Pig Hunt a success despite heavy rain
Left: Prize for Heaviest Boar went to Lockie McLellan (left) and Ollie Haldane (right). In the middle is Ollie’s dad Robert Haldane, who carried the pig out. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
Collingwood Tavern was packed with Swanndri-clad hunters and tellers of tall tales last Sunday afternoon for the annual Pig Hunt competition.
Twenty-four teams, nine individuals and 13 kids entered in classes that covered heaviest boar, red deer, fallow, goat, possum, hare and duck, and “most hares”, all of which had to be procured from around the district in the three previous days.
Taking out the $150 prize for heaviest boar were Ollie Haldane and Lockie McLellan of Bainham. Unfortunately Lockie had to go over the Hill on the Friday they were scheduled to go hunting, so Ollie’s father Robert Haldane was recruited to carry out the 70.5kg gutted carcass, which included getting it back over the temporary swingbridge on James Road. Ollie said their trophy, which came from “up the valley”, took about three hours to score.
“The conditions were really wet and slippery, but our three dogs finally got hold of it in a steep gully. I used my knife to stick it. Dad should really get the prize though for carrying it all the way out.”
Paul Sangster awarded 57 sponsored prize bags along with the top cash prizes before the game was auctioned, with all proceeds going to the Joan Whiting Rest Home. Prices paid for the takeaway carcasses ranged from $30 to around $60.
Mark and Wendy Strange, who organise the pig hunt (along with Vicky McLellan) from the tavern, said competitors had a difficult weekend getting their entries because of the bad weather.
Explained Mark: “It didn’t put them off though; there are some real hard-core hunters out there, and they came up with the game.”
He said this was the was the fourth year the competition had been held at Collingwood. “Years ago we uses to have a deer hunt competition but that sort of faded out. This one involves a lot more people and includes the kids, who can bring in their hares and possums.”
One thoroughly entertaining section of the competition was Carry The Pig, which involved tying a 50-odd-kg (average weight) gutted pig on your back while running a circuit around the outside of the pub as qiuickly as possible, a typical time being around 30 seconds. Kids used a smaller but still comparatively weighty pig in their competition across hay bales on the pub lawn.
Pig hunt competitions are now well-established events around rural New Zealand pubs. The Owen River Tavern was the first pub in the country to introduce a pig and deer hunting competition back in 1984. This June they’ll be staging their 27th Community Pig Hunt, a three-day competition that attracts considerable sponsorship and some $5,000 in cash prizes. Last year, the pigs at the Owen River competition averaged around 57kg, while this year in Collingwood the average pig entered was 52kg.
Results: Heaviest boar: 70.5kg - Ollie Haldane and Lockie McLellan. Heaviest red deer: 64.5kg – Mark and Kade Nicholls. Heaviest fallow deer: 48.2kg – Dylan and Jamie Soper. Heaviest goat: 30.6kg – Jordon Muru. Heaviest possum: 3.4kg – Cullum McLellan. Heaviest hare: 4kg - Renee Peters. Most hares: 17 – Brett, Steve, Jordon.
Gerard Hindmarsh
