Source: Radio New Zealand
Guangzhou’s Liede Dragon Boat Team is poised to participate in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta on 26 January. Supplied / Xiaoying Huang
More than 500 paddlers are poised to make a splash at the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta on Monday.
Four visiting crews from China will participate in the regatta for the first time in the event’s history.
The regatta can be traced back to Auckland’s earliest days.
The first event was held in 1840, the year the city was founded, and early programmes mixed working boats with leisure craft, including dinghies, whaleboats and Māori canoes.
According to the Auckland Dragon Boat Association, dragon boats first appeared in Auckland in the 1980s, propelled by a small group of advocates that included Olympic gold medallists Paul McDonald and Ian Ferguson.
The first major event was launched by Alan Smythe in 1988, and the sport grew quickly.
It later weathered lean years, particularly around the 2008 recession, before settling into a new phase as a mainstream community sport.
Regatta chair Bill Lomas said dragon boat racing had grown in popularity nationwide in recent years.
Paddlers compete in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta in 2025. Suellen Hurling / Lvie Sail Die
Lomas said the participation of teams from China represented a major milestone for the event.
“It’s of great significance,” Lomas said. “It’s amazing that we’re able to have teams from Guangzhou come over and paddle with us.
“A lot of Auckland paddlers are excited to compete against a pure Chinese team and to show what we’re made of here on this side of the ocean.”
Lomas said dragon boat racing in China often brought multiple generations onto the water, and he hoped Auckland could create the same kind of broad, family participation over time.
Dragon boat racing in China traces its origins to the southern region more than 2000 years ago, emerging from local rituals and contests between villages.
In competition, the boats are typically fitted with dragon heads and tails, while a drummer at the bow faces the paddlers and drives the cadence, keeping strokes timed and unified.
The sport is closely tied to the Dragon Boat Festival, held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, usually in late May or early June.
The festival commemorates Qu Yuan, a revered poet and statesman, and is marked by dragon boat races and the consumption of sticky rice dumplings.
Guangzhou’s Liede Dragon Boat Team is the first from China to join the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta. Supplied / Xiaoying Huang
What began as a regional tradition has since travelled widely.
Today, dragon boating is a mass-participation paddle sport raced in waterways around the world.
With support from the Auckland Dragon Boat Association and ShareBoating, about 50 paddlers and supporters from the Guangzhou Liede Dragon Boat Team will join the Auckland regatta.
The Liede team comes from Liede Village in Guangzhou’s Tianhe District, a historic riverside community on the northern bank of the Pearl River with more than 900 years of history.
Rooted in local river and village tradition, the team is widely regarded as one of Guangzhou’s leading community dragon boat crews.
Wayne Huang, chief executive of ShareBoating, said the visit represented a cultural milestone for Auckland’s diverse communities.
“Many Aucklanders have roots in Guangzhou and across Guangdong province,” Huang said. “So, this visit carries real cultural significance.
“It is also a powerful example of how sport can connect people, cities and communities across the Pacific.”
A crowd watches a dragon boat race in the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta in 2025. Suellen Hurling / Live Sail Die
Holly Claeys, chair of the Auckland Dragon Boat Association, agreed.
She said having an international crew join the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta added something special to the day and reflected the long-standing sister city relationship between Auckland and Guangzhou.
“Their participation will be a historic first for our event and an important step in building deeper cultural and sporting ties between Auckland and Guangzhou,” Claeys said.
Dragon boat racing will run from 8:30am to 5pm on Monday at Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour.
With more teams and paddlers on the water, organisers expect a deeper field and a livelier spectacle for spectators along the waterfront.
The day’s wider programme will also feature classic yachts, sailing dinghies, waka ama, keelboats, launches, tugboats and radio-controlled yachts.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
