Farming spectacle brings in crowds

CHILLING: Crawford (left) and Lauren Rear, of Kawakawa, with Steven Williams and Roger Williams, of Kerikeri, enjoyed their visit to Dargaville for the field days yesterday.

People from all walks of life turned up to the 31st annual Northland Field Days - including one man who is a field day veteran.

It is an event to promote all things farming from showing off cows, tractors and quad bikes to demonstrations of chainsaw carving. Organisers said they expected 27,000 people to turn up to the three-day event that ends today.

Amongst the crowd yesterday was Ivan McDivitt, an 82-year-old from Dargaville, who has been attending the field days events since the beginning.

"Oh gosh, I've been to most of them since the first one, gee how long ago was that?"

Mr McDivitt was back again this year roaming around confidently, he said it had definitely grown since the first event in 1984.

"Oh, I don't think there were any helicopters and no Japanese cars," he laughed.

Mr McDivitt used to come to the event with his wife Isla and the kids and although Isla did not go with him this year, his son Ian came along - who had also attended the event many times before.

"We used to come out with the whole family. It is a really enjoyable day," Mr McDivitt said.

Mr McDivitt is a man of few words, but did mention many times how much he enjoyed the field days.

"It's just a great thing to go to and it's great for the community and really encompasses the area."

Mr McDivitt is a farmer, he's farmed his "whole life", and one thing he remembered about the earlier events was the great bargains. "You got really great discounts. We used to come here and get some really great deals. You could buy steel really cheap."

The Northern Advocate reporter asked him how he was enjoying the day so far, he laughed and said "well I don't know I've just got here", and he was keen to keep walking around.

-Northern Advocate photographer Tania Whyte braved the wonderful weather to capture these images of people having fun.