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Friday 5 August 2022
Pig hunt beats “best ever”
Hayden Trewavas, left, and Blake Delaney are presented with the Gruff Thomason Trophy for largest tusks by Bev Thomason, with Noelene Foskett in the background holding the Ian Foskett Memorial Trophy for largest boar. Photo: Rosa Volz. ROSA VOLZ
Hunter Jonny Harwood said last year that the 2021 Upper Tākaka Pig Hunt (UTPH) was the “best ever”. But he’s got an update. “Actually, this year beats it.” A large gathering at the Upper Tākaka Country Club celebrated the 25th anniversary of hunt. Says Jonny of the quarter-century milestone “This is special ... We have managed to run the event every year, including the last two years dodging Covid.” Mixed weather conditions were no deterrent to the competitors, which numbered 65 adults and 32 children. An impressive haul of carcasses required the weigh-in (manned by Geoff Trewavas and Duncan McKenzie) to work double-time all afternoon. The 2022 hunt was organised by Jonny with locals and keen hunters Cindy Rosser and Amanda Brooks, but was started by three Upper Tākaka residents, Bryce Newlove, Dave Harwood and the late Ken Sulman. Dave
explains the catalyst for the hunt was a 1994 fire in which the Upper Tākaka Tavern, aka the Rat Trap Hotel, burned to the ground. “In 1995 we got the community together and converted the public hall into the country club. The Junction Hotel proprietors Graham and Nola Drummond donated carpets and substantial funds to do up the club.” Dave explains that the club establishment was significant as Upper Tākaka had already experienced losses, with the local school closing and a reduction of 33 staff from the Cobb Hydro scheme. “It was time to create a hub for our community. It worked beautifully, with so much support from all parts of Tākaka who wanted to see us thrive.” Once the club was established, the UTPH was first held in 1998. Former participant and keen pig hunter Crowther Reynish reminisces: “We used to do all the pig hunts on foot, walking to the top of Hailes Knob followed by
a good long night [at the club]. No motorbikes or Range Rovers. I miss the pig hunting, but those hills have gotten too steep.” The two top trophies, the Ian Foskett Memorial Trophy for biggest boar and the Gruff Thomason Trophy for largest tusks, also have special significance. Noelene Foskett and Bev Thomason presented the awards created in memory of their husbands, who were very able pig hunters in the Upper Tākaka area. New hunter Damien Vickery (age 4) took out the prize for heaviest possum. Damien tells The GB Weekly: “I shot four hares and one red eye [a possum]. The nicest thing about hunting is the shooting. I went hunting on my Dad’s farm [where he works] in Kotinga.” Winner of the Biggest Red Stag category, Wendy Brooks, says it was a weekend like no other. Along with her son, Kyle Gardiner, Wendy shot and retrieved a 70.5kg stag near Murchison. Continued on page 6
TDC tackles water reform JO RICHARDS
Tasman District Council is urging a Government Select Committee to make changes to the Water Services Entity Bill – a key element of the Government’s Three Waters Reform programme. Under the proposed legislation, the drinking water, stormwater and wastewater assets of the country’s 67 councils would be assigned to four Water Service Entities ( WSEs) each governed by a Regional Representative Group (RRG) made up of local authority and mana whenua representatives, and a WSE Board made up of competency-based professionals. Controversially, the Top of the South Island (TOSI) has been assigned to WSE C, which includes Wellington and Eastern parts of the North Island, rather than included in the South Island WSE D. The council’s position on this and several other issues were laid out in a submission, dated 20 July and signed by TDC mayor Tim King and council’s chief executive Leonie Rae, to the Government Finance and Expenditure Select Committee. The formal document, approved by councillors at an extraordinary full council meeting held on 15 July, was drafted following a recent round of community engagement on the controversial topic. TDC’s engagement process included webinars and drop-in sessions to provide information to the community and create opportunities for public feedback. Turnout at these online and in-person fora, however, was low – surprising perhaps given the apparent high level of public opposition to the Three Waters programme acknowledged in TDC’s submission. It read: “Over the past two years, our mayor and councillors have received 623 emails from residents raising concerns about the reform. None of these emails were in support of the reform.” As part of its districtwide engagement process, TDC posed a series of specific questions relating to the reforms, with the aim of gathering public feedback to inform the council’s submission. Twenty-one people (none from Golden Bay) provided responses – all voicing their opposition to the proposed reforms (see Table page 2). A number of Golden Bay residents, however, made direct submissions to the Select Committee rather than to TDC. In addition to a simple yes/no answer, respondents provided further information relating to their concerns, which fell into three main categories: ... Continued on page 2
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