Masterton is buzzing with the country's premier shearing show, the Golden Shears, set to start on Wednesday.
The Wairarapa town is jam-packed with more than 600 contestants and thousands of visitors there for both the Golden Shears and the world shearing and wool handling championships, starting on Thursday.
Doug Laing, of Shearing Sports New Zealand, says the New Zealanders are favourites to take the world machine shearing and wool handling titles, with contestants from southern Africa expected to dominate blade-shearing.
He says some in-form favourites have also emerged for the premier Golden Shears contest, the open shearing final, after regional competitions leading up to this week.
He says New Zealand's machine shearing representatives, John Kirkpatrick and Cam Ferguson, are picked to repeat the success of the last world champs in Wales two years ago, when Ferguson and David Fagan cleaned up the individual and team titles.
Fagan, at the age of 50, will be going for his 17th Golden Shears title.
Veteran wool handler Joanne Kumeroa and her young challenger, Joel Henare, will be heading the field in that event.
Golden Shears Society president Mavis Mullins says running the two events together has had its challenges, but the combination of international and local competition should provide a good programme for visitors.
