Ross Maxwell (73) happily paid $275 for six paua at a fish auction after the annual Brighton Club fishing competition at the weekend.
"He's Maori, so he loves his kai moana.
"You can't get paua in Townsville," Mr Maxwell's daughter, Donna Schneider, of Brighton, said yesterday.
"He paid top dollar for it. It's a sign of how hungry he was for paua.
"Dad was happy to make the donation.
"He loves the whole koha donation aspect of it."
Mrs Schneider said her father did, briefly, hesitate before buying all the paua at the auction.
"He thought that he might be being a little bit greedy, but then he thought, `Well, they can get paua any time'."
While it was his first Brighton fishing competition, Mr Maxwell was now hooked, she said.
"He booked his holiday for the fishing comp.
"He reckons he's coming back every year for it now.
"Dad's fallen in love with Brighton.
"I said to him: `You don't come home to see me, you come for the cockles and paua and flounder'."
Mr Maxwell left Dunedin yesterday to attend a tangi in Auckland, before returning to Townsville.
Brighton Fishing Club president Bob Trounson said the fish auction raised $4210 for local community groups.
"We've now raised about $98,000 since the fishing comp started 20 years ago," he said.
