It was a sea of check shirts and gumboots at the long-awaited annual Feilding Rural Day in the township on Friday (14 October).
After being postponed for the past few years due to COVID-19, locals and visitors to the region were treated to a showcase of New Zealand’s agricultural sector.
The family friendly event included machinery and shearing displays, sale yard tours, horse rides and cuddling lambs for the kids, live music and loads of other stalls offering a taste and insight of country living and working.
From left: Highbury Community Constables Rikki Tawhai and Te Ani Saunders, Senior Constable Tracey Colville, Highbury Community Constable James Houston and MPES Sergeant Qian (Q) Yang,
Joining in the rural roundup were our local police staff who ran a stall with the ever popular police tractor.
Thousands of people attended the day and hundreds of children got to jump in the tractor and enjoy talking to our staff, including Kimbolton Senior Constable Mark Dickins.
Mark says the day was a fantastic opportunity to engage with our rural communities and families.
“The hundreds of face-to-face interactions we have with the rural community at these events is priceless,” says Mark.
“Investing time into attending these reaps dividends and helps locals put a name to a face with their police staff.
“We received a lot of support from the community, and young and old alike were keen to have a chat with us."
Supporting Mark at the event were Senior Constable Tracey Colville, MPES Sergeant Qian (Q) Yang, Highbury Community Constables Anthony (Trev) Thomas, Te Ani Saunders, James Houston and Rikki Tawhai, and Central District Internal Communications Advisor Sara Stavropoulos.
Rikki runs the gumboot relay gauntlet.
The midday highlight of the event was the ITM Central Business Gumboot Relay Race where teams of four ran a gauntlet of challenges (in gumboots of course) with our very own police team of Te Ani, Trev, Rikki and Constable Nicole Biggs coming second out of more than a dozen teams.
"It's a great day out for everyone and we look forward to next year's event," says Mark.