What has kept New Zealand's top pie-makers all more than 4 hours drive from here?

The Herald reports the winners of this year's Bakels Supreme Pie Awards, in which more than 380 bakers entered 4400 entries in 11 categories.  The competition entries were reported by Stuff four days ago, but not the results.

I'd travel anywhere in Wellington for the occasional top pie. But we have no category winners. And this year there are none in the South Island.

What's going on? How will we retain our best little capital in the world title without a decent pie-maker? Have the coffee snobs driven them away?