Fun and Highland Games in Hororata

 November sees a tradition in mid-Canterbury - the Hororata Highland Games. It's a key event on the calendar and even this Covid-spiced year things were settled enough for it to go ahead. I didn't attend this year as I didn't feel like spending the day alone there and, in fact, I had gone last year and enjoyed the colour and the grunting.

Hororata is a small town on the Plains, 50kms west of Christchurch, sometimes famous for its very yummy pies, serving the rural community. The Highland Games started in 2011. The Hororata community wanted to make a positive change following the damage of the Canterbury earthquakes. The annual event has increased in popularity with 10,000 people coming to the 2016 event. It has become New Zealand’s biggest Scottish festival.

Bring along a picnic but leave any glassware at home as it is banned. Activities to entertain you abound: Highland dancing competitions, piping and drumming, Tug O’ War and Scottish heavy athletics (men’s and women’s) which include the hammer throw,  the Hororata stones and tossing the caber - hence the grunting. It's heavy athletic work and some women enjoy competing. Many competitors drop their stones and cabers in spectacular failures.

Also at the event are merchants' stalls, wool-spinners, medievalists, Scottish geneology enthusiasts and the famous pie-eating competition. The latter was a bit odd to me. Why would anyone want to do that? With or without tomato sauce? But, like many of the activites at The Games, you can get swept up in the fun and atmosphere. Each year the event can attract up to 10,000 visitors.

Hororata has a Night Glow event around the same time. A great many hot air balloons assemble at night, lit by floodlights and hot air burners. Spectacular.