Today, the Glenorchy Flower Show is celebrating its 70th year. Attending will be Elaine Kirkland (nee Watson, 74) and her younger sister Ronda Gollop, who have been involved in the show almost all their lives.
The sisters grew up on Routeburn Station, and Mrs Kirkland can remember first visiting the show in 1960.
Since then she has been to many, enjoying the shows as both a volunteer — this year she will be a daffodil steward — and a competitor.
‘‘Do not ask me how many I have been to. It has not changed much and is still the same format. There [have] been a few tweaks, but it is pretty much the same as the first one,’’ she said.
‘‘I was polishing one of the cups the other day and noticed that my name was on it.’’
Ms Kirkland says in the early days the show used to be held on Fridays because it was a ‘‘boat day’’ — a day when the TSS Earnslaw arrived in Glenorchy — enabling people from other stations around the area to attend.
The road between Queenstown and Glenorchy was not built until 1962 and it took a while for the boat run to be changed, she said.
Despite its name, the event is about far more than flowers, which are distributed all around the Glenorchy cemetery once the show is over.
The afternoon tea, comprising traditional club sandwiches and pikelets with jam and cream, is almost as famous as the flower show itself.
There are also sections for vegetable art, crafts, baking, photography and men’s art, with school pupils heavily involved in separate categories.
Doors open at 2pm today, with the prizegiving from 3.30pm. Entry costs $5.
There is a special jubilee dinner tonight at the Glenorchy Hall from 6.
- Staff reporter
