Today is the day – Let the Games begin!

First were the coffee carts who must have done a roaring trade both strategically parked at each end of the park and fantastic coffee too.

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Then came tossing the Gumboot, Throwing the Hammer and throwing the Caber.

There was a 50-minute walk in 5 minutes and also some egg throwing too… 🙂

A lot of fun and in perfect sunshine. The Motorhomes parked around the grounds got their chairs out and watched in comfort with their morning teas and biscuits 🙂

After this the Hamilton Pipe Band came on with the pipes and drums which sounded amazing. You can’t beat a good pipe band.

The games carried on then we had the ceremonial entrance of the Haggis lead by one of the senior pipers and with Chairman of the NZMCA Waikato group carrying the Haggis with the Whiskey following behind.

I’ve never tried Haggis before but it’s really nice and found myself partaking when I was offered seconds 🙂 Must be the McLean blood in me!

In the afternoon there was a jazz group called the Flaming Mudcats on the stage which I popped over to check out. They were really good with a chap on the double bass.

In the evening, it was back in the hall for another band called Landslide, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band where we sat with our Dethleff Friends from the group. Nice to see them again.

After a lie in on the Sunday morning after the rugby, Fiona went for another walk into town while I chatted to our Dairy Farmer neighbours from Rotorua, Tony and Teresa. There were a lot of discussions about the rugby and that Brit in the bunker 🙂 as you can imagine.

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During the afternoon, there was an Accordion player, Annie Gong with come music sounds that she had made and versions of some well know songs, which sounded like a whole orchestra. It was well done. There were also raffles being held backed by NZMCA sponsors and others.

That night there was another band called The Harmonic Resonators which was essentially a family group which did some great harmonic singing. Think Crosby Stills and Nash but with some Te Reo as well along with lots of old favourites. They were fantastic and had great voices.  Everyone in the hall were there to the end with a standing ovation. 🙂

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The weather was really starting to deteriorate with wind coming in but to a large degree, we were sheltered by Mt Te Aroha. The wind was coming around it though but that changed it to a south easterly which worked well as we were all parked pointing to the south. Over Sunday night, it blew dogs off chains, and we rocked and rolled. Some left later on Sunday to avoid the forecasted gloom 🙂

I was just pleased that the ground was so well prepared so there was little chance of getting stuck.

We were going to go over to the hall again for the final farewells and raffle results, but the weather was awful, so we decided to take advantage of a spell in the rain and head for the gate before the rush.  Once we got to Ngatea, we refueled, emptied tanks and had a cup of tea.

Thanks for a fantastic weekend, great entertainment and as I said at the beginning, very well organised and we’re looking forward to the next one. 🙂