How do you like the Show so far?

HAIRWAY TO HEAVEN: Sophie Boyle, Natalie Carroll, Tia Brown, Lola Talmage, Amy Baldachino and Jamie Gedye let their hair down.

Spring sunshine and wind marked the first day of the annual Poverty Bay A&P Show, where fields are transformed into a multi-coloured metropolis. Regulars like Hawke’s Bay jazz band the Bay City Stompers highlighted the carnival atmosphere and trades opened their tent flaps to a steady stream of visitors.

The future was showcased in the shape of a blood-red Tesla Motors fully autonomous, electric car, with falcon wing doors. Tesla co-founder Elon Musk disapproves of the term “gull wings”, said ChargeNet NZ business development manager James Cozens.

In a nearby tent a model port created from Eastland Port civil projects and maintenance manager Matt Schmelz’s kids’ pool was based on a two-berth design concept. The swimming pool port included a training wall, sea wall and two model tugs, customised to create scale replicas of the Richardson tug like the Titirangi seen at the Gisborne port.

The neatly mowed “street” closer to the main road was lined with Bohemian stalls that offered airbrush tattoos, rocks, mineral and fossils such as trilobites dug out of the Sahara. The street was fragrant with Rainbow Soaps, alive with the warble of bird-pipes and quickened with the crack of a stock-whip from a nearby ring.

Across the way was the colourful lunacy of Mahons’ attractions. Among them was the Ghost Train, virtually unchanged since its 1930 advent at Britain’s Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Next door was the Fun Factory with its recorded maniacal laughter and inflatable slide exit.

The Hurricane, with its whirly-gig of circling overhead cars, drew a long queue. Sophie Lourie and The Search band member Kees Albers-Connelly were among them.

“The adrenaline rush,” said Kees when asked what attracted him to the The Hurricane.

“It’s good fun,” said Sophie.

Toby Lane was rapt with his ride on the Ghost Train.

“It was best when you got sprayed with water at the end,” he said.

“It’s good fun,” said Sarah Aitken.

The main arena was ringed with vehicles as people enjoyed all-day picnics from their car boots as they watched equestrian events or just chatted. Among them were the elegantly dressed women of the Widows’ Club, who meet yearly at the Show.

“It’s a club we join as we get older,” said Patty White.

“We’ve been doing it for years,” said club hostess Juliette Hansen. “We’re used to eating from the boot.”

Today everyone does it all again.