Christchurch eyes national sandcastle competition

Terehia Wi, 25, works her turtle sandcastle at Papamoa beach during the Sandy Walker Sandcastle Competition. Photo / Mark McKeown

A Christchurch community group has plans to launch an international sandcastle competition and to turn it into an iconic event for the city.

Christchurch city councillor Gail Sheriff will next week travel to California's Imperial Beach - 24km south of San Diego - to experience first-hand the "US Open Sandcastle Competition" over two days from August 7.

She wants to get ideas and inspiration for a similar event over three days from March 4 next year at Christchurch's Pegasus Beach, near the New Brighton pier.

"We are determined to get this right and make it a huge success," Ms Sheriff told Imperial Beach's Eagle and Times newspaper.

The Christchurch event, Sandcastles Down Under, is being planned by Pegasus Bay Charitable Trust, with Ms Sheriff representing the council on the trust. It will include a two-day competition as well as a "sandcastle ball".

The trust is hoping to invite the winners of this year's Californian competition to compete in New Zealand next March, said a spokesman for the group, Brian Keeley. He hoped the inaugural event would attract 20,000 beachgoers.

He said it was unfortunate that earlier this month the Burwood-Pegasus Community Board rejected an application from the trust for $10,250 of funding to help run the event. Three of the seven board members, including Ms Sheriff, did not vote to avoid conflicts of interest, and the vote was split 50:50, meaning the funding could not be approved.

Mr Keeley told NZPA that the group had gained some other funding elsewhere, including gaming trusts. It last year received $40,000 from the local Eureka Trust.

- NZPA