Family-friendly fun found in show maze

(L-R) Hawke's Bay Royal A&P Show general manager Brent Linn, entries manager Jo Linton and Ross Duncan in the newly-erected apple bin maze at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds. Photo/Duncan Brown

Hundreds of show goers are expected to pass through the newest attraction of the Hawke's Bay Royal A&P Show as gates open to the public today.

The apple bin maze, believed to be the largest in the country, stands three bins high among the show exhibitions and is free to all attendees.

Hawke's Bay A&P Society general manager Brent Linn said the maze was the "brainchild" of local orchardist Ross Duncan.

"He wanted to create an interactive, free family-orientated entertainment offering for the show this year. One of the concepts he came up with at 2am was to build New Zealand's largest, if not the world's largest, fruit bin maze."

He said constructing the maze was a "massive undertaking" that saw a team of four people carefully craft 1200 fruit bins into a maze over the course of five days.

"Mr Duncan set about cajoling all the people he know in the industry. Turners and Growers came on board and have provided us with over 1200 fruit bins; that's 20 trucks of bins."

The Hawke's Bay Showgrounds was a hive of activity yesterday as exhibitors raced to set up their stalls in time for the gate opening at 8.30am today.

Mr Linn said the show, while not open to the public, was already well underway yesterday with equestrian and the dog trials competition running all day.

"We're just got all the trade exhibitors arriving now so it's always an exciting time when everyone starts to build. A few spits [of rain] arrived but it's looking like it's disappearing so it's looking good."

For the first time the Hawke's Bay A&P Society has chosen to have a two-day public event rather than three, after a show revamp.

Today's show will extend into the evening with Hawke's Bay Today and The Hits Show Spectacular featuring a Mounted Games demonstration, The Beat Girls with the Flaming Maniacs fire dancers, a mass kapa haka and dog vs duck - a unique take on dog trials.

Mahons Amusements Sideshows and Rides, Kids Zone, Animal World, Fonterra Kids Train and the Maze were just a few show events running throughout the entire day.

Mr Linn said show goers were able to experience the maze on Thursday before they ran a competition on Friday where contestants could race through the maze, collecting tokens along the way, to compete for a $1000 travel prize.

"We think it's going to be quite an attraction. It's always a big week building up to the public day on Thursday and there's a degree of excitement among the team around the new look of the show and how it will be received."

He said the maze would be manned by staff located at a viewing platform in the centre of the maze for safety reasons.