NZ ploughing team dealt blow after tractor lost in shipping delay

A shipping mishap has left New Zealand's world ploughing team without its tractors just weeks before the World Ploughing Championships in Europe.

Five-time New Zealand ploughing champion Mark Dillon and teammate Malcolm Taylor were due to travel to Croatia for the top competition in September.

But the container carrying their tractors, ploughs, and uniforms had failed to reach the country as planned, forcing the team to prepare for the possibility of competing on borrowed machinery.

"Surprised, disappointed, pissed off — there's a whole lot of other words I could use," Dillon told 1News.

Held annually, the global competition focuses on precision ploughing, with competitors judged on straightness, depth and how neatly the soil is turned.

Jeff Cridge, New Zealand Ploughing Association president, said the pair had spent years training to take out the competition's top prize.

"They're not there to make up numbers, they want to go there and win it," Cridge said.

"It's not cheap to ship all your gear to the other side of the world for something like this. So yeah, there's a bit at stake."

According to Dillon and his wife Sonia, the shipment with the team's equipment left New Zealand later than expected in May.

It was originally due to arrive in Croatia mid-July, but the delayed departure saw the vessel travel to Australia instead, and was now on its way back to New Zealand.

The couple had been tracking the container themselves after learning of the delays.

"It's whole years of work just down the drain," Dillon said, adding that the situation had left him feeling "really gutted and quite upset".

"If our gear doesn't arrive, which it's looking like its not unless we can pull a miracle out, we're going to have to borrow gear."

1News approached the shipping company for comment but did not receive a response.

The mishap had also raised concerns ahead of New Zealand hosting the World Ploughing Championships in 2029, with Crodge warning future international competitors could think twice about shipping expensive equipment if reliability was an issue.