“When we first came here I was sitting on the roof, then we graduated to what was virtually an outer toilet on the top of the roof and now we’ve graduated to this.”'
She waves her hands around the small space furnished with a table, stool and an old microphone.
Time to get back to her microphone, she insists.
At the back of the domain are about 20 horse floats where groomed horses munch on hay and grass.
Josephine Chartres with her Connemara pony Sweet Pea. Photo / RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Ten-year-old show jumper Josephine Chartres is painting hoof oil on her Connemara to make the hooves shine.
She likes to pamper 18-year-old Sweet Pea while they wait to compete.
“I was going to have her mane plaited and done up into small balls, but they were kind of coming undone, so I’ve just let them loose and go all curly,” she said while showing Country Life.
Nicol Horrell (centre) is a farmer and chairman of Environment Southland. He is at the show to have conversations about the environment and what people's priorities are. Photo / RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Nearby, Chris Bogers is overseeing the popular animal farmyard.
Follow the kids and you’ll find it in the shade of a huge tōtara tree.
Most of them head straight into the marquee to cuddle the golden retriever puppies.
This needs to be managed though.
“Look, we get children of 16 that just want to hug puppies for hours,” she said.
There are also kittens, rabbits, chickens and a few Hokonui Merino pet lambs, that were raised by Bogers’ daughter.
“It’s just so important for children to connect with animals because, you know, in the end, everything we need to know is contained in nature, and animals have so much to give us.”.
For Bogers, who leases a dairy farm, the Waiau A&P Show is all about getting together and supporting the community.
“I think everything’s about local now, isn’t it?
“We’ve got to depend on and look after our local people especially business-wise.”
