The 2022 Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust New Zealand Gold Panning Championships will be held in Alexandra at this year’s Blossom Festival in September.

On a cold Friday (July 22), three hardy souls braved the elements to pan for the element everyone will be looking for on Saturday September 24 - gold.

In preparation for this year’s event (the 13th championships), Otago Gold Heritage Trust (OGHT) members Terry Davis, Odette Hopgood and Stu Ide headed for the Shotover River to sluice out buckets of gravel used in the 2020 championships, searching for missing pellets of gold.

The gold panning champs didn’t take place last year (it was planned as part of the Arrowtown Autumn Festival) because of Covid-19 restrictions.

The 12kg buckets of gravel are “salted” with between 5-12 pellets of gold and competitors are judged on how fast they sluice their gravel and how many pellets they find. 

There are always some missed in the buckets, so last week’s sluicing was an exercise in finding the golden pellets in time for this year’s event. 

Stu, a semi-retired watchmaker in Queenstown, makes any replacement pellets required, with gold donated by the Gold Shop in Arrowtown. He estimates close to 20 percent of the original 2,413 pellets were lost in the 2020 event.

Stu and his daughter Megan competed in the 2017 World Gold Panning Championships in Germany, along with local resident (and German) Michael Cox. The trio won a gold medal in the three-person event.

“It was extremely special to compete with my daughter and a delight we brought the gold medal home. It had never been done before and hasn’t been done since,” Stu said.

The gold panning champs are one of a range of family-friendly challenges organised by the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust.

Entries for the championships open from late August, and more information is available Here.