WEATHER IMPROVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 196, 21 August 1939, Page 10

WEATHER IMPROVES.

SPORT AT CHATEAU. MANY VISITORS ARRIVE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHATEAU, this day. After a week of snow, sleet and rain, when conditions for ski-ing were almost impossible, the weather cleared yesterday to greet the large crowd of ski-ers who arrived at the Chateau from all parts of the Dominion to take part in the club contests and New Zealand championships, which will be decided during the next fortnight on Mount Ruapehu. The road below the Chateau was still in bad condition after the recent thaws, but a fleet of buses and cars succeeded in conveying 116 new arrivals to the Chateau on Saturday night and early yesterday morning without any hold-up. Eighty passengers by train from southern districts did not arrive until four o'clock yesterday morning, owing to slips on the main trunk line. Work done recently on the road to the Chateau has improved it considerably, and cars are able to use it regularly. Care is necessary, however, for the surface is still rough. Work was begun on the road above the Chateau, leading to the ski-grounds, yesterday, and it is hoped to have the road cleared to lower Scoria Flat soon. Snowdrifts anything up to fifteen feet deep had blocked the road for several days, and no cars had been able to pass over the route. Most of the ski-ers had taken skis from the Chateau, and made the trip to and from the grounds on them, the plentiful snow providing a good run home down the long slope. A bulldozer has already cleared a considerable length of the road, but no vehicles are allowed on it, to enable a gang of workmen to improve the surface. There is abundant snow right down to the Chateau and over the golf course, and indications are that conditions for the ski championships will be ideal.