Snow Farm really goes to the dogs
The howls and barks of excited sled dogs filled the early morning air at the Snow Farm at the weekend.
The Nutro Wanaka Sled Dog Festival drew 36 contestants and up to 120 dogs.
It was organised by Sarah Campbell from the Southern Regions Sled Dog Club and involved about 100 people, including supporters and officials.
Dogs and mushers prefer racing early, when conditions are cold, hard and fast. Races started at the crack of dawn and were over by 8am.
‘‘We are real early birds. It’s been a really good three days of racing,’’ Campbell said.
‘‘We’ve had mushers come over from Australia and also a few teams came down from the North Island.
‘‘All up, there were 36 across a range from six dog teams down to one dog and a skier . . . Just in general, it was a pretty relaxed atmosphere.’’
The Snow Farm hosted the first Wanaka Sled Dog Festival in 1991 and it has been an annual event since 1993.
Overall honours went to longtime stalwarts of the sport, David Fitchett of Christchurch (six dog teams over 8.5 kilometres) and John Pinney of Dunedin (one and two dog ski-jor teams over 4.5 kilometres).
The small Australian contingent included mushers, Tony Greenway and Darren Watson, who came early to train with loaned New Zealand dogs rather than import their own animals.
The overall results were drawn from places achieved on each day of racing, with some mushers choosing to race different com- binations of dogs on different days.
Both Greenway and Watson did well in their races, with Greenway securing two third places and a fourth, and Watson taking a first, second and third, Campbell said
Campbell said the transTasman rivalry was a festival highlight, ‘‘including the Aussies losing the Bledisloe Cup’’.
The event is the only opportunity New Zealand mushers have to get out on snow with sleds and skis. Normally, racing is done on dry land in forests using wheeled rigs and scooters.