Earlier this week the council announced it had cancelled its annual New Year’s Eve celebrations in Wānaka and Queenstown, and now more local annual events have also been dropped from the calendar.

The Wānaka Rodeo Club will not be hosting its annual rodeo event on January 2 and the pin has been pulled on the annual Hāwea Picnic Races usually held on December 28.

Both events attract thousands of spectators but under the new Orange traffic light setting all attendees would have to be vaccinated and their passes checked otherwise the event would be limited to only 50 people.

Hāwea Picnic Races committee chair Paul Cunnigham said the committee was “devastated to make this decision” but believed there were “far too many uncertainties to carry on”.

The fun of the children’s athletic events at the Hāwea Domain will not occur this year as the Hāwea Picnic Races has been cancelled. PHOTO: Wānaka App

About 10 years ago, heavy rain on race day forced a cancellation, but that’s the only other time in the event’s 70 year history it  hasn’t run, Paul said. It’s made the committee “all the more determined to get the event back up and running next year”.

The rodeo, one of the biggest in the national rodeo circuit, has been a New Year fixture for decades but the Wānaka Rodeo Club also decided not to proceed with its regular rodeo on January 2, 2022.

Wānaka Rodeo Club president Hunter Morrow said it was a tough decision to make not only for the rodeo contestants who come to Wānaka from all over the country and support local businesses, but also for the local charitable organisations which depend on the annual rodeo for fundraising opportunities.

There were too many unknowns, he said: Uncertainty about extra costs which will be incurred, particularly if stock transport costs couldn’t be shared with other South Island rodeos which have already cancelled their events; unease regarding managing the vaccination pass; and concerns that Covid fears would reduce the numbers through the gate, potentially making the rodeo financially unviable.

With all the uncertainties it was thought the club would be better to take a break in 2022 and build up the club’s reserves instead through fundraising activities, he said.

“Our intention is to take the year off and return with the best Wānaka rodeo ever on January 2, 2023, which also marks our 60th year.”

And, like the rodeo and the races, the annual Ruby Swim event held in January each year, which usually attracts around 500 swimmers plus spectators, has also been cancelled. 

Ruby Swim co-director Eddie Spearing told the Wānaka App that running The Ruby next year in the current regime was “in the too hard basket”.

He said the new traffic light system with its mandate that all attendees at large events must be vaccinated “makes it way harder” to organise the event, police it and fund it.

“It’s all a s**t show at the moment,” he said.

None of the three events qualified for the government’s events transition support scheme, which underwrites large scale summer festivals (5000 + ticket holders), like Rhythm & Alps, if the Covid-19 pandemic forces cancellation.