Seven-year-old RUBY ROMANO and friends trek into Canterbury’s hill country to hunt for deer, pigs, rabbits and possums as often as they can. Ruby shared her success at a recent hunting competition with Family Times and told us what she loves about hunting.
In July, Lincoln Young Farmers held their annual hunting competition, a popular event on Canterbury’s hunting calendar. Well supported by local sponsors, the event offers open and junior categories with some fantastic prizes.
Kids compete for heaviest possum, heaviest trout and most rabbits or hares. There’s even a prize for the heaviest mouse! Ruby and her friends joined the throng of kids (and adults) getting in on the action.
Tell us about the competition, ruby?
We stayed in the long hut at Lake Sumner. It has lots of bunks in it, so I got to sleep with all my friends. During the day, we got lots of possums, pigs, rabbits, trout and three deer.
As a team, we needed to enter a rabbit, a possum and a trout. The easiest things to get were the possums, but the hardest was the rabbit because there weren’t many rabbits around.
Depending on what we are hunting, we have to get up early in the morning or go out late at night after dinner. It’s usually pretty cold, but we wear warm hunting clothes, so we are warm enough. It is always warm in the truck and hut, though.
We won some cool prizes at the competition! I got a hunting knife, and my friend Katelyn won a prize for the heaviest trout.
What do you like most about going hunting?
I like going in the truck and looking for deer, pigs and rabbits with my binoculars. I enjoyed learning how to shoot the gun with Dad and spending time and playing with my friends. I also like sleeping on the bunks and having discos with my friends at night.
I always look forward to going hunting with my dad. I like going up to our hut, too.
