Edwardian Day, or something

Saturday 7th March: A sunny day with highs of 26 degrees and very intense sunshine. There are two things happening in Waimate this weekend. First there is the March Hare Motorcycle Rally at the A&P Showground on the outskirts of town. Thousands of motorcyclists from all over the country come and stay in tents in the Showground's fields with portaloos and burger vans but no showers. Lovely! They come into town to visit the bars and get fed so there is a lot of throaty engine noise about the main street.
And today was also Promenade in the Park, an annual event run by the Edwardian heritage group where people dress up, drive old cars, have maxed moustache competitions and have a mock battle with an 'invading army' from Oamaru (the next town south). A red double decker bus turned up. We didn't realise this was odd as we have ridden many times in one, but people rushed over to see it and begged their parents for a ride in it so I guess it isn't the norm here.
One photo is a gent riding a pennyfarthing down the main street. The other is of mid-battle between the Waimate Bushtown Militia (in various old clothing) and the invading lot (the ones in the uniforms) from Oamaru. A strange event, in many ways. First, the Waimate side seemed to have a Knight from the Crusades in their midst. Second, their weapons included foam swords, buckets, water bombs and flour. And at one point, pink slippers. I think I must have missed that week of history at school.....
After all that excitement (and confusion) we went fishing at Waihao Box and each of us caught some mullet but they were small so we threw them back again. As I type this, Steve has returned to the beach side of the Box and is making his first attempt at catching sharks. Apparently you can catch 8 foot ones there, but if he does I'm wondering how he's going to strap it on the top of the car to get it home!