{"id":445749,"date":"2026-05-26T09:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445749\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T09:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:01:09","slug":"inside-the-safety-truck-that-is-a-godsend-to-drunk-wellingtonians-out-clubbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/445749\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the safety truck that is a \u2018godsend\u2019 to drunk Wellingtonians out clubbing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parking in the middle of Wellington\u2019s nightlife strip is what made Take 10 effective at helping people, but the truck required a significant amount of upkeep. <\/p>\n

Take 10 is now seeking a Wellington landlord who could grant it a permanent home in a building on Courtenay Place.<\/p>\n

A stable location would help Take 10 direct funding towards core services, rather than spending money on parking, insurance and maintenance for its truck.<\/p>\n

\"TakeTake 10’s truck has a phone charging station to help make sure people can communicate with their friends, pay for things and order a ride home at the end of the night.<\/p>\n

When the Herald visited Take 10 on a Saturday night, a drunk girl was seen shepherding her friends through town at 12.11am before she spotted a large Connect Four game set up outside the truck. <\/p>\n

She yelled out \u201cfive-minute break, everyone\u201d and sat cross-legged on the artificial lawn to play, while her mates chugged cups of water handed to them by volunteers.<\/p>\n

Another girl stood by the charging station and watched her phone battery go from 9% to 32% while she waited for her friends to come find her. <\/p>\n

She described Take 10 as \u201ca f***ing godsend\u201d and said she had introduced many people to the truck, which had become a safe meeting point for them.<\/p>\n

\"TakeTake 10’s truck houses a sick bay for people who are feeling unwell.<\/p>\n

Staff member Marcail Parkinson recalled once spending two hours sitting on bean bags while supporting a young person who had found out their mother had died.<\/p>\n

They received the news while they were out clubbing and ran away from their friends to process their grief, eventually wandering towards the truck.<\/p>\n

If Take 10 did not exist, Parkinson said the person might have ended up \u201cin an alley\u201d instead of somewhere safe. <\/p>\n

She said she joined the team because she had been taken care of by Take 10 before and \u201cwanted to give back to the nightlife community\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"StaffStaff member Marcail Parkinson was motivated to join the Take 10 team after being on the receiving end of their help.<\/p>\n

Team leader Mas Quaid said he had been there for people whose relationships had broken up at large events, such as music festivals, and they had been left stranded. <\/p>\n

He had also supported people who were experiencing suicidal ideation or had been a victim of sexual harm while in town. <\/p>\n

Quaid said his favourite thing was meeting parents who told him they wished Take 10 had been around when they were younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main goal is to be that constant presence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople might not need us that night … but three or four nights down the line when they are in trouble, they know that they can come to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MasMas Quaid (left) has been volunteering at Take 10 since 2022. Photo \/ Janhavi Gosavi<\/p>\n

Vulnerable Support Charitable Trust\u2019s operations manager Leigh Keown expected Take 10 to be $100,000 short of funding this year, which was a third of its annual operating costs.<\/p>\n

While it received partial funding from Wellington City Council, the bulk of its money came from donations and small grants, which were becoming increasingly difficult to secure.<\/p>\n

In December, Health New Zealand declined Take 10\u2019s funding application for $50,000 from the Alcohol Harm Prevention Community Action Fund, Keown said.<\/p>\n

To reduce costs, it needed to swap its truck for a building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for a space, potentially with another community-focused business, such as a cafe or ice cream shop, that allows Take 10 to remain as a safe haven for those who need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parking in the middle of Wellington\u2019s nightlife strip is what made Take 10 effective at helping people, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23562,138,1977,227385,21818,31046,1872,1866,738,227384,34888,1345,2944,185,26662,809,111,139,69,3111,149002,19098,6302,17399,1361,223,2742,61,23857,52,108649],"class_list":["post-445749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-23562","tag-business","tag-charity","tag-clubbing","tag-desperate","tag-drunk","tag-face","tag-find","tag-funding","tag-godsend","tag-helps","tag-home","tag-inside","tag-is","tag-itself","tag-keep","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-partygoers","tag-safe","tag-safety","tag-shortfall","tag-that","tag-the","tag-thousands","tag-to","tag-truck","tag-wellington","tag-wellingtonians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}