Jason Jewiss and Ashley Cumming are participating in the Pork Pie Charity Run in April.
The event, which largely follows the route the Blondini Gang take in the classic New Zealand film Goodbye Pork Pie, will feature 50 teams of Mini drivers attempting to raise more than $500,000 for the KidsCan charity.
Mr Jewiss and Mr Cumming, who are billing themselves the "Southern Leyland Lads", actually had not owned a Mini before the event — instead they bought one from Levin specifically for the run.
"I just thought it was a really cool thing to do, because I really like KidsCan and what they do in terms of their work with schools and children that are not getting what they need," Mr Jewiss said.
"The charity is filling some of those gaps while we wait for our government to do something about child poverty."
The event begins in Paihia on April 3 and arrives in Invercargill on April 9.
Mr Cumming envisaged there would be several "long days" — some of them covering more than 500km — and they were "crossing their fingers" the Mini would survive the trip.
Mr Jewiss said the Mini actually had more experience of the Pork Pie Charity Run than the drivers — its previous owner participated in the event a few years ago.
"When we got it, the paint job was really patchy.
"When they pulled the plastic off, it pulled half of the green paint."
In preparation for the event, the pair had already raised $12,000 for KidsCan — and hoped to raise more than $15,000 by the time the event wrapped up.
"We’ve hosted a bowls tournament at the Roslyn Bowling Club, wine-tasting events, just a whole lot of different community events — at some stage, we want to visit the Dunedin schools that KidsCan works with," Mr Jewiss said.
"But we’re optimistic. We’ve been told the Mini community comes out and helps you out, no matter where you are.
"Someone will be around that knows somebody, and they’ll get you back up on the road again."
They had also prepared by watching Goodbye Pork Pie.
"There were bits I hadn’t remembered — I think the Dunedin part was probably the dodgiest part, because they had all that drug stuff and all the guns and things like that," Mr Cumming said.
The Pork Pie Charity run takes place every two years — and features a run through the Octagon in Dunedin.
"We’re going to try to see whether we can go around the wrong way like they do in the film," Mr Jewiss said.
