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The Air New Zealand Golden Oldies World Netball Festival
opened in Queenstown last evening with a parade from
Queenstown Gardens to Earnslaw Park, where the festival was
declared open. Photo by Henrietta Kjaer.
More than 500 netballers in 49 teams from Australia, the
Cook Islands, Barbados, Vanuatu and New Zealand braved a cold
wind to march in a parade along the Queenstown lakefront as
they marked the opening of the Air New Zealand Golden Oldies
World Netball Festival in Queenstown.
The teams marched from the Queenstown Gardens along the
lakefront to Earnslaw Park, where they were greeted with a
Maori welcome from the kapa haka group and speeches from
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes, Air New Zealand general
manager, direct sales Leeanne Langridge and festival director
Corina Ngatuere.
Southern Steel netball coach Robyn Broughton, who is festival
ambassador, declared the festival open before the netballers
continued to the Queenstown Memorial Hall for the welcome
party.
The biennial Golden Oldies festival started 26 years ago but
it is only the third time in New Zealand.
The teams will compete at the Queenstown Events Centre today,
then on Wednesday and Friday, and will also attend several
social events before the festival ends on Sunday.
