Doug Laing: Three big Hawke's Bay sport, health and fitness events clash

Doug Laing

The weekend clash of three big Hawke's Bay events of overlapping appeal in the general area of health and fitness highlights the dilemma of event planners, having completed the shift from filling in the gaps in our weekends to competing against each other for survival.

Collectively, the Triple Peaks endurance event, the Relay For Life and the corporate triathlon, each well-established on the Hawke's Bay events calendar, attracted more than 2500 entries on the same weekend. By good personal planning, some may have taken part in two or more.

Add in such other events as the Napier offshore powerboat race and there were other events which didn't really get a look-in, although, to be fair, they might not have needed to. Each to their own.

The Triple Peaks, the Relay For Life and the triathlon were last year on three separate weekends, the clash this year being in part because of the desire to avoid a clash this coming weekend with the Horse of the Year Show and the now-canned Mission Concert.

To most it was a marvel the events took place with barely any impact from the storm of last week, especially given the hollering about another climatic beastie known as Cyclone Hola bearing down on us over ensuing days.

The later summer makes Hawke's Bay an events paradise — the bread and butter for the hospitality industry — but there are times when there may be just too much, which poses some problem for attracting the other big event.

For example, had there been a park available to play it on, when might the Bay have been able to slot in a big international cricket match this summer.

It is inevitable there will be clashes, but some are avoidable or the impact minimised with planning looking years ahead.

Napier Port's cruise liner schedule currently has bookings out to March 2023, just to make a point.