Mudmen

Coinciding with the contraversial removal of Riverton's rail bridge several years ago, the local estuary care group held a festival celebrating the towns most notable feature - the Jacob's River estuary. Huge kites flew, hovercraft hovered, an eight wheeled 'argo' trundled around the sand flats, yellow ducks vied for a place in the duck race and all manner of people watched the street parade as it's giant fish, wheeled yachts, piratical celebrities and assorted weird and wonderful finned, scaled and feathered participants wound their way down Palmerston street to the edge of the water, nearby to where the museum now stands. It was great fun and very well supported by people from all over Southland. Another 'estuary festival' is in the pipe-line and it will feature the oddly popular 'Mudman' race, where runners race a course that takes them out across the sands of the estuary bed at low tide, around a series of far-flung maimai, through 3 or 4 deepish channels and finally across the shelly delta to the finish line. Competition in the first year was fierce and in the second even more intense! As plans for the festival crystalise, I'll keep you informed. It might pay to get into training now, if the idea of a mud run appeals to your sense of adventure!