Competing in a national bonspiel has occupied one line on Colin Holmes' bucket list that now he can tick off.
The self-employed Greymouth hydraulic engineer left one son at home "holding the fort" while he, other son Callan and Russell Smith made the six- and a-half-hour journey to Oturehua to represent the West Coast Curling Club at the competition.
Players from 33 clubs descended on the Idaburn Dam yesterday after the bonspiel call was put out on Friday night.
Each club was meant to enter two teams of four but for the likes of West Coast and Auckland, whose members had to travel the greatest distances, numbers were "topped up by locals", Mr Holmes said.
Four Aucklanders had made the trip.
Kes Pearson, an Auckland property manager, said his boss was confused when he told him he had to be in Central Otago on Monday, but luckily his sister was there to explain.
His team-mate, Kieran Ford, is a bar and restaurant manager and said his boss "pretty much had no choice" but to let him have the time off.
Mr Ford had played in the last national bonspiel, in 2010, and said it was not something he could miss.
"It's not often you get a chance to come down here."
Primary school teacher aide Glenys Taylor said it was great to experience "the other side of curling ... because we only do indoor [curling], so it's nice to experience it on such a huge scale in such great conditions - apart from the fog".
Thick fog hung over the dam as more than 260 competitors threw their stones, swept the ice and warmed themselves with sips of whisky at each end.
The occasional bagpipe drone drifted over the players as the smell of hot pies and pumpkin soup wafted from the kitchen.
Local women fundraising for the Oturehua Winter Sports Club seemed to have been the only warm ones as they cooked 260 pies, huge pots of vegetables, potatoes, gravy and soup.
Alpine (St Bathans) won the morning round with 64 points and Ranfurly the afternoon round with 62 points, but those results could change today when competition continues.
