A power cut just before he started the final session wasn't enough to put King Country shearer Stacey Te Huia off his stride, as he set a new world ewe-shearing record.
At the end of eight hours of shearing on Wednesday at Moketenui Station, between Te Kuiti and Benneydale, Te Huia had well and truly broken the old record of 578 ewes, set by Hawke's Bay-based shearer Matthew Smith in January.
Smith was the first to congratulate the new record-holder, who passed the record at 5.22pm, and shore on till 5.40pm, the record having been delayed 40 minutes by a power cut just before the last run was due to start at 3pm.
Te Huia's tallies for each of the four two-hours runs of a record bid that started at 7am, and continued with heavy rain outside throughout, were 146, 152, 153, and 152 - in total, 603.
