Since returning to Whangarei, we have been trying to participate as much as possible in local events. This has included two amateur theater performances which helped to provide us with a comfortable small-town feel. At the Riverside Theater we saw “The Vicar of Dibley” which managed to condense the whole multi-season TV series into a two scene play, with the stage rotating between the Parish Council meeting room and vicar’s living room. We thought that the actors captured the TV characters quite well, including an excellent stand-in for Dawn French in the leading role.

At the smaller Octagon Theater we saw “Old School” which seemed appropriate after attending Randall’s 50th High School reunion in September. The first act was a collection of variably sung 50’s and 60’s songs loosely connected by a thin, schoolroom storyline. All pretense of trying to connect the songs was tossed aside in the second act, but given the season, the series of Christmas songs was good fun, including an excellent New Zealand one with the Māori phrase “Te Harinui” which means great joy.

The highlight, however, was a hysterical rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” with most of the cast singing in the background while two young women, dressed in pajamas, acted out the words. This included one woman jumping up on the other’s back, spreading her arms and making a harsh screeching sound like a pukeko (a New Zealand purple swamphen), for “a partridge in a pear tree”…each time. The two actors looked absolutely exhausted by the end (especially as the singers speeded up for the 12th day) and the audience went wild. I cheekily shouted “Encore” and, in return, Randall and I were subsequently dragged up on stage to dance with the cast for “Rocking around the Christmas Tree”!

On Saturday (3rd December), neighbors Robbie and Steph kindly gave us a ride a few miles out of town to the Whangarei Agricultural and Pastoral Society’s Show at the Barge Showgrounds. This event used to last for three days but was losing money so now was condensed into a single day with a NZ$10 entrance fee. Luckily, this was a sunny, breezy day so the attendance looked pretty good.

It was just like a County Fair in the US or UK but had certain features that seemed uniquely Kiwi. There were many sheep on display and speed shearing in which skilled competitors could completely shear a sheep in about 30 seconds. There were competitions for goats and cattle, and a milking demonstration where freshly collected milk (both by mobile machine and hand) was separated, using hand-powered machines, into skim milk, cream, and butter. There were numerous event for horses including show-jumping and the assorted team races that involved the riders picking-up and putting-down various items…from horseback.

Competitions related to the fastest axe-chopping of logs were popular with the crowds as were the dog obedience demonstrations. Not quite as well attended but rather unusual were the competitions between drivers of earthmoving equipment including a test in which a (tin) teapot fitted with a bracket on the edge of the bucket, was used to fill a (plastic) wineglass with water…precise control is needed but that is a pretty strange sight. Scottish Highland dancing was also popular, perhaps a good warm-up for the New Year’s Day Scottish Highland Games in Waipu (which we hope to attend this year without the rain).

Visitors could participate in the gumboot toss, egg throw and catch, and wine-barrel racing but those events did not have quite the fascination for us that the halibut-head toss, bobbing for salmon-heads, and fish-crate races had in Sitka, Alaska. Of course, like all good shows, there were many tents for vendors, exhibitors (including “Take action against invasive species” such as plants, possums, rabbits, magpies, and feral cats), and the winners of the inevitable home-craft competitions. We all had a good time but, as Randall pointed out at our departure, it was the first time that he had been to such a country show without eating candy floss and something wickedly deep-fried. Such is the new heart-healthy diet…