This weekend - for the 40th and final time - motorbike enthusiasts will head to Central Otago's Ida Valley for the annual Brass Monkey Rally.
Since 1981, the event has been held every Queens Birthday Weekend on Ken Gillespie's farm in Oturehua.
In the past, the Brass Monkey Rally attracted large crowds (up to 5,000 people in 1991) but numbers have been dropping over the last few years, Ken tells Jesse Mulligan.
Not so the age of the people who run the rally.
"The same people who were organising it 40 years ago are still organising it. I'm not saying we're getting old but it's not as easy as it used to be."
The rally is a chance for motorbike enthusiasts to check out all kinds of bikes and simply hang out, Ken says.
"Riders come from all over the country, most people arrive on the Saturday… It's a great meeting point. Come and have a yarn and a quiet little dram. Listen to the band at night by the bonfire… we have quite a fireworks display. Then on the Sunday move towards riding back home again."
Temperatures can be "brisk" for June camping in the Ida Valley - at one Brass Monkey it was minus-15 - but this year Ken has mulched the grass on the rally site to make it softer for tent pegs.
Over the years, the Brass Monkey has been "very, very kind" to the local community, Ken says.
Past takings have enabled a new catering shed on the rally site, renovations for the canteen at the Idaburn Dam, new tennis courts and a roof for the swimming pool.
"As a community, we haven't really had to put our hands in our pockets."
Although the Brass Monkey Rally is coming to an end, the Ida Valley is still worth a visit, Ken says.
There's the historic Hayes Engineering Works and Homestead, Gilchrist's Oturehua Store (which has been trading since 1902) and In the wintertime ice skating and the curling on the Idaburn Dam.
