Field on Fieldays – Day two

An hour before the gates opened to the public, the ‘fat-breakfast’ tent was packed with exhibitors and their helpers, stoking up on sausages, scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and peppery mushrooms in thick sauce – ready for the onslaught.

And it wasn’t long before the flood of eager buyers and wanderers came pouring down the hill, spreading out along the lanes and byways. Within seconds the tills were jingling and the zip-zap Eftpos machines were spitting out their receipts. Fieldays No. 43 was underway.

As always, there was an air of suppressed excitement and eagerness about it all, as the vast tent city suddenly came to life. Tens of thousands of people were on the site by midday, and, also as always, the established clothing places were deluged with bargain hunters.

Obviously the bargains were there: young men were lugging large boxes of camo gear; older farmers were sporting new gumboots that were clean and shiny; women were snuggling into new jackets as the morning chills lingered; kids were sporting smart new packs, or snappy new caps, or waving branded balloons or bags or posters.

Coffee vendors, always favourites, worked feverishly to cope with the constantly growing queues in front of their tiny, hectic stands, and the smiles, perhaps a little fixed after the first few frantic hours, gradually relaxed as the piles of money kept mounting in the tills.

For once, the weather was kind.

Often the week of Fieldays is notable for the winter’s first cold snap or a rich Waikato fog, or perhaps a steady, hammering rain that rapidly turns indentations in the roadways into puddles and then gluey mud.

But yesterday, by 10.30am, sunshine was streaming through the thinning clouds, and jackets, heavy coats and thick jerseys were being peeled off as the crowds warmed to the business of enjoying the day.

And, as the big machinery vendors, and the marketers of tools, and the purveyors of boots and wet-weather gear and warm outdoor clothing all settled into the business of doing as much business as they could, the indications were that the 2011 National Fieldays at Mystery Creek are going to be a good deal better than average.