On Saturday, rural fire brigades from all over Otago and Southland were at the Zingari Richmond Football Club in Mornington for the annual 2026 Wajax competition.
It was the first time the event, in which teams raced to complete challenges, had been held in the city for 17 years.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand rural firefighter Geena Fagan, of the Wakari Volunteer Brigade, said it was a ‘‘real good day just to have a bit of fun’’.
‘‘There’s always a surprise, a team will come out of the cracks that you don’t expect to do really well and they’ll have been practising really hard.’’
FF Fagan was competing as part of a women’s team made up of four firefighters from Wakari and Oban.
‘‘We always have quite low women’s team numbers because there’s I think just naturally less women in firefighting — this year we have two women’s teams.
FF Fagan said rural firefighting was interesting as you never knew what you were walking into, whether that be a wildfire or a weather event.
A key part of the event was assembling Wajax water pumps — a staple rural firefighting device that applied high pressure to low water volume for maximum efficiency ground-fire suppression.
While still occasionally used now, the pump ‘‘backpack’’, which was carried into fires, has been superseded by fire chasers and four-wheel-drive vehicles.
The competition had run for 52 years, the biggest and longest-running in New Zealand.
‘‘We won’t be here for a while, I’d say, but I don’t think anyone’s letting us get away with 17 years again,’’ FF Fagan said.
Next year’s event would be held in Te Anau.
