Catching the hare was no mean feat for left, Reginald Sialemisa and Kian Te Kahika over the weekend for the Mohaka hunt.
Catching the hare was no mean feat for left, Reginald Sialemisa and Kian Te Kahika over the weekend for the Mohaka hunt.
Father’s Day was celebrated in style on Sunday at the Mohaka Marae Hunting Competition.
This year the weather gods were on the hunters’ side and high winds on Saturday night were the only challenge for the marae fundraiser before the final day of hunting on Sunday.
Now in its secondyear, the trustees were thrilled to see entry numbers more than double on last year with 71 juniors scouring the hills for possums, hares, goats and turkey gobblers from Friday after school until final weigh-in on Sunday afternoon.
The heaviest boar comp attracted 41 entries from Waikaremoana to Te Karaka and across the Wairoa district.
Ava Swann with her mighty Cricklewood Road goat head.
Families set off in pursuit of three different critters and found possums plentiful but hares a little more challenging for the average weight competition.
Treasurer Tessa Taurima was busy inside the big tent during weigh-in, and said it was about bringing the people back to the marae, their main goal since coming on as marae trustees.
She acknowledged generous support from many organisations including the meat gifted by Ngāti Pahauwera Development Trust for the barbecue and loan of two gazebos and district-wide sponsorship from businesses for the prize table with spot prizes too.
A hangi was the finishing touch at 4pm, following 50 venison burgers, seven loaves of bread for the sausage sizzle, hot chips, and three fast food chefs preparing and serving the hunger busters all afternoon.
Sophie Geary, who led the competition for most of the afternoon with her Awamate boar, finished second.
Pig hunt organiser, boar weigh-master, and MC Gerald Taurima said it was also about supporting the whānau enjoying catching things.
“When we took on the children events, that’s when the numbers picked up.
“With my nieces and nephews, we were up until 2am this morning hunting for possums and hare and we came back with three possums.
Emmy Thornton with her trio of wild animals won the average weight competition for hare, turkey and possum.
“A lot of people struggled to find the hare and you needed a possum, turkey and a hare to enter the average weight.”
Other junior categories were catching the heaviest possum, hare or turkey or a goat head with the widest point to point.
Taurima said they would need a bigger team and more scaffolding to include deer in the hunting comp.
The heaviest possum place-getters at Mohaka Marae on Sunday, left, Jack Swann, Felix Verner and Awa Swann.
By early afternoon on Sunday there were 9kg turkeys, possums, hare and goat heads labelled and weighed, and a large gathering of supporters and hunters, catching up and sharing their stories before prize-giving or keeping an eye on the game arriving.
A 60.7kg pig from Te Karaka caught by Shaun Light topped Sophie Geary’s 57.6kg boar caught at midnight on Saturday on her Aramawha Farm at Awamate for first prize in the boar section.
While the year 12 Woodford House student was making the most of a long weekend at home in Wairoa, others had a long trip home with their boar packed with ice or wild fare destined for the freezer or the hinaki and a host of new food gathering memories and flash bush gear, if they were prize winners.
