Wairarapa Children's Day 2019, Carterton

Well that was fun! We learnt a thing or three too: did you know Kereru wood pigeon sometimes get drunk from eating too many berries? Thanks Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre!

I had the absolute pleasure of being invited to photograph the inaugural Wairarapa Children's Day in 2019, by the effervescent organiser.

Mum of two gorgeous girls Lucy Adlam, "heard about Children’s Day happening across NZ, and hadn’t heard of the Wairarapa doing anything for it so decided to plan something... So often with children’s events it can be a bit dull for parents so I wanted to make sure this was something parents could enjoy too. I also wanted to provide an event which focused on connecting with each other as a community, and interactions between children, and also their parents/caregivers."

Lucy says the free Wairarapa Children's Day is "a chance to celebrate the wonderful children and families in our community, by providing a range of fun, interactive and educational activities for the whole family to enjoy."

The event was made possible with the help of about 25 volunteers; with about 17 businesses including emergency services police, fire brigade and Wellington Free Ambulance donating their time. About five sponsors contributed grants and funding towards the event including: Harcourts Hamill Real Estate Wairarapa, More FM and Wairarapa Plunket.

Lucy confides "I had been really nervous leading up to the event as I wasn’t sure how children would respond to me ditching usual things such as bouncy castles and candy floss, and replacing with workshops and fruit.". Families had a fantastic time on the day with both adults and children alike enjoying science experiments; fundamental play; police, ambulance and fire trucks; a magic show; traditional egg and spoon races, sack races and tug of war; mural creating; face painting; music making; bird feeder building; Paw Patrol hugging; circus skills and more!

Will there be a Wairarapa Children's Day 2020?! Lucy says "I’ve already had emails from groups wanting to be involved next year, and the feedback has been amazing so… yes! 2020 will be bigger and better!"

Thanks to everyone who helped make Wairarapa Children's Day 2019 such a great success!

Photos by Sarah at Lucalia Photography. I am an outdoor wedding and portrait photographer for adventurous people in the Wairarapa.

Please feel free to check out my outdoor, stress-free family photography sessions.

Wairarapa Children's Day organiser Lucy Adlam and fellow Plunket volunteer.

Sponsor Harcourts Hamill Real Estate Wairarapa came to the party.

Children enjoyed quality learning time with their mātua.

Manukura the little white was a big hit, who visited from Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre.

More FM's Wendy enjoyed the best job of the day throwing lollies into the crowd!

Brent from More FM was the event MC, announcing the arrival of special guests...

Such as Paw Patrol! Thanks to Wairarapa Hire a Star.

Instead of candy floss, fruit was available which was a massive hit!

House of Science Wairarapa blowing kids' minds with out of the box science experiments.

The House of Science Wairarapa bottle rocket was a blast!

The mural was cleverly divided into sections with legs for children to colour in on the day. It was designed by Bek from Nectarine a local Carterton graphic design company.