New Zealand's first cheese mobile hits the road

North Otago cheesemaker Whitestone Cheese is taking to the roads to promote its range of artisan cheeses using a distinctive 1961 Volkswagen Kombi Cheese Truck.

The Kombi has had a chequered career, spending time in Queenstown and Wellington before finishing up in Auckland. The van spent a year getting itself road worthy again and being fitted out for its most recent incarnation – a beer wagon.

In this configuration, it was used at events and functions to serve beer and food and was also fitted out with a multimedia system for videos and music.

Now it's morphed into Daisy the Cheese Dub (or Daisy Dub for short). The name has been chosen from more than 1700 suggestions on Whitestone’s Facebook page.

"We're a modest family-owned and operated company, making artisan cheese with our local milk from the limestone country of North Otago," Whitestone Cheese Chief Executive Simon Berry says.

"We don't have a corporate promotional budget like our competitors, so we thought let’s take our cheese straight to the people instead, with a classic Kombi – all the better!"

Thus Daisy the Cheese Dub was born.

"Our cheeses speak for themselves," Simon says, "so having a flexible and distinctive way of letting people try our products works perfectly for us."

He says the supermarkets and specialty food outlets where Whitestone is sold have embraced the concept.

The VW Kombi has a storied history that was not only celebrated by the Woodstock generation. The first VW van was officially launched at the Geneva Motor Show in November 1949 and around five million vans were produced.

The unique design meant that the rear seats could be removed, providing great flexibility. VW was able to turn out 90 different body combinations including buses, pick-ups, fire engines, ambulances, beer wagons, refrigerated ice-cream vans, milk floats, mobile butchers’ shops, bread vans, mobile grocers, ordinary delivery vans and the well known and loved camper.

To this historical list we must now add the Cheese Truck, which is driving its way into the VW history books.

The Whitestone Cheese Truck will be appearing around Auckland and other areas during the next few months. A full schedule is attached.

Visit www.facebook.com/WhitestoneCheese to follow the Truck and participate in promotions.