Bumper boats delight winter festival crowd
Thousands of sticky-fingered North Cantabrians hit the streets on Saturday to round out the school holidays with candy floss, circus acts and archery.
The celebrations were at the third annual Waimakariri Winter Festival, renamed this year from the Rangiora Winter Festival.
Mild weather and a lengthy line-up of activities drew thousands of people to Rangiora High St to enjoy the range of weird and wonderful events.
One of the more popular stalls saw children climbing inside large plastic balls and rolling, climbing and running around like bumper boats inside a pop-up pool. Others enjoyed traditional style boats.
Another gladiatorial event matched children up with cushioned beams on podiums where they attempted to push the other into a padded pit.
Other features were a large climbing wall, archery, face painting, tattoo air brushing, circus performers and a virtual reality area.
For animal lovers, the farm yard and pony rides were a treat but huskies from the Antarctic Centre stole the show.
The Festival Extravaganza was the culmination of a week of activities, and included a multicultural dinner, cocktail event, ice sculpting display and a lantern festival in Kaiapoi. Last weekend, expert sculptor Victor Cagayat worked his magic with a chainsaw and a set of chisels on six oversized blocks of ice.