The decision was made at an A&P Society meeting on Monday night, with particular concerns vehicles would struggle to get in and out of the showgrounds of Ruataniwha Rd, particularly with more rain forecast for Friday and Saturday when the show had been scheduled to take place.
As a result of the damage from the cyclone two years ago, the show’s sheepdog course remains unusable, leading to an early decision not to go ahead with the trials this year.
The continuing wet since early December led to a decision last week to cancel the show’s rodeo, for safety reasons and vehicle access difficulty, and on Saturday the Wairoa Shears committee, worried the sheep trucks could get bogged in the showgrounds, decided to shift its events.
With showjumping events unable to take place, equestrian events, previously staged over at least three days, are to be held this year on Saturday only.
“Unfortunately, the grounds are too wet to run the remainder of the show,” said society event manager Alice Wilson, who was on Tuesday faced with having to contact sponsors, exhibitors and competitors to tell them of the abandonment of the show, part of the fabric of northern Hawke’s Bay since it was first held in 1899.
It was also too late to run a street-fair alternative – which requires several months’ planning – as was done last year.
Wilson said some thought was given to it, but the committee did not want to separate events – “because it’s not what we’re about” – and she hoped the community would turn out for the shearing.
The cancellation of the show is a devastating blow to the society, which has had other catastrophes in recent years, including a near-washout in 2010, when the shearing was moved at the last minute to a woolshed outside the town, and trade-display tractors were put to use hauling horse floats and other vehicles out of the quagmire.
The lost revenue, re-sowing the grounds and other repairs were financially crippling for the society, but the 2023 cyclone was even worse, with buildings flooded and damaged, trees downed and hectares covered in silt.
The society pavilion is still out of action, but another re-sowing of the grounds had them “looking a picture” in recent weeks, Wilson said.
The cancellation is also part of a continuing series of blows to Wairoa apart in addition the impacts of the weather that included the loss of its annual horse races in rationalisation of the racing industry nationwide.
The Wairoa Racing Club races date back more than 140 years and were last held in 2020.
The club’s Te Kupenga course survived mainly unscathed in the cyclone and club president Paul Toothill, while still battling to get the races back, hopes the facilities can be developed to become the district’s events centre.
Part of the showgrounds is also being considered as the path for a flood spillway for the river that winds around the grounds.
Mayor Craig Little, a past president of the Wairoa A&P Society and whose own history with both big events dates back to preschool days, described the latest cancellation as “so sad”, for both the district and an active committee that had worked hard to get the facilities “back into shape”.
“It’s just another good thing that’s not happening,” he said. “They are the big events for the whole district, the whole family would be out,” he said. “We used to go every year. No matter who you are or where you’re from, they are the events that bring the community together.”
Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today and has 51 years of journalism experience, 41 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues and personalities.
