Royal Easter Show

Yesterday (Good Friday) we went to the Royal Easter Show.  It's an annual event at the ASB show grounds.  Sam and Paul invited us to go along with them and I'm so glad we did!  I hadn't actually thought about it at all, had seen stuff about it last year, but not this.

The first thing we saw was these metal sculptures.  This one is from Alien, outside the window is Optimus Prime and in the background is C3P0.

There were lots of things to do included in the price.  There was a huge area of farm animals that you could get up close to, including rabbits, chicks, sheep, cows, pigs and llamas.  The first thing we went to see was the Wotwots show, which unfortunately was the low point of the day - it was rubbish!  They should have kept the Polkadots!! (The polkadots have done the Easter show for the last few years, not sure why they aren't this year)  It was just boring and our kids were fed up after 5-10 mins.

Anyway, it got much better after that.  We went through to the sheep shearing where they got Adam up on stage to ride a bike which powered the clippers so the kids could each have a turn at shearing.  Which was loads of fun to watch, until they pulled me up to do it!  It was hard!!  I could barely get it going because it was so stiff.  And then could hardly walk afterwards...

And finally Adam had a go while I powered it!

The next thing we went to was the Bushwacker show - Canadian lumberjacks.  They were great, and we actually went back to see them throughout the day when we were nearby and could hear the show going. They had two 50ft wooden poles and raced up and down them.  One of the guys was 3 times world champion at the speed climb - he was amazing to watch.  They went up with a rope around the tree and spiked shoes and this guy looked like spiderman going up.  He just walked right up like it was nothing.  And then when he got to the top he just kind of let go and slid all the way down again (there was a crash mat at the bottom).  It was so fast!

They also had this guy at the end who climbed all the way to the top and then sort of clowned around a bit - took all his gear off and threw it down, stood on top of the pole, juggled, was planking across the top of it and then finished with this:

The best thing was that you had no idea he got himself harnessed in up there.  He did it really slyly so our hearts really leapt when he "fell" off the top!

Next we went to the Zirca Circus, which again was very impressive!  The had a group of acrobat/jugglers first, then 4 gymnasts, next 2 clowns doing plate spinning and the grand finale involved a giant metal ball and 4 motorbikes. Brought in one at a time, they each went inside the big ball and rode around, going in every direction possible.  Then the next bike would come into the ring and go in the ball, until in the end there were 4 bikes in there together.  It really wasn't that big once there were 4 in!

The kids had a turn on one thing each - Zach chose the big slide, Tilly and Lani chose the mini ferris wheel.

We wondered over to where the horse events were, but they had finished up already, but the kids at least got to get up close to a couple of them.

The rest of the day was filled with the Art exhibition (Adam and I really enjoyed that but the kids - not so much!), Zumba at the cultural stage, the Strong man competition, 100% Kylie (a tribute act, a bit too cheesy and naff...) and finally the fireworks display.

All in all a great day out!

Did you spot Tilly and Lani?