Fieldays 2024: Visitors to return to Mystery Creek come rain, hail, or shine

Fieldays Faithful Bronwyn says her nephews Beauden and Jayden have diesel in their blood. Here they check out the heavy machinery at Mystery Creek.

Every year, more than 100,000 people head to Mystery Creek for Fieldays, the largest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere.

Fieldays offers visitors the chance to see the latest agricultural innovation and technology, enter competitions and reconnect with friends and family.

Organisers say just about everybody has a Fieldays memory or story.

“Whether attending as a child on the back of their granddad’s shoulders, getting mud all over their boots during a particularly wet year or wandering up and down the streets checking out the latest utes and state-of-the-art farming equipment. The stories are plentiful.”

With many visitors coming from the surrounding upper North Island, organisers say data shows that more and more visitors are travelling from all over the country, including the bottom of the North Island and the deep South.

Fieldays, and diesel in their blood

Bronwyn, from Wellington, has been attending consecutively for more than 30 years – she first started coming down from Auckland to visit her dad who was working on-site as an exhibitor.

Now, every year the family makes the trip to Mystery Creek to reconnect with each other and industry friends made over the years.

Spending this time together is a treasured moment as the event also happens to coincide with some key family birthdays – including Bronwyn’s.

Nowadays Bronwyn flies to Hamilton and stays with her sister, who lives in Cambridge with her family.

The family attends at least two of the four days, continuing traditions and making memories.

The next generation is now in tow with her 9 and 7-year-old nephews enjoying their Fieldays visits with gumboots on and cattle sticks in hand.

The family has fond memories of the former tractor drag racing, and excavator competitions.

In fact, so strong are their links to this event and the rural sector they proudly have a cousin who won the excavator competition and another who won a regional heat in a further agricultural competition held at Fieldays.

“The boys spent most of the time around by the heavy machinery area and had a ball,” Bronwyn said.

Being able to see those massive diggers up close “blew their mind,” she said.

“Not even a bribe of some hot chips would help move them.

“It’s not just Fieldays in their blood, it’s diesel,”

Farming in his veins

Niklaas, from Auckland, moved to New Zealand as a retired farmer from South Africa.

Since selling up and relocating to be closer to his children, the over-60-year-old said farming would always run through his veins.

Fieldays is a lifeline to Niklaas, connecting him with his former life and career.

Having lived on a farm his entire life, he is passionate about the industry.

An event like Fieldays helps him keep his finger on the pulse and keep up to date with how the sector is changing.

Most of all, Fieldays has become a way to keep his farming memories alive and share his stories with his family and others.

This year will be Niklaas’ 11th trip to Fieldays.

He claimed he would never miss one and would be there rain, hail or shine.

• Fieldays is at Mystery Creek, June 12-15