Museum's year of the bloke

Part of the new "bloke's display" at the Waimate Museum features fishing and hunting, but it appears the women are having the most success. Photo by David Bruce.

This year, the museum, in the town's historic 1879 courthouse, is staging a "Year of the Bloke" and has started off with an exhibition put together by the Waimate Rod and Gun Club.

The exhibition, which occupies all of the main courtroom, features fishing, duck shooting and hunting, although some of the duck and geese decoys will disappear once the duck-shooting season starts.

Museum administration officer Charissa Newton said the blokes' theme came after the main courtroom was cleared for the making of a film.

While aimed at blokes, some of the exhibits feature women who appear to be doing better than their male counterparts - one is about to net a rainbow trout while the other has whitebait swimming into her net.

Artificial riverbanks, rivers and ponds have been created for the display.

There are displays of old fishing lures and reels, cane rods in contrast to modern graphites, large stuffed trout and historic photographs of local people with their catches.

One eye-catching item was a Fisherman's Crying Towel.

The exhibition took about 120 hours to put together and runs until May.

That will be followed by "Men's Hobbies" in June to August, then the "Waimate 50" in September to November, featuring cars and vehicles to coincide with the Waimate 50 car race which used to be held in Waimate.

A book sale is also planned from today to Thursday in the Machinery Hall, Innes St, to raise funds for operating costs.