Easter hunt a roaring success

Tiniroto Easter Game Hunt had 488 registrations for their annual hunting competition. New rails put in during a working bee before the hunt accommodated the hundreds of animals shot on the day. All pictures by Ryan O’Sullivan, Wairoa Star

by Ryan O’Sullivan

Woolly fleeces, cool beverages and record numbers of entries and game weighed made for a successful Tiniroto Easter Game Hunt.

Celebrating their 20th anniversary, the hunt had 488 registrations with 369 animals weighed.

Of the animals weighed, 105 were stags, 48 boars, 23 goat heads, 85 possums, 44 rabbits and 64 hares.

Organisers made sure everyone at the final weigh-in and prizegiving had a good time, with an obstacle course and candy floss for youngsters, steak and pulled pork sandwiches for the adults, and over a dozen spot prizes and trophies for the prizewinners.

Rob Cameron took on the chairman role seven weeks before the hunt began, and he said the event had been a great success.

“I am someone who is always trying to improve, and I think we did that pretty well this year.

“I am stoked with how it ran and I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from people.”

Driving from Wellington to Tiniroto in the lead-up to the big day, Mr Cameron said there was about 2500 kilometres of driving in the build-up to the event.

“We had a great team helping with working bees and on the day. Behind the scenes, there was a lot of work put into the events.”

That included the introduction of a new intermediate category and creating a social media presence.

“It was good with the registrations because about 98 percent were done online.”

The organisers had a debrief the following day, and were pleased with their efforts.

“We had more rails to hook the game, a bigger venue and added a digger to move the game on to the hooks that saved a lot of manpower,” Mr Cameron said.

“We are already excited to deliver a great event for 2025.”