Te Kuiti’s Running of the Sheep returns

The Waitomo District Council has given the green light for Running of the Sheep to return this year. Photo / Waitomo District Council

RNZ

The popular Running of the Sheep is returning to Te Kuiti’s main street tomorrow.

Plenty are looking forward to the spectacle of hundreds of sheep running through the town as the event was cancelled last year due to health and safety concerns.

But the Waitomo District Council has given the green light for it to return this weekend as part of The Great NZ Muster, a street festival unique to King Country.

The organiser of the sheep run, and local farmer, Peter Bird, said the festival always draws a crowd - with the sheep often the highlight for many.

“Even though we’re a rural community, there’s still a lot of people that live in town or there are tourists from out of town that have never been that close to sheep.

“It’s all good fun and people often watch the running of the sheep and then go the shears as well to see the sheep being shorn as well as the handling and pressing competitions.”

Bird couldn’t say how many sheep would be running because there is a $1000 prize for the person who correctly guesses how many there are.

All he would say was that hundreds would be trucked from well-known shearing champion Neil Fagan’s farm.

“Basically, we truck the sheep into town, unload them at one end of the main street, they run halfway down where there’s a bit of a demonstration and then they carry on down the rest of the street before being trucked home again.”

The Running of the Sheep starts at 2pm tomorrow.

- RNZ