There's always great food and coffee at all the world's top motor shows - Frankfurt, Paris, Los Angeles, Mystery Creek....There's always great food and coffee at all the world's top motor shows - Frankfurt, Paris, Los Angeles, Mystery Creek....
Mystery Creek? Near Hamilton? Where the annual Fieldays is held? Yes Sir. In the absence of any official New Zealand motor show, Fieldays has evolved into the country's default motor show.
Fieldays is very much a rural event, and for that reason utes and SUVs dominated in the displays created by the motor vehicle companies involved in the 2016 event. But there was other motoring product on show as well, ;making it worthwhile for any motoring enthusiast to visit Mystery Creek.
And as is typical of any motor show, many of the stands offered very impressive facilities for visitors.
An example was Great Lake Motor Distributors, which sells the SsangYong and LDV vans in New Zealand. This company obtained its own liquor licence and created the Sir Colin Meads Tavern - the famous man is a brand ambassador - complete with tables and chairs, restaurant, bar, and even a hot-tub in case the Waikato weather got too cold.
Ssangyong reps invited every customer in the North Island to join them for lunch on any of the Fielday's five days which meant more than 400 people sitting down to eat. When we turned up to look at the Actyon utes and Rexton and Tivoli SUVs, we were invited to partake of all the goodies on the lunch menu - so we agreed to return for the 12.30pm sitting.
Nearby was the Holden stand, complete with a tarted-up Colorado Xtreme holding pride of place in a huge display of product. On opening day racing ace Greg Murphy was on hand to meet and greet visitors. On our day the meet and greeter was Chiefs and All Blacks rugby hero Stephen "Beaver" Donald.
And it had pies. But what else should a true-blue Aussie car company offer? So we sat down to enjoy a cup of coffee and sample a couple of the pie selection.
Then - hello! What was that over there on the hillside that overlooks Fieldays? It was part of the Isuzu exhibit - an off-roading course that took guests up and down ramps and through mud and water in MU-X SUVs and D-Max utes. So we headed there - and we were promptly invited in for coffee.
Further down the way was Hyundai, which traditionally sets up an enormous facility, big enough to house vehicles and guests who cheer whenever a bell is rung to signify a vehicle has been sold via a Fieldays Special sales arrangement set up by the Korean brand. As people milled around and the bell regularly rang, we were asked if we'd like a coffee.
Shortly afterwards it was time for lunch. So we high-tailed it back to SsangYong, past the Ford stand which featured coffee and a table laden with Lego for the children to play with while their parents were looking at vehicles or having a go on another off-roading course, past the Suzuki, Kia, Volkswagen, Foton and Mahindra exhibits all of which were serving coffee, and into the Sir Colin Meads Tavern again.
Then it was out into the open again, searching for probably the most luxurious car on display - the Jaguar F-Pace SUV.
Before we could get there we encountered the Renault stand, complete with its own French-style cafe and patisserie. More food. More coffee. And so, laden with sufficient caffeine to keep us awake all night, we snatched a quick admiring look at the new Jag, got out of there and headed home.
People go to Fieldays for a variety of reasons. Some go there to view the latest and greatest agricultural innovations, others go because there are some very good purchasing deals to be had, and many others attend simply because it is an enjoyable day out.
But many others go to Fieldays because that is where they can close some excellent deals on the purchase of a new vehicle. As a result, Fieldays week is traditionally one of the year's big spikes in new vehicle registrations - and despite early fears that sales this year might be down on last year, the distributors we talked to all reported business being better than in 2015.
And as for us? We've had enough coffee to last the rest of June. Suffice to say we're wide awake as we write this....
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