Jenny Spring from Eketāhuna on the street outside the Zespri tent. Photo / Merle Cave
The Weekend Sun editor Merle Cave was writing a wrap of Fieldays 2024 but then she met sprightly octogenarian Jenny Spring and got her impressions of the main event at Mystery Creek.
OPINION
Yes – Fieldays 2024 has come and gone.
And once again – as always – the streets were a menagerie of people from all walks of life, enjoying everything New Zealand’s rural heartland has to offer.
There were the suit-wearers, probably from corporates, zipping through the streets to meetings.
There were the tidy-dressed folk wearing branded jackets and/or hats, possibly stand staff spending their lunch breaks perusing.
Then there were the farming families from around Aotearoa with kids – even newborns – in tow enjoying a trip off the farm.
The scruffy ones wearing beanies, shades and farm clothes having a geez and a laugh, and those scoping out their next purchase or researching for the next big project.
Throw in the cockies just enjoying a visit, and those not buying anything, just enjoying the Fieldays sights, smells and sounds.
And then there was Jenny Spring, who this reporter bumped into outside the Zespri tent.
“Hello! I’m Jenny Spring – they say ‘I’m well sprung’ – from Eketāhuna!”
You know … that small rural settlement in the south of the Tararua district and Manawatū-Whanganui region.
The town at the eastern foot of the Tararua Ranges, 35km north of Masterton and a similar distance south of Palmerston North.
I know no one from there … now I do! Because this bright, cheery, exuberant introduction became a good old chinwag between strangers – as these typically do at Fieldays.
The larger-than-life octogenarian tells me she grew up on a farm at Tauwhare, which is actually not far from Mystery Creek, back in the 1940s.
But ironically enough – despite growing up rural and marrying a man who ran a business in the rural settlement of Eketāhuna – 2024 is only her third visit to Fieldays.
“I’ve lived in Eketāhuna for 48 years,” she said.
“I met my husband-to-be on Mt Ruapehu when I was about 28 and stabbed him with my eyes – he fell in love with me for some reason … we got married and had three children.
“He died nine years ago. And here I am – my surname is Spring and I’m springing all over the place!”
Why is the 81-year-old and grandmother-of-three at Fieldays?
“Because I’ve got a brother in Cambridge and he’s not well. I’ve come up to see him and to come to Fieldays – it’s my third time at Fieldays. I love rural things!
“I was brought up on a farm at Tauwhare. My father came out from England in the 1920s and met my mother, who was born in Greymouth.
“The rest is history … I’m the youngest of six.”
Jenny says Tauwhare has changed a lot since she was a little girl.
“It was all farming back then. The people over the road, the Popes, they didn’t have a car so they used to come over and borrow my father’s.
“Once, Mr Pope came over saying: ‘My wife’s having a baby…you might have to take her to hospital’.
“My mother used to catch a bus into Hamilton – it was wartime and she’d always come home with a flounder from the fish shop for me as I was the youngest.”
What’s Tauwhare like now?
“It’s more houses, more people but it’s still rural.
“My family’s sheep and beef farm is now a dairy farm. I’ve been up the drive in recent years – my father planted it with English trees which only cost £20 back in the 1920s and they’re still there.
“It means a lot to me to go back to Tauwhare.”
I ask Jenny why so many different people go to Fieldays?
“Folk go to Fieldays most years because it’s in June when the cows are dry – and look at all the smiley people and all the fabulous stands and sights!”
Jenny first visited Fieldays in 1991. Her second visit was two years ago – “nowadays it’s bigger”.
“My brother John used to be in the overseas pavilion looking after overseas visitors, and my nephew Philip Coles – a Waipa councillor – is in charge of volunteers.
“He’s a jolly good worker.”
What does she think of 2024 Fieldays?
“Wonderful. I love everything you see – all the rural stuff and the friendliness. I’ve talked to a lot of people today because I love talking to people.”
And that’s the charm of Fieldays – talking to lots of people you don’t know, chinwagging over the latest rural innovations, products, technological advancements and learning about new things.
How a resilient Kiwi village hopes to bounce back from a big drop in visitors.