Starting at Queenstown’s Village Green this Sunday, the local Rotary club’s long-running charity duck race — of the plastic rather than feathered variety — takes off again from about 2.45pm.

First on the bill is the corporate duck race, followed by the public duck race, with ducks racing down Horne Creek to Queenstown Bay.

Rotary’s race organiser Tim Wilshire says the race will raise at least $10,000, which will be divvied up between the Queenstown and Arrowtown volunteer fire brigades.

There will be about 45 corporate ducks including a record nine jumbo ducks for which business were billed $450 each.

Members of the public can also buy ducks on the day, from the Village Green, from 1pm, for $10 a pop.

“We’ve got at least 10 really good prizes,” Wilshire says, with some being presented in the ‘best-dressed’ category.

“Sometimes you think, ‘is there going to be a year where it’s just not as popular’, but it seems more popular this year than even last year.”

— PHILIP CHANDLER