A plucking good time

It's going to be a long night for the organisers of Whakamarama School's Possum Hunt and Family Fun Day, as they look forward to a few more hours of plucking fur off 240 possums.

Bill Adams 10, shows off his catch .Photos: Cameron Avery.

Event co-organiser Karla Pennell says it's the most possums hunted since she and the nine-strong organising committee took over the fundraising event for the first time in 2013.

'We only had 140 possums last time and we had 240 this year.”

A family loyal to Whakamarama School retrieved 46 of those pesky possums during the four-day hunt, winning the prize for the most possums.

Going by the name of the ‘Terminator Fives' the winning team, led by former pupil Jason Syme and consisting of three children who also went to the school, will have their team name engraved on this year's trophy.

On Wednesday, 15 teams headed out on a four-day hunt to capture as many possums as possible by either trapping or shooting, and brought them back for the fun day and prize giving today.

The fur of the possum is then plucked and sold, at about $100 a kilogram, with all funds going back into the school. The possum bodies are buried or taken for dog food by the hunters.

'We view it as a win-win situation because the possums are a major threat to the health and well-being of our forests,” says Karla.

Awards are handed out to the teams, with titles such as Most Possums, Heaviest Possum and the Dirtiest Vehicle up for grabs. The heaviest possum weighed more than 4.6kg and the prize for the dirtiest vehicle went to Whakamarama man Richard Corban and his team.

'We had about six entrants for the dirtiest vehicle,” says Karla.

Today's Family Fun Day invited families to enjoy fun family activities including Go-Karts, a digger experience, face painting, bouncy castles and some 'good old-fashioned fun”.

An auctioneer from Harcourt's Real Estate donated his time to auction off a few prizes too. Karla guesses about $4500-$5000 will go back into the school's pocket.

'But it's hard to know until the fur has been plucked and sold. 'For our little school it makes a big difference. We really appreciate the community get behind it.”

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