Mystery Creek

Yesterday saw the gates close on the 43rd New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays.  This year attracted close to 120,000 visitors to the annual 4-day event.  Every year the Mystery Creek Events Centre and the 40 hectare (99 acre) area around it is transformed into a mini-town with 1,000 exhibitors on 1,400 sites.

The website touts it as the “largest agribusiness exhibition in the Southern Hemisphere.”  I’ll take their word for that.  But the event is certainly large.  To me it sounds a little similar to what I understand of state fairs with an emphasis on agriculture.

There are competitions that help keep the interest high.  Every year there is a rural bachelor of the year competition.  This year saw the eight winners from the past eight years compete in a “best of the best” competition.  Six of the eight bachelors are off the market following their respective wins.  Competition spokesperson Jacqui Cooper says there is “some magic” with the winners of the golden gumboot: ‘They do draw the girls”.

We saw a mini-rush in the office too.  Some of our clients are exhibiting so we had a bit of work on preparing and filing patent applications prior to the event.  Always a good strategy.