Keeping pace with a changing Wānaka is one of the things Jane Stalker loves about her job.

Twenty years of co-ordinating the Wānaka A&P Show hasn't dimmed her enthusiasm for keeping Wānaka's diverse community engaged with the annual event. 

Jane, who has been the show co-ordinator since 1997 (apart from two years in the mid-2000s), says the challenge of organising the show comes down to keeping up with Wānaka and its mentality. “You have to relate it to how Wānaka is and how it was,” she says.

Things have changed enormously since Jane's early days in the role, when the show committee comprised close to 60 people and Jane's role was to take the minutes (by hand – there were no computers) at meetings in the Luggate Hall. 

“The perception of the A&P show was a bit staid; a bit old-fashioned,” Jane says. Expectations were lower in the 1990s, she says, but that began to change eight to 10 years ago – as computers became more important, new people moved into Wānaka, and events such as the Challenge were established.

“Wānaka has changed; the whole event industry has changed,” says Jane. Over time the logistics of running the A&P show were streamlined, with fewer people on the committee and rules and regulations standardised. Meanwhile, the expectations of competitors and trade exhibitors also increased. 

“You're running it as a business now,” she says. “Every year it's changing and you can lift the bar a bit. You can't rest on your laurels.”

Some things stay the same, however. “You've got to stay within your core business,” Jane says. She quotes the show's constitution, which was written in 1933: “To provide meetings, concerts and entertainments of every description for the benefit of persons residing in the vicinity of Pembroke.”

Jane took the constitution to a lawyer a few years ago in case it needed updating and was told it was just fine. “It's great, I love it,” she says. It encapsulates everything from Mini Muscles to afternoon tea for Elmslie House visitors.

Jane calls the Wānaka A&P show – the second biggest in the South Island - “our wee show”, but she is a true Scotswoman. She hails from near Glasgow, but left to travel at the age of 19. 

In 1988 she was hitchhiking through the Cardrona Valley when she caught a lift from Cardrona identity John Lee. Jane ended up working for the Lees and that's where she met her husband Doug (a former president of the Upper Clutha A&P Society). They now have three children, the eldest, Alannah, was just a baby when Fe Howie suggested the show co-ordinator role would be a good one for Jane, who is trained as a medical secretary.

Back then, Jane “didn't know anything about animals”. Raised closer to the city than the country, she now describes herself as “a little bit town, a little bit country”.

She loves the diversity of the role, she says, and that includes the people: from farmers in gumboots to corporate sponsors in suits.

Jane believes the A&P show has kept pace with Wānaka, and she credits that to support from the committee and the office team. “I think what we do really well is we're all really passionate about it,” she says. “I'm proud the committee has made it such an iconic event.”

The Wanaka A&P Show takes place on March 10 & 11.

PHOTO: Wanaka App