The Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club has raised $25,000 for local charities following their very successful Melbourne Cup Long Lunch.

Tauranga Women's Refuge and local surf lifesaving clubs Mount Maunganui, Omanu, and Papamoa will all split the amount raised by the fundraiser.

About 400 people participated in November fundraiser at ASB Arena, which was sponsored by Duncan & Ebbett, McFall Fuel and TravelCom.

Attendees sampled delicious food, plenty of beverages, and bid on a bevy auction items, both silently and in a grand live auction hosted by Frank Vosper of Vosper Realty. This was all on top of the race itself, with its very close finish.

It is the second year the club has hosted the successful event.

Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club president Evan Turbott says it's their second major fundraiser, along with the air show at Classic Flyers.

'The ladies dressed as if they were going to the Melbourne Cup races, as did a lot of the men. There were prizes for best dressed, so it had quite a race day feeling to it.”

He says the club thought this year's charities were very worthy of support.

'People came from the surf lifesaving clubs months ago to make their presentation, which helped us decide to give some money to them. It was the same with Women's Refuge.

'I can say with certainty the surf lifesaving clubs don't receive any support from central or local government. They're entirely reliant on fundraising. And Women's Refuge is desperately short of funds – they need to raise around $10,000 a month.”

Last Thursday the cheque was handed over to representatives from the charities, who will no doubt put it straight to good use.

Now, the club's looking forward to doing it all again next November.

From left: Omanu SLSC's Michael Sharp, Mount SLSC's Maria Stockman, Tauranga Women's Refuge's Angela Warren-Clark and Papamoa SLSC's Andrew Hitchfield.