While travelling in New Zealand in May, 2023 and planning the drive from Dunedin to the west coast, we read that there was a curling rink in Naseby, 1.5 hours away.
Naseby is a very small village (population 123 in 2018 census) in a lovely part of scenic New Zealand. From the parking lot of the rink, run by Maniototo Curling International Inc., we noticed there was also an outside rink and a luge track.
The curling club was open, with four sheets of ice. There were banners and flags on the walls around the ice, including the Canadian flag.
We talked to the manager, Ewan Kirk. He moved to New Zealand with his family from Scotland 40 or so years before. He said as far as he knew, this was the only purpose-built curling rink in the southern hemisphere. Teams from New Zealand and Australia played there and trained for international competitions. Ice was available year-round.
In the very nice upstairs licensed lounge hung banners and shirts of teams from around the world, most signed by players/coaches, including Brad Gushue and Russ Howard’s team from the Torino Olympics.
The club brochure said they have seminar facilities for corporate meetings and other functions. There is an old rail line bike path nearby, that runs cross country, and Ewan said bicyclists sometimes package up a bike trip, local accommodation, local tourist attractions and a curling game.
We thanked Ewan for his time and invited him and others from the club to visit our club. It was fun, a totally unexpected visit. Naseby’s “catch phrase is ‘2000 feet above worry level’” (Wikipedia). Long live international curling! No worries!
SUBMITTED BY: David Belford and Cheryle Anne Mac Belford
