The competition - known informally as the Mainland Muster - was run by the Central Otago Archers, which alternates hosting rights with the Canterbury Archers' Society and the South Westland Bowhunters Club in Harihari.
It was held at the Lake Hawea Holiday Park on Saturday and yesterday and attracted 60 competitors from Dunedin to Motueka, ranging in age from 10 to 75.
Competitors shot at life-size animal decoy targets from various positions on the park's tree-covered grounds. Central Otago Archers chairman Glenn Sherson, of Wanaka, said the aim was to recreate ''realistic hunting shoots'' for competitors.
''You might have to duck down to shoot under a tree, you might have to come up over the tree, so it's not just standing in a field shooting.''
Most, but not all, of the entrants had a hunting background.
''A lot of women don't want that sort of thing, so to them it's a bloodless hunt.''
While there was an increasingly high proportion of modern compound archery equipment being used at the annual event, there were still plenty of experienced competitors who preferred a more traditional approach, Mr Sherson said.
He made his own laminated bows and was using one at the weekend made of rewarewa, Tasmanian blackwood and bamboo.
Rakaia archer Charlie Officer brought his handmade rata flatbow and wooden arrows inside a fallow-deerskin quiver, while Owen Payne, of Christchurch, had a traditional English longbow, crafted by a friend in Canterbury, England.
The last South Island Bowhunters Championships hosted in Central Otago was three years ago in Cromwell.
Winners of the event
Sighted compound: Men, Jim Searle, of Christchurch; women, Carlene Cram, of Wanaka. Barebow compound: men, John Davidson, of Harihari; women, Maureen Davidson, of Harihari. Longbow traditional: Men, Lindsay Malloy, of Harihari; women, Magdalena Fassl, Austria/Wanaka. Longbow open: Men, Jacob Greenlaw, of Christchurch. Recurve: Men, Paul Edwards, of Christchurch; women, Glencora Blair, of Christchurch. Junior compound, Luca Georgalli, of Wanaka; junior traditional, Jahnaan Hodson, of Lake Hawea.
