Traction Engine Rally

Last weekend an international traction engine rally came to Rangiora - isn't that exciting?! Not the usual way I'd choose to spend Sunday afternoon (and Neil and Dan could not be persuaded) but the church was running the cafe there and I had helped make a copious number of sandwiches before the event and Emma was on duty at the barbecues making up gourmet burgers so I thought I'd go along. The cafe was professionaly run (due largely to the co-ordination of a lady who owns her own cafe), hugely popular and, as a result, successfully made lots of money.
The engines were impressive; both in the number of them and the high standard to which they had been maintained. Apparantly the smoke generated over the weekend was the equivalent to four years worth of chimney emissions - so that will be doing us the world of good then!
The highlight for Emma and I (and the main draw of the event) was the galloper/carousel which was great fun but played Abba covers on the usual fairground music machine - very bizarre!