The knitted jerseys are being dug out, and the whisky organised.
Tomorrow is the start of Naseby’s outdoor curling season and the preparations were part of the ritual of curling, New Zealand Curling Association chairman and Mt Ida Curling Club member Sam Inder, of Naseby, said.
"It’s time to get the curling stones out, the club colours from the bottom drawer."
And then there is the "wee dram". The shot of whisky was the traditional reward for a good shot, with a the curler invited to imbibe by the team skip, Mr Inder said.
The "wee dram" — coffee and mulled wine were also sometimes consumed — also provided an opportunity to socialise and was good for camaraderie, and helped warm up "after standing on the ice all day not moving very much", he said.
Other curling etiquette was also strictly adhered to, for example "there is never any bad language on the ice", and "there is no such thing as a bad shot — it’s just some shots are better than others".
Mr Inder has been curling since secondary school and inherited his late father Jack Inder’s stones. When he lived in Dunedin he was in teams which won medals at Masters Games and that won the 2001 Idaburn bonspiel - his proudest moment as a curler, Mr Inder said.
At this stage, the ice conditions on the Naseby outdoor rink were "close to brilliant" after a series of good frosts this week, he said.
Naseby’s four curling clubs - the oldest of which, Mt Ida, dates back to 1878 - will tomorrow begin playing for the Andy Brown Cup, so named because the outdoor rink was built on the site of old miner Andy Brown’s dam. Mr Brown had been the last of the old miners in Naseby, and his descendants - some of who still live in Naseby - donated a curling cup in his name about 25 years ago, Mr Inder said.
Curlers were also hoping Naseby might host the national bonspiel this winter.
The two-day bonspiel was held on the Centennial Dams, in Naseby in 2015; the last bonspiel on the usual venue, the Idaburn Dam near Oturehua, was in 2012, Mr Inder said.
"We don’t want to tempt fate. Let’s just say we’ve got our fingers crossed."
Other outdoor curling events were scheduled for the Naseby rink this winter and curling has also begun at Ice Inline, in Alexandra.
