Dog derby brings daring downhill dash
CORONET Peak went, quite literally, to the dogs yesterday.
The final event marking the ski area’s 75th anniversary, which started on Wednesday, was the muchloved dog derby.
The hallmarks of the event were, as they should be, carnage and chaos, with a fair amount of yellow and brown snow left behind.
This year, in the ‘‘townies’’ and ‘‘kids’’ categories, dogs of all shapes, sizes, breeds and abilities were tasked with first making it up the mountain, on the Meadows Express chairlift, before getting back down the M1 — ideally, with their humans — in the fastest time.
In the kids’ category, there was a bit of sibling rivalry involved between ultimate winner, Angus Roberts (12) and his sister, Hayley (14).
Angus, with his 10yearold ‘‘mongrel’’ Cassie, looked to be physically flying down the M1, leaving the other 39odd competitors including his sister, in their wake.
It was the first time Angus had entered the dog derby, and he employed a simple technique: ‘‘Running fast.’’
For Hayley, who said she finished fourth, but may have been exaggerating ever so slightly, her descent was not by design, having come a cropper near the start.
Her pup, Brodie, then decided to take the lead and physically towed her down the course to the finish line, while she ate snow.
The derby has been run for about 50 years — many of those as part of the former Queenstown Winter Festival — and there was an extra challenge for those who entered in the ‘‘country’’ class.
Along with a longer run downhill, having headed up on the Coronet Express, before crossing the M1 finishline owners had to whistle their dogs through markers on the skifield, resulting in immediate disqualification for anyone who could not, or would not, complete the task.
Coming in third place was Southland MP Joseph Mooney and his 4yearold German shepherd, Schatzi.
He entered the country category because he felt like a longer run, not realising there was a whistling component — something Schatzi had not learnt to understand.
Despite giving her some ‘‘directional assistance’’ around the flags, Mr Mooney still made the podium at the end of the day.
Ski area manager Nigel Kerr said the event was ‘‘absolute chaos’’.
‘‘Anything less would be a fail.’’
The dog derby finished at Cargo at Gantley’s in Arthurs Point yesterday afternoon with the dogbarking event, in which dogs must bark on command.
If the dogs failed, their humans had to bark on their behalf.
The 75th celebrations, which included Katchafire playing a free concert during last Wednesday’s night skiing, a straight skis race, dash for cash, long lunch and an alumni function, had been ‘‘particularly hectic, but really rewarding’’, Mr Kerr said.
‘‘Everything we’ve tried to do, we’ve done; everything has been really popular.’’