The Ekka

On Saturday, Chris and I spent the day at the Ekka. We had a really fun day experinecing one of Australia's oldest exhibitions. We started our day at 10am and didn't finish until about 12 hours later. We were tired and cold (yes, cold), but we had a great day!

We started everything off by visiting the agricultural part of the exhibition. It was fun to see all of the cows, horses, sheep and fair dinkum Aussie farmers. It sort of reminded us of home! Of course I loved the baby cows the most. One of the events I really wanted to take in was the sheep dog trials. I've never seen sheep dogs working before, so I thought it would be interesting to watch. The event was held in the main arena and it was a sight to see. It's amazing how those dogs work the sheep through the course. They are so patient and eager to get the job done.

After watching the sheep dog trials for a bit, we decided to head to the showbag pavillion. At Australian exhibitions, you can pay anywhere from $5 to $50 for these bags that are essentially what we would consider goodie bags. You can have a Nestle showbag where you get a stack of Nestle chocolates and candies, you could have a Marie Claire showbag where you'd get a couple magazines, perfume samples, coupons etc., you could even have a Winnie the Pooh showbag filled with little toys. They had showbags for everyone. Chris and I splurged and spent $3 on our Bertie Beetle showbag. It was filled with chocolate and lollies and were were told that it was the showbag to get. It was a bit disturbing though to see kids loaded up with these goodie bags. Sugar high, anyone?

Another highlight of our Ekka experience was the Strawberry Sundae cone. My mum even remembered these from when she was a little girl going to the Ekka, so I definitely wanted to get one a take a picture for her. Enjoy mum! It was a strawberry ice cream cone, but the bottom of the cone was filled with fresh strawberries. Yummy!

There were also a bunch of pavillions you could check out that had travel information, cooking ideas, merchandise, food...the list goes on! We spent a lot of time just walking around checking out the pavillions and spent even more time at the Queensland Tourism booth picking up travel pamphlets and getting ideas on places we want to visit.

There was of course your typical rides and games you would see at an exhibition, but we opted for a nausea free day and just watched people getting tossed and turned. Besides, the roller coaster looked a bit rusty and unstable.

At around 6:00pm we decided to head back to the main arena where we could watch the evening entertainment program. There was horse jumping, wood chopping, a jousting demonstration, a monster truck, freestyle dirt bikes, and fast cars. But of course, it all ended with a lovely fireworks display. After sitting for about 3 hours, Chris and I were cold, tired, and ready to head home. I would say our first Ekka experience was a success!

I took a stack of pictures, so if you want to see more, just click here.