After spending New Year's Eve in Otematata she dropped into Kurow with her sister for some shopping at the Kurow Festival Market Day - and she said she likes the Waitaki Valley town.
''It's really cool.''
Kurow's Karen Hofman, one of the seven-member Kurow Festival Market Day committee, said the town - population about 300 - was ''busy and quite buzzy'' as thousands walked the town's main street. State Highway 83 was closed through the town for the day.
While wind had knocked stalls over last year, the 50-plus stall-holders at this year's market were enjoying a hot, sunny and relatively still day.
Committee member Jon Brocas said when the main street closed at 9am yesterday, stall-holders began setting up immediately, and visitors started stopping before the official 10am start for the market.
Bolstered by a record crowd at the Kurow races, it was the largest crowd he had seen at the market in his 18 years in town.
''Today is an exceptional day, and the people are out to prove it,'' he said. ''It's fabulous for the town.''
Market Day committee chairman Graham Hill, of Kurow, said it was hard to know how many punters came through the market, which had run since 1989, but this year the crowd was ''as good as we've ever had''.
Last year the Otago Daily Times reported about 3000 people came and went over the course of the day.
This year, ice-cream was a popular treat in the heat; Waitaki band Reed St Posse kept the crowd entertained; children got their faces painted; a busy petting zoo, with sheep and goats, was set up by the playground; and the back streets of Kurow, off the detour, were packed with parked cars.
