It is a day when all conversation takes second place to the roar of aircraft engines.
Whether it is the whirr of the New Zealand Air Force Hercules going backwards, or the high-pitched wail of the Martin Jetpack hovering, nothing to be said is so important it cannot wait until the quiet moment between routines.
The Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow is six hours of aviation on centre stage, and a long list of flying machines, old and new, took a turn in the spotlight over the weekend.
There were dogfights, aerobatics, races, landing competitions, solo performances and formation flying displays.
The modern military might have come from the United States, Australian, French and New Zealand air forces, and aviation enthusiasts provided the vintage planes, many among the few of their type still capable of flight.
The Spitfire was the star of the veterans, as always, but a generous crowd also applauded the Messerschmitt 109, flown by Englander John Romain.
Show general manager Ed Taylor said the crowd over the three days was a shade over 50,000, similar to the last show, two years ago.
He acknowledged some people travelling from Wanaka to the airport experienced lengthy delays on Saturday morning, but did not believe the problem lay with the parking arrangements for the show.
Saturday's weather had been some of the best pilots had experienced at the show, Mr Taylor said.
There was only one minor flying incident, when a P-40 Kittyhawk needed to complete an extra circuit because one of its wheels did not come down during its first attempt at landing.
It is sometimes said the difference in age between veteran planes and their pilots is not that great, but that is not the case with Bevan Dewes (22), of Masterton.
He was the youngest pilot flying the old planes.
At 18, Mr Dewes bought a half share in a 1952 De Havilland Chipmunk, and by the time he was 20 he had become the proud owner of the entire plane - worth around $120,000.
The Chipmunk was one of three in the Queen's Flight in the 1950s, still has the insignia on the cowling to prove it, and was the one in which Prince Philip learned to fly.
Mr Dewes pointed out Prince Philip was the first of the royals to learn to fly, gaining his wings in 1953, and he went on to fly 59 different types of aircraft over the next 44 years.
Air Chathams ran day trips from Auckland in its 1945 Dakota that has served New Zealand in military and civilian ways for 71 years.
Airline owner Craig Emeny said he found the plane stashed away in a hangar in Tonga in 2003.
He bought the plane and eventually brought it back to New Zealand, where it is used for charter work, mostly in the North Island.
"It's not so much about making money; it's about making enough to keep the old girl going.''
Away from the runway action, on the back of a truck, the Frankies sang wartime favourites with the drone of Harvards overhead providing a hint of the reality of entertaining troops on a busy wartime aerodrome.
And a big group known as the "war horses'' was encamped in canvas tents decorated with all the military paraphernalia of World War 2.
The Union Jack fluttered overhead, and at regular intervals, war games broke out.
Those spoken to by the Otago Daily Times agreed there were eccentrics among the warhorses, but they themselves were simply interested in preserving pieces of New Zealand's military history.
One German trooper called Jim, from Central Otago, displayed a wide assortment of German weapons. He declined to give his surname, for "security reasons'', although did let slip his wife would have preferred him to have been a collector of Allied weapons.
Meric Hoffman said he could have been back home in Dunedin playing golf or painting the house, but it was more fun dressed as an American officer, sitting in an American staff car in the sun, alongside Sally Tringham, of Blenheim, .
Dayna Wilhelmus, of Blenheim, dressed in the coarse linen of wartime working women, said she was part of a Blenheim military preservation group.
"Dressing up and looking the part just helps create the atmosphere.
"There can be some eccentrics, but most of us are just normal people who want to preserve things and make sure it's not forgotten.''
The show finished late yesterday afternoon with a noisy piece of theatre involving warbirds and explosions on the ground.
A member of the trust that runs the show said they already had a few ideas for the next show, due two years from now.
