Kiwi builds igloo to pass 'love test'

Daniel Gray's igloo. Photo imgur

A Christchurch man has won the praises of the internet world, and his girlfriend's mother, after spending five days building a multi-coloured igloo.

Daniel Gray and his girlfriend Kathleen Starrie have spent their summer break visiting her family in the winter of Edmonton, Canada, but instead of spending their time skiing the slopes or relaxing, Mr Gray was put hard to work.

"My girlfriend's mother had a brilliant idea of building an igloo and thought it would keep me busy, away from her daughter in some respect," Mr Gray told the Global Edmonton.

So the mother, Brigid Burton, spent three months collecting milk cartons that could be used to freeze coloured water into blocks, and ultimately turned the blocks into an igloo.

The New Zealand couple, with help from Ms Starrie's parents and a neighbour, then spent five days in temperatures reaching -25degC building the structure in the Burton's back yard.

"Once I started building it, it was something I just really wanted to finish, because you can't just leave something like that unfinished" Mr Gray said.

"There was a few calculations involved, mostly regarding an estimation of how many blocks we would require, just based on it being a spherical shape."

All up, more than 500 ice blocks were used.

Mrs Burton said if Mr Gray completed the task she would let him marry her daughter.

"So I guess I've accomplished that," Mr Gray said, although he added that marriage was not part of the couple's immediate plans.

Mr Gray then posted his exploits on chat forum reddit, gaining praise from many people around the world.

Warox13 said "... this is really cool aesthetically, and you guys did an awesome job on it."

Rustoak 38 said "as an actual Eskimo from Alaska, I approve of this."

Mr Gray replied that he never imagined his story would be so popular.

"The weather channel is now coming over to have an interview and we are having an igloo party this afternoon."