So after an afternoon of hard work helping get Nicola’s section looking a bit neater, Don offers to take me to the local pub for a beer. Nicola offers to buy us the first round and so we all head off to the pub. She’s already told us that if there are lots of cars outside, there’s usually something going on. As Don & Nic are walking in, they ask a lady also heading in what’s happening. “Oh,” she replies, “It’s the annual Pig Hunting Club gathering!” Don heads straight out into the garden while Nic & I get seats and beers. He comes back in with the biggest grin and instructs me to go out into the garden. It is heaving outside and so I weave in and out of adults and finally spot the wild pigs hanging on a rack. It is a sensory overload both visually and smelly. I get chatting to a couple of the pig hunters who tell me that there are wild pigs all over the Coromandel and that hunting them is a way of securing the native floral and fauna. It’s the same for the possums who eat kiwi and other native bird eggs. They also tell me that it is the adults who hunt the pigs and the children hunt the possums. Adults and children are awarded prizes during the evening. This is what rural life is like. It was a really interesting & enlightening evening, and I have to say – a great deal of fun!