The Australians are holding their national curling championships at the Dunedin Ice Stadium this weekend.
Three teams are competing in the men's championships that began at the stadium last night.
The Australian mixed doubles championships were held at the Maniototo International Curling rink in Naseby last year, and the mixed doubles and senior championships will be held at the same venue in September.
Twenty-five Australian curlers will be in Dunedin at the weekend, with the women's and junior teams holding a training camp at the venue.
Coaches, team management and parents have joined the players in Dunedin.
"It's the nature of the ice you have here," Kim Forge, a member of the women's team, said yesterday.
"You have got consistently good ice here.
"Predicting what the ice will do is very important in a game that needs precision ice to follow through on game strategy."
The Australian championships are usually held at Bendigo.
"We don't have any purpose-built curling rinks in Australia," Forge said.
"We curl at ice hockey venues and it is unreliable ice. We enjoy coming to New Zealand."
This is the third time that the women's team has trained in Dunedin. The men have been four times.
"Management at the Dunedin Ice Stadium have been very accommodating to us and made it easy for us to train and compete in Dunedin," Forge said.
"We wouldn't have serious curling in Australia but for the help of our Kiwi neighbours."
Forge (38) grew up at Airdrie, near Calgary in Canada, and has lived in Australia for the last seven years.
She has been skip of the Australian women's team for the last four years and is currently preparing for the New Zealand Winter Games in Naseby in August and the Pacific championships in Japan in December.
