Preparations for Waipū's annual Highland Games in full swing

Des McLean and his grandson Jacob McLean,12, check the cabers for the competitions at the Highland Games. Photo / Tania Whyte

The bagpipes are cleaned, the cabers checked and the tartans neatly ironed as Waipū prepares once again for one of the biggest and longest-running Scottish gatherings in the Southern Hemisphere, the Highland Games.

The New Year's Day 2020 event promises a few new features along with the traditional programme, organiser Pat Hadlee from the Waipū Caledonian Society, said.

"The preparations are going well. [Today] we will be working from dawn to dusk to set up everything. On the day, we'll have 120 volunteers helping out on site."

She said for the first time since its inauguration 149 years ago, the heavyweight competitions will have a women's section which has been "eagerly taken up" by female contestants.

The women will be competing within their own division heaving the same weights as their male counterparts.

Grant McLean marks the track for the competitions on Wednesday as preparations for the Highland Games are underway. Photo / Tania Whyte

These heavyweight events, where athletes throw 10kg Gaelic hammers and rock, or 25kg weights on short chains, trace back to the times when Scottish kings assessed the agility and physical strength of their warriors.

In the most popular category, the caber tossing, competitors lift a mighty 60kg 5.5m log in an attempt to turn it end over end in one toss.

Hadlee said Auckland's prominent heavyweight and shot putting champ Olympian Jacko Gill will join the games again after recovering from illness.

Youngsters can sign up pre-event for a new children's programme, the Kids Clan Club, to test their strength in various challenges, such as sack races, egg and spoon, and tug of war.

Jacko Gill tossing the caber in the heavyweight competition. Photo / John Stone

As for the programme for the day, piping and drumming championships start at 9am, followed by the grand entry of clans at 9.30am.

Competitions start at 10am with a lunch break at 12.30pm, followed by the Parade of Costumes at the Main Arena at 1pm.

Arena 2 will host a tug of war competition at 2.15pm and an hour later there will be a New Zealand record attempt for a farmer's walk – an exercise where an athlete carries heavyweights as far as they can.

The day finishes with a collective Ceilidh, a Scottish barn dance at the Celtic Barn at 7.30pm.

Hadlee said tomorrow's event was the big warm-up for the 150th anniversary of the Waipū Highland Games next year.

To view the full programme, visit waipuhighlandgames.co.nz

The grand pipe band march through Waipū at the 2019 Highland Games. Photo / John Stone