Norsewood's two-day Viking Festival was a unique opportunity to take a close look at the lives of Vikings.
The festival, held at the weekend attracted people from all parts of New Zealand - from Auckland to Christchurch - and from Norway and Sweden.
Both days were packed with activities and action.
On Saturday 1000 people attended the festival. The crowd was smaller on Sunday but the gatekeepers said they were kept busy with a steady stream of visitors going through the gate in the aftrernoon.
The festival featured traditional Viking crafts including knife making, spinning and hand weaving.
A full programme of events was organised for both days and in between festival goers could browse the many stalls that had been set up.
Re-enactments of Viking battles were a feature and attracted plenty of attention as did the demonstrations on horseback of skills at arms, mounted archery and horse to horse and horse to foot combat.
These skills were all part of the Vikings' military training. Visitors to the festival were able to try out spear and axe throwing and archery and these proved to be popular with all ages.
Mona Utheim travelled to Norsewood from Norway to help prepare the replica village.
Utheim works in Njardaheimr, an authentic Viking village in Gudvangen Town in Norway and is a Viking seamstress and handweaver who sold handmade Viking dresses at the festival.
She said in terms of size the Norsewood festival was small compared to events held in Norway but it was an amazing event.
"I had no idea there would be so many Vikings here."
The festival, held in Norsewood's Matthews Park, was organised by Debbie van Asch and Eva Renbjor as a fundraiser for the development of the park.
Renbjor said it had been a fantastic weekend.
Many visitors to the festival expressed the hope that it would not be a one off event, that would be held annually.
A common comment was that there were very few Viking events that were open to the public. Most were small private events and there were generally only three or four a year.