Fire and Gold
Queenstown’s Ide family has not only produced two dedicated local volunteer firefighters, but they’re a pretty good bunch of gold diggers too.
Retired longtime local fire safety investigator Stu Ide, a volunteer firefighter for decades, senior firefighter son Mike, daughter Megan, and two granddaughters have all been going for gold at the World Gold Panning Championships held in Cromwell.
With Stu and Megan, a local schoolteacher, both former World Champions after winning their three-person event at the World Championships in Scotland in 2017, last week’s event was all about trying to reclaim their title.
Covid put paid to the world event for a few years then the Ides missed the event in Spain last year as they were busy working hard to stage the first ever NZ World Championships just finished.
However, the family all took out prizes at the NZ Championships last year.
Dad and Megan were shaping up to make the finals again late last week, while Mike’s teenage daughter Phoebe Ide, Stu’s granddaughter, a Dunedin student from Queenstown, was proving to be a force to be reckoned with as the current NZ Champion overall.
Little Hana-Kahurangi, 6, also Stu’s granddaughter and Megan’s daughter, placed second in the World Under 12s section last week. Not wanting to be beat two Ide cousins from Australia just happened to roll up for the NZ Champs Novice section while visiting last year and also got hooked by the lure of gold, Megan says. They also competed last week in the Worlds.
The Ides definitely proved tough contenders among the 150 competitors – 20 Australians, 27 New Zealanders and 17 different countries represented, at the Cromwell Racecourse, all ages very competent with a pan. It was the first time NZ had ever hosted the event.
Competitors were lined up with 16kg buckets of local gravel pre-spiked with gold flakes and set to it. They were judged on speed but if they lost a flake they were penalised, Megan says.
“It’s all about how you use your tools and equipment, how competent you are with a pan and understanding the science of how gold, water and gravel work together.
Competitors all enjoyed a grand dinner with some good Kiwi kai and kapa haka and even lined up to strut their stuff in the Alexandra Blossom Festival Parade.
The event will be held in Finland next year, but the Ides are instead aiming their focus on hitting Dawson Creek, Canada, for the 2028 World Championships.
