Best family-friendly Field Days’ stalls
It wasn’t all seed drills and tractors at the Central Districts Field Days.
Rest assured, there were a ton of fun things to do and see for the whole family, even if you were a ‘townie’.
The Feilding-Rangitikei Herald did the rounds and thought these sites were the best for family orientated crowds. 1. Cuisine tent There were a few new faces in the marquee this year including Ebony Coffee Roasters and Chris Dunn from Deli Hawkes Bay with his artisan small goods.
There were also some familiar faces such as Pohangina Valley’s Cartwheel Creamery and Feilding’s Common Ancestor Brewery, which offered hand-crafted boutique ales. They boasted a a range of traditional English, Irish and Scottish ales and two pale ales. Who doesn’t like taste-testing? 2. Vintage motors While you couldn’t hand the kids a beer, a lot were fascinated by the vintage motors display. Visitors were taken on a ride back to the good ol’ days when steam engines were just coming in and farm machinery was a little different to what we know it know.
To keep things authentic staff kicked them into life, with many having to be crank started the old fashioned way.
Spluttering away, the display couldn’t be missed. 3. Retail therapy The event boasted plenty of quirky stalls. A tent full of model toys fascinated children, while if parents needed to restock the wardrobe there were stalls selling everything from fluffy socks to sparkly hats.
For the dads, they could check out the latest tools, lawn mowers and gadgets to keep the backyard in top shape this winter. 4. Sky high aerobatics Those who had withdrawals following the Air Tattoo at Ohakea last month headed to Manfeild on Saturday for round two. All eyes were on the RNZAF aerobatics team, the Black Falcons, as they lit up the sky in the afternoon.
Capable of speeds up to 585 km/hr, the team of Beechcraft T-6C Texan II’s were the highlight of the final afternoon. 5. Jump in a digger Children had the chance to be tutored by skilled excavator drivers on how to operate ‘Gerald the Giraffe’, a 1.7-tonne Hitachi mini digger.