The family friendly place today is the revived and expanded Tauranga A&P Show at Greerton race course.
There are stalls selling everything from a variety of food and drink options, to crafts, jewellery and demonstrations of inventions and prototypes.

And there are animals, horses; big ones, middle sized and small, pulling carts or being ridden in the pony club events.
Plus there are the traditional agricultural show cattle and sheep entries, plus shearing and wood chopping competitions.
The revamp is the work of Owen Douglas a retired farmer who's come over the hill from the Waikato. The Tauranga show didn't happen last summer. The A&P committee left it all up to one man, who died on them.
Owen says the committee was unconstitutional anyway, because the committee members hadn't paid their subs.
He put $10,000 of his own money into getting the show back up and running but it's not out of the woods yet, because it relies too much on one arm bandit money.
'They need a thousand members at $50 each to keep the thing going,” says Owen. 'It is slowly going to change. We need a membership base, and it's part of the community.”
The A&P show is not designed to make a profit, but it has to be able to pass on $15,000 for next year's show to cover costs in case it's rained off.
'You need that money before you start. It needs public support. It's a beautiful ground in the middle of Tauranga, a great venue.
Entry is $5 for adults and children over 13. Children under 13 are free.

A prototype mobile sawmill

Polishing the wagon

Checking the horsepower

Pony walking