All Hands On Deck For Ahaura Hunting Contest

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Publication title: West Coast Farming Times, The

Entrants, visitors, local farming folk, retired hunters and families mingled as enormous deer arrived, some piled high on bloodied utes. Eels slithered onto the scales, young blokes with a hare over each shoulder made their way to the judges

And after being recorded possums, hares and pesky magpies were thrust onto a trailer bound for a local off al pit later.

Many introduced pests perished as 270 adults, 119 youths and 117 children entered the 24th Ahaura Hunting and Fishing competition over Easter weekend. And the Coast's weather was perfect, until about the time the festivities, associated with competition, finished at 8.30 on Sunday night. And then it rained.

The hard work was all done for the hunters and fishers, but the 10 strong committee, that had worked together over the past months, was still hard at it supervising the weigh ins, recording weights, labelling, and readying the 51 deer for hanging on the large Ahaura Transport's truck.

What a sight!

Hunters and fishers had been out and about since Thursday hoping for that winning trophy. Entrants came from far and wide. From Papamoa in the north, across from the Chathams, up from Southland and Canterbury and down from Nelson and Marlborough. It was Brandon Quigley of Canterbury who topped the scales, with his red deer, a 176kg stag.

"We like to focus on getting kids out into the wilds with family and friends. That's how I first got involved - shooting hares," laughed committee member, Nadine Savage.

In the children's section, Piper Soeters won with 75 hares, while Louie Parker annihilated 44 possums. In the youth section Cameron Hamil rounded up 58 possums, and Trelise Campbell topped the poll with 56 hares.

"The next competition will be in 2025. We decided a few years ago that it would be a biennial event. It's a lot to organise and it's...