Speight's Dog Derby

The Queenstown Winter Festival ends today and it has created a really fun and lively vibe around town. I’m sad that it’s over, but there are still tons of events on the calendar. I had a little more freedom than Rachel to volunteer at some of the events up on the mountain. My favorite activity of the festival was the Speight’s Dog Derby. Speight’s is a brand of beer made in the south of NZ and their ads are reminiscent of the old Marlboro cigarette ads. Southern NZ and its inhabitants have a reputation for being extremely hardy. Speight’s beer and the Dog Derby caters to these hardy southern farmers.
Over one hundred farmers and their hard-working dogs showed up to the base of the ski mountain in their torn and tattered work clothes, as if they cut their morning work short to make it up to the mountain in time for the event. I found out later that this event served as an annual reunion for all the southern farmers, and after the day’s event they’d spend the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up at the Speight’s Ale House.
While their owners registered for the Dog Derby, the hundred or so dogs ran around marking and re-marking everything in the area, including a box of contestant t-shirts, my backpack, and a couple human legs. Once all the dogs had their numbered vests on, the chaos was ready to begin.
The Dog Derby had all 100 contestants and their dogs ride the chairlift to the summit of the ski mountain. The race started with all 200 bodies running, sliding, flailing, rolling, and tumbling down the mountain at breakneck speeds (taking out several oblivious skiers). Upon reaching the base, the owner has to stay out and instruct his dog to run 50m up the hill to a checkpoint before turning around and running back to owner. I was a judge for the finish and was told it was going to be hard, but nothing could prepare me for it.
The first few dogs and owners absolutely flew down the mountain and it was easy to track the dogs’ progress as they started creeping up the hill. However, before the first dog made it to the top, all 100 dogs were zig zagging across the hill. Keep in mind that 95% of these dogs are all basically the same breed of sheep dog and it was impossible to tell if a dog made it to the top and was on its way back down, or if it was just wandering aimlessly confused by all the whistling, calling, and barking.)
The main judges hoped that we’d be able to get accurate results approximately 30 deep, but it was hopeless. After deliberation with the other four judges, we managed to pick just the three top finishers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7RdJUD3vY

After the awards for the race down the mountain, they held the Dog Barking contest, which wasn’t nearly as exciting, but still worth mentioning. They had each dog get on a hay bale and try to bark the loudest or most unique. The funniest part was watching the normally large and proud sheep dogs nervously walk up to the bale and cower. The large audience laughing (and the sea of dogs barking their disapproval) didn’t help the stage fright. If the dog couldn’t bark under the pressure and eyes of its fellow colleagues, then the solemn farmer had to climb up on the bale and bark.

Anyway, it ended up being a really fun event and I’m glass I was thrown on that volunteer crew last minute. The festival concludes today with the annual rail jam and fireworks up on the mountain.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July!