A flutter and a few wines was the perfect day out for an aunty and her two nieces who spend most of the year separated by the vast distances of the Southern Ocean.
Niece Stacey Mathews and aunt Gilleen Webber live in Perth, Western Australia, and love reuniting with Kelly Kingston, of Papamoa, during the summer holidays.
And a traditional favourite for the ladies, who are all about the same age, is the Interislander Summer Festival at the Tauranga Racecourse.
They joined 4000 other racegoers yesterday to enjoy ideal conditions at a meeting that was Racing Tauranga's main public day of the year and where dress was definitely summer informal.
The aunt and her niece left their Papamoa homes for Perth about seven years ago.