Former Northland rural report broadcaster Goldie Wardell recently told the Otago Daily Times that he started the expression after stumbling across a farmer and his wife moving cows and household items back in the 1980s.
“I thought of Gypsies, packing up their home and moving to another farm. It was a sight I’ll never forget, but also one you used to see many times,” he told the newspaper.
The next day on the wireless, Wardell described the scene and said Moving Day or Sharemilkers’ Day could just as well be called Gypsy Day. It stuck, and it spread. However, today the politically correct prefer to call it Moving Day.
