WINTER SPORTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26775, 19 May 1948, Page 4

WINTER SPORTS

EARLY PREPARATIONS

CHAMPIONSHIP MEETINGS

Special Reporter ALEXANDRA, May 18. All over Central Otago winter sports enthusiasts are checking over their skates, waxing skis or polishing the heavy curling “scones,” for within a few weeks sufficient depths of snow and ice are expected to be available. Already Coronet Peak carries the pure white of deep snow, and Ben Lomond and the Remarkables have their early coating on the peaks. The snow is later this year than it normally is, and the Crown Range road can still be negotiated, but the ducks in the Queenstown Gardens have discovered that the pond there is frozen over, and it should not be long before the favourite skating points in Central Otago are covered sufficiently to carry the skaters’ weight. The main events of the. year for the winter sports enthusiasts will, of course, be the New Zealand Skating Championships at Mount Harper on July 17, and the Ski Championships at Coronet Peak in August. Travellers in the area report that it is difficult, if not impossible, to book accommodation in Queenstown for the next three months. The Coronet Peak ground will be considerably improved this year by the extension of the motor road to the vicinity of the old ski tow, and by the provision of a new ski tow continuing on from the old one. Bulldozers have been at work on the road for some weeks, and the elimination of the walk which was previously necessary should permit the fullest possible time to be devoted to the thrills of the long downhill run. The Naseby-St. Bathans district is, of course, the headquarters for curling and for ice skating, but the Manorburn dam has always been a popular rink with Alexandra residents. It had been hoped that a new access road would be available to the second basin of the dam this year, but this has not eventuated and access may, if anything, be even more difficult, as one of the culverts on the road is reported to have collapsed. Meantime, out-of-season holidaymakers are still making the most of the early winter sunshine at Queenstown. and at the week-end the traditional pastimes of lounging on the wharf and feeding the ducks, or taking launch trips with the modest additional excitement of speed runs across the bumpy wake of the craft were still finding a fair number of takers.