When the annual Carterton Daffodil Carnival begins, the crowds go down Broadway, a right turn into High Street, the pathway thick with stalls and shops bustling with visitors eager to explore, then left into Holloway Street with more stalls and food outlets.

The artistically-inclined will seek out the Big Wai Art sale, showing and selling work of local artists, while the green-fingered head for the Spring Flower Show. Emerging from the hubbub is music and the laughter of people enjoying their spring outing.

A local Carterton tradition since the 1920s is daffodil picking at Middle Run, a historic property at Gladstone. Buses leave the Nelson Street carpark every half hour on Carnival day for the ten-minute scenic trip out to the Booth farm, where the family generously makes a 7-acre paddock available to the public just once a year. There’s a brief walk up the winding drive to the mass of yellow flowers – choose your stems in return for a modest sum, proceeds to the Carterton Plunket and St John Ambulance.

The Carterton Daffodil Carnival 2009 is on 13th September. make sure you grab the chance to experience a real country fair.

The weekend after the Carnival the Lioness ladies will be selling bunches of daffodils outside Carrington House just north of the Carterton shopping area.