Duck-shooting has given a lot to Norman Clark.
The 85-year-old retired sheep and beef farmer from Waihola entered a mai mai for his 70th consecutive opening morning on Saturday.
He stepped into his first mai mai as a 15-year-old on a farm in Lake Tuakitoto, near Kaitangata, in 1947 and never looked back.
''I've enjoyed them all - even the season in 1956 when I shot myself.''
He was duck-shooting at a lake in Berwick, now part of the Sinclair Wetlands, when his gun accidentally discharged and tendons were torn from his forearm.