Taniwha Daffodils Spring Fling into gear

Grayson Brown, 4, from Waipukurau filling her bucket up with a variety of daffodils at Taniwha Daffodils in Waipukurau during the weekend. Photo/ Warren Buckland.

People had to brave the weather at the weekend to fill their buckets with fresh daffodils at the Central Hawke's Bay Spring Fling opener.

Taniwha Daffodils at Taniwha homestead opened their streaming yellow paddock to the public and it is set to stay open until September 30.

Creator Railene Mabin said the opening weekend hadn't been as good as previous years due to the cool and wet weather.

Grayson Brown, 4, from Waipukurau filling her bucket up with a variety of daffodils at Taniwha Daffodils in Waipukurau during the weekend. Photo/ Warren Buckland.

"Normally people come and get buckets and go away for hours filling it with daffodils but this time they would rapidly fill their buckets and get in their cars and go straight home."

She said she was delighted that people braved the elements and still came but hoped the next few weekends would be filled with sunshine.

Luckily the paddock of daffodils is open through to the end of September so there is chance for the weather gods to redeem themselves.

"It is lucky we are only two days into it but fingers crossed we get some better weather as how we go is definitely weather related."

Mrs Mabin held the event in support of Plunket and she had raised more than $250,000 in the past 25 years.

In two weeks' time the homestead plays host to Dusk in the Daffodils on September 15.

"We will get plenty of people if its sunny and our event sold out very quickly so we released another 50 tickets last week which also sold out in under 15 minutes."

Central Hawke's Bay Spring Fling Festival is jointly organised by Hawke's Bay Tourism and Central Hawke's Bay Promotions and ticket sales are already more than twenty percent ahead of last year's total effort.

Central Hawke's Bay Tourism Co-ordinator Trudy Hales said the 3-year-old Spring Fling festival was captivating the public's imagination as a unique offering in the events space.

Alongside Dusk in the Daffodils, Gwavas Garden & Puahanui Bush Tours also proved popular selling out two of their four events. More than 100 tickets had also been sold for the Steam into Spring Excursion Train Journey which sees visitors travelling up from Paekakariki on a steam locomotive, before swapping on to a diesel locomotive at Woodville for the remainder of the journey to Waipukurau.

Central Hawke's Bay mayor Alex Walker said the Spring Fling was really putting Central Hawke's Bay on the map as a destination of fun, authentic rural events.

"I am incredibly proud of the way our community and tourism operators have embraced the event to showcase our beautiful district".

Tickets and event information can be accessed at www.thespringfling.nz.