The Oamaru Volunteer Fire Brigade mascot, and wags, arrived safely at Queenstown for the United Fire Brigades National competitions recently. In the above photo, the mascot was handcuffed to Donkey, so neither could get lost. That's the theory. In this photo one of the wags has retrieved both from a young woman who had the audacity to run off with the pair. She was unceremoniously tackled and mascots retrieved. But if you look closely, another threat looms in the shape of a very fit looking member of the Queenstown Fire Brigade. Despite a good tackle, the mascots stayed in the possession of the wag. However the mascots were injured in some way, and were taken to a nearby ambulance, which did a circuit with lights flashing and siren wailing. I have not had an update of the condition of the pair.This incident, and a few others like it, were light relief in what was quite an intense contest over two days at Queenstown. Parts of seconds separated the teams as they put into practice months of training to get faster, more accurate, and more efficient. The fastest time does not always win, as penalties are dished out for not doing the 'run' exactly as the instructions say. Favourites Kaitangata incured time penalties on the first four of their events, and this put them in a position of being too far back to get close at the end. They had some amazing times though.
Though many of the trophies were taken by many different teams, the overall winner was the team from Carterton. This team was good to watch as they did everything in an unhurried fashion, and I believe they incured only one time penalty during the two days. Close second was a very slick team from Silverdale.
After two days photographing this contest, I feel very confident that our Volunteers are among the best, and I have every confidence they would do the right thing if asked. Don't try to put it out yourself, ring 111.
