’t to see him leave the community—so I had him mounted in front of the forecourt and told the accountant it was a birthday present for me and the community!