Nurse winning shearing titles
Nelson emergency department nurse Kimberley MacLean took out the Intermediate competition at the Tapawera Shears on Saturday, shearing four sheep in less than 10 minutes.
MacLean, who is a 22-year-old full-time nurse, started shearing while studying at Motueka High School in 2016. She then kept shearing to pay her way through her nursing studies at Te Pūkenga in Nelson.
MacLean said these days she did not have much time for shearing, as she was working full-time. “I only have the opportunity to do one day a week in the woolsheds, if I’m lucky,” she said.
MacLean said her current workmates thought of her shearing passion as “hard case”, but they admired that shearing helped her come out of studying debt free.
On Sunday, she said she grew up on a small family farm and then later on started shearing for a local contractor.
MacLean said she used to play rugby, but had to stop this year as it was too hard to balance shift work with weekend sport.
Recently, she also moved close to work, to Richmond, she said. But she missed the countryside.
“Any chance I get to get some country air, I take,” she said.
The win on Saturday, in 9min 42.4sec, was her fifth intermediate win and follows six wins in the junior class over the years.
“I love doing the shows, especially supporting the local ones,” she said.
On Saturday, there were only 19 shearers competing at Tapawera, while more than 200 shearers were competing at the Taihape Shearing Sports on the same day in the central North Island, Shearing Sports New Zealand Media Officer Doug Laing said. Southland shearer Floyd Haare successfully defended the Open shearing title in Tapawera.
Tapawera shearers Timo Hicks and Emma Hodgkinson defended the senior title and the junior event respectively, Laing said.