Country Sports Meeting in the Real Outback

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In one of the most beautiful settings imaginable: the Waipaoa Station sports meeting in progress, with the Waipaoa River at left, the station buildings on the flat adjacent to the river, and the Baukumara Range and Mount Arowhana in the background.

Country sports meetings are an institution in the Gisborne district. Almost every centre holds its annual gathering, featuring items such as chopping, dancing, children's races, perhaps a baby show, and a comprehensive programme of horse jumps and races. On a beautiful Saturday morning last month "Photo News" set out to attend one of the smallest, most interesting, and most colourful of them all --the annual sports meeting of the Waipaoa Station, largest station in New Zealand (not in area but in head of stock carried), way back up the Waipaoa River behind Whatatutu.

Waipaoa Station is a community in itself, with its own school, its own way of life. In the warm autumn sunshine, on a rare patch of flat land adjacent to the station's airstrip, high above the big river, we found the whole of the station's population, plus neighbours and visitors from down-river, assembled for the big day. Cars were lined up round the field, on which four jumps and poles for bending and stock races were set up. In the trees nearby, the Maoris had kumaras, potatoes, marrow, and pork cooking under big earth mounds. The pictures on these and the next three pages show the scene as the "Photo News" camera found it.

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Horses and riders try their skill in stock horse race

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The "nag line" waiting for the next event

Remaining pictures on this page show some of the junior competitors in action in one of the jumping events. To a youngster living in these parts, riding horses is as natural as breathing, but a lot more exciting:

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Among the spectators: Messrs Matheson, McGregor, Moore, H. Fitzgerald, F. Fitzgerald, and Harris.

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Mr and Mrs McNeil, Whatatutu, Mrs Brown, Tauranga, and Mrs Fitzgerald.

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Appetites were keen by dinner-time, when the earth was shovelled away and the steaming baskets of food, cooked to a turn, were uncovered.

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No sports meeting at Waipaoa Station would be complete without a hangi meal prepared in time - honoured Maori fashion. Under the big heaps of earth (above) kumaras and pork and other good things are cooking while the morning's sports pro­gramme goes on nearby.

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A basket of kumaras

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Pork chops ready for eating

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Serving the meal

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A snack while she waits