Hay Day ready to revisit rural heydey
The Taranaki Vintage Machinery Club Hay Day harks back to the heyday of yesteryear rural New Zealand, but there’s plenty for townsfolk too.
This year club members have gone all-out with an ‘out with the new and in with the old attitude’, for their biennial two-day event in Waitara, February 18 to 19.
What now stands as a lonely field on the sixth generational Honnor family farm is set to be the fitting backdrop for the vintage extravaganza.
‘‘The event is about trying to turn the clock back to the 1930s and 50s eras,’’ said co-organiser Brenda Honnor.
She said the club members shared a passion for rebuilding, restoring, salvaging, and collecting vintage machinery and the event would see the covers lifted off their impressive collections.
People can expect to see a tonne of rare farm machinery, vintage tractors, military vehicles, steam traction engines, vintage trucks and cars, plus much more, up close and personal.
The running programme features demonstrations, live exhibitions, food stalls, live entertainment, a petting zoo, pony rides, vintage vehicle rides, clydesdale horses, find the needle
‘‘The event is about trying to turn the clock back to the 1930s and 50s eras’’ Brenda Honnor
in the haystack along with other kids’ activities.
‘‘It’s about families enjoying themselves and having fun, but it’s also about sharing knowledge so it won’t be forgotten,’’ Honnor said.
For those in the old-school agricultural know, there will be plenty to recognise and reminisce over including chuff cutting, a functioning threshing mill, pit sawing, sheep shearing, harvesting barley, hay sweeping, butter churning, coal ranges cooking scones and pikelets, and a functioning old-fashioned laundry.
As a prelude to the big weekend the historic hobbyists have invited Taranaki schools to attend a preview run of the event on February 17, the day before it’s open to the general public.
The school kids will be split into groups and shown demonstrations and will have lots of hands-on experiences. ‘‘Rob Grout from Puke Ariki will be on hand to guide and educate them as they go,’’ Honnor said.
Funds raised from the event will be donated to the Taranaki Rural support Trust and Prostate Cancer Foundation of NZ.
The two-day event on 331 Waitara Rd opens from 10am to 4pm daily, admission for adults is $10 and children are free. There is no eftpos available.