The disappearing Ngaruroro River at the Chesterhope Bridge, just north of Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
The disappearing Ngaruroro River at the Chesterhope Bridge, just north of Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hawke's Bay duck shooters had to be in the right place at the weekend as the drought hitting the region affected their annual recreation.
While there were reports of shooters getting their limit bags in both the wetter northern Hawke's Bay and drier central and southern Hawke's Bay, maimai standson former popular spots such as Poukawa, south of Hastings, and Lake Whatuma, near Waipukurau, were empty, as were the wetlands themselves.
It did mean fewer shooters, and police reported few issues, although pellets were reported to have hit a house in Farmlet Rd, near the Karamu Stream, east of Waipatu. That incident was reported on Saturday afternoon.
The rain farmers and hunters had hoped for did not come, leaving both groups still keenly watching the forecast in what is the most restricted duck shooting region in the country.
Having opened on Saturday, the season is limited in Hawke's Bay to four weeks, ending on June 21, with bag limits of eight mallard or grey ducks and six paradise ducks, which compares with nine weeks in parts of the South Island and limits of 25 birds.
Revealing no details about the spot he and friends have visited in Northern Hawke's Bay for as many as 15 years, he said most or all of his group had shot their bag.
Central Hawke's Bay farmer David Poulton went out with his two teenaged sons to the dams on the farm southeast of Takapau, the boys shooting close to their limits, but it wouldn't have been as good an opening for some others, he said.
Blair Slavin, who usually shoots at Lake Whatuma, said: "You can put me down as a big failure."
He headed for Kereru, west of Hastings and got two ducks, and mused: "One thing about getting the first weekend out of the way is it's a week closer to the start of the next duck shooting season."
With fewer dams, ducks were more limited to areas where lakes and dams still had water. "The drought is good and bad for duck shooting," he said.
A Metservice meteorologist said there was no effective weekend rain in the drought areas.
By late today, most areas from Napier south had still had less than half the May average with little expected in the last week of the month – the seventh month in a row of below-average rainfall.
A maimai high and dry and empty at Poukawa. Photo / Paul Taylor
At Hawke's Bay Airport and in Hastings, January-May rainfall of about 120mm was barely a third of average and, on the Takapau Plains, about 160mm had fallen this year, about half of the traditional average for the period.
MetService was forecasting some showers, clearing to finer weather late tomorrow,before a southerly change which would be followed by more fine weather heading into the three-day Queen's Birthday weekend.
Meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree said: "We've got a complete low system moving across the country which will be spreading rain across most of the North Island, with rainfall expected to start from Sunday evening."
"For the remainder of the week, it is going to be mainly cloudy as we shift to a southerly flow – which is going to bring in some more showers."
"Unfortunately as the system is coming in from the west, the ranges provide a lot of sheltering from the bulk of the rainfall," she said.
"It is probably going to be a little bit more than any recent shower activity that has been seen over the region, but it will still not be enough to bring the relief that farmers want."
Federated Farmers Hawke's Bay president Jim Galloway said while rain might be forecast, farmers won't be celebrating any time soon.
"With what I've seen, there might be 10mm if you're lucky, which could green things up but it's not growing any grass to make a significant difference," he said.
"If you look across a paddock, it can look green, but if you stand in there and look down, all the green is small bits of wispy grass with mostly brown bits in amongst it – there's not any significant feed value in that."
Galloway added: "We've got a long way to go before we get out of the drought."
