More than 80 Land Search and Rescue volunteers have put their skills to the test in a regional competition to see who will take out this year’s Tautuku Cup.

LandSAR teams from across Southland and Otago put their best teams forward on Saturday to see who was the best of the best for the 2023 competition.

As the event was hosted by the previous year’s victor Stewart Island/Rakiura Land Search and Rescue, this competition took place in Oban, the only town on the island.

Teams were invited from across the region, but the winners for last year’s Harris Trophy from Canterbury were also invited to compete against their Southland rivals.

Katie Brennan, the group support officer for New Zealand Land Search and Rescue for the Southern Region, said this year’s event was round-robin style with field teams being put through their paces to show off their abilities in fire making, first aid, stretcher carrying, radio communications and portable repeater set up, observation and compulsory pack checks.

Incident management teams were also challenged with a scenario, setting up a search response for a missing tramper at Māori Bay.

They were tested in the way they followed the processes, worked together, kept time-logs, gathered intelligence and more, she said.

While they all gave it their best, the overall winners were the Dunedin LandSAR team taking out the Tautuku Cup.

Fiordland LandSAR wasn’t far behind, nabbing second place on the podium, and the Canterbury group from Oxford also managed to make their make, taking out third.

Brennan said it was a great day filled with healthy rivalry between the teams, with groups getting to show off their skills in a friendly competition without the usual concerns of a real SAR scenario.

”It’s a good thing for the teams to look forward to each year, good for training and all the rest of it,” Brennan said.

”There was only positive feedback, smiles throughout the day, they were happy to be there for sure, showing off.”

After the challenge of the competition wore off, the groups gathered together for a large Stewart Island style barbeque being put on for the competitors at the end of the day, Brennan said.