About the competition
A community event.
A rural tradition.
And yes, we made
international headlines.
Where it Started.
The North Canterbury Hunting Competition has been part of the Rotherham community for years. It started the way most good things in rural New Zealand do, with a group of people who saw a need and decided to do something about it.
The need was simple. Rotherham School and the Rotherham Community Pool are the heart of this town. Keeping them running takes money. And a hunting competition turned out to be a pretty good way to raise it.
What began as a local event has grown into one of the most anticipated competitions on the rural calendar, drawing hunters from across New Zealand every year.
More than A competition.
Every entry fee, every sponsor dollar, every animal on the scales at weigh-in day goes toward something real.
The competition supports Rotherham School, the Rotherham Community Pool, and causes beyond. This event is run entirely by volunteers. No fat margins, no corporate backing. Just a lot of hard work from people who show up every year.
2025 Donation
$15K
Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue
Donated to the Canterbury West Coast Air Rescue Trust at the 2025 prize giving, alongside ongoing support for Rotherham School & pool.
Rotherham Community Pool
Yeah, we went global.
In 2023 we introduced a feral cat category. New Zealand noticed. Then Australia noticed. Then Ricky Gervais tweeted about us, and suddenly the whole world had an opinion.
We copped it hard. We made adjustments. And then we came back with record entries.
1,500+
Hunters who showed up the year the comp went international.
Sold out
Entries closed early. The community made its position clear.
Record
Year-on-year growth ever since. We are not going anywhere.
About the kids involved.
This is often the loudest criticism, and it’s usually the most misunderstood. Kids involved in this competition don’t learn cruelty, they learn responsibility.
They learn where food comes from.
They learn about life, death, and consequence.
They learn respect for animals, for land, and for each other.
The Bigger Picture.
This competition is not about glorifying killing. It’s about community taking responsibility where systems fall short.
It funds lifesaving services.
It supports local infrastructure.
It contributes to national conservation goals.
— openly, transparently, year after year.
You don’t have to like it. But dismissing it without understanding the context ignores the people, places, and outcomes involved.
Until rural communities are properly funded, properly heard, and properly supported, we will keep doing what we’ve always done:
Showing up.
Doing the work.
Backing our own.
On feral cats &
Predator Free 2050.
This isn’t ideology. It’s ecology.
Feral cats are predators.
They kill native wildlife at scale.
They belong on the Predator Free 2050 list.
That is not a controversial statement among people doing conservation work on the ground.
This work didn’t start with our competition and it doesn’t end with it. Pest control happens all year round, carried out by farmers, landowners, contractors, and conservation groups across the country.
The competition doesn’t create pest control. It simply acknowledges and supports work that is already happening. If the competition disappeared tomorrow, pest control would still continue, because it has to.
More than
just the hunt.
Weigh-in day at the Rotherham Show Grounds is half the reason people keep coming back. Hunters roll in from across the region with their animals, the scales get busy, and the whole community turns out to be part of it.
It is loud, it is social, and it moves fast. In past years the scales have processed hundreds of animals across pigs, deer, hares, rabbits, possums, cats and ducks. At that pace, something hits the scales roughly every thirty seconds.
Once the weighing wraps up, prize-giving kicks off. Hundreds of prizes get handed out to a packed crowd, food, drinks, music and merch for sale.
There is plenty going on beyond the scales too. Past events have included a pig-carrying competition, a guess the weight of the boar comp, and a helicopter flying over throwing lollies for the kids. It is the kind of day that is hard to describe until you have been there.
The hunt doesn’t
stop at the scales.
Something unexpected grew out of this competition. At weigh-in, hunters are given the option to donate their entered deer instead of taking them home. Those animals get processed into venison mince and delivered to food banks and community groups across Canterbury through Hunters4Hope, a volunteer run initiative.
The work has been recognised beyond the community too. Hunters for Conservation awarded Hunters4Hope a Helping Hand Grant for their commitment to providing wild venison to local food banks, with the announcement made right here at the North Canterbury Hunting Competition.
It is a reminder that the people who show up to this competition are not just here to compete. They are here because they give a damn about their community.
