A day out in Geraldine

Today we went with Skry's parents for a day out in Geraldine, which is about a two hour drive south-west from Christchurch.

When we arrived, we had a lovely lunch in a cafe called Verde, which has tables outside in the garden surrounded by flowers. It was a scorching day, above 30c I reckon, so we guzzled cold drinks while we waited for our food.

After lunch, the next stop was the Vintage Car and Machinery Museum. I hadn't paid any attention to the plans for visiting this place, and didn't expect much, but it was really enjoyable! A lot of people have put an awful lot of hard work into gathering and restoring the cars, tractors, farm machinery, motorbikes, and sundry mechanical items. The museum has had some bad luck over the last few years, it seems - at least one fire and a collapsed roof after a huge snowfall which damaged a lot of the exhibits - but they have put together something that was well worth the $7 entry fee.

Since I grew up on a farm and spent a lot of time around tractors as a little girl, I was particularly drawn to the farm machinery sections. Skry's dad was very excited to find a vintage car almost identical to one that he owned when he was much younger, and Skry's mum was very taken with the van kitted out like a gypsy caravan, complete with cast-iron stove inside. As for Skry, I think his favourite piece was the tractor that looked like it had been drawn by a cartoonist, with eyes instead of headlamps.





The swamp plough particularly caught my eye (although I could not get a good photo of it because it was so closely surrounded by other bits and pieces in the shed). First of all, it's the biggest plough that I have ever seen (not that I make a habit of seeking out ploughs of ever-increasing size). Secondly, this was built in the 1940s with an estimated cost of £350, but an actual cost of £1,350. That is a colossal difference, but I guess Mr Wilcox could afford it since he seems to have enjoyed many years of use from his commission. I wonder how many other people could afford one of those... Maybe the company never made any other swamp ploughs of this size after the first one was sold. I'd quite like to find out more!