The Winter Games is being touted as the biggest snowsports event outside the Winter Olympics.
But does the public see it that way? Wanaka reporter Marjorie Cook asks around.
It seems if you are not from Otago, or not interested in winter sports, you are highly unlikely to know much - if anything - about the Winter Games.
I asked all sorts of people about the Games this week as I went about my reporting duties in Wanaka and many who don't ski or snowboard felt they had taken them by surprise.
"It's the very first time? Oh. Well, no wonder I have never heard of it," one person said.
Of course, those who do ski were interested but they had not rushed up to the slopes to watch, mainly because they had to go to school or work.
The Winter Games is not a single-stadium event.
Most of the action is taking place on mountains or, in the case of curling and natural luge, in a very small town far from Otago's main populace.
So it's not possible to pop out in your lunch break to take a look.
And it is a winter sport.
So if bad weather continues to stymie proceedings, like it did on Tuesday and again yesterday, who else but the media, officials, the dedicated volunteers, mums and dads and coaches are mad enough to stand around in whiteout conditions to watch our future Olympic champions?Accommodation providers seem busy but most are busy at this time of the year, anyway.
Archway Motels operator Paul Parker, who is also the chairman of the Wanaka Moteliers Association, has many Japanese skiers staying at the moment.
This is interesting, because fewer Japanese tourists have been visiting Wanaka in recent years.
But none are here for the Winter Games, Parker says.
Parker is one of many saying this winter appears to be a typical Wanaka winter and it is hard to gauge whether the games have made any difference.
"If you listen to the way they marketed [the Winter Games], it is all marketed to Queenstown, so we only get those clever enough to avoid it," Parker said.
Parker said Wanaka accommodation providers had been reporting a slightly "softer" accommodation market for about 20 months, with fewer visitors and a slight softening in price.
But Wanaka did not have the accommodation problems being experienced in Queenstown, which was suffering from a weakened tour bus market, he said.
Wanaka's Chamber of Commerce is still collating information on the impact of the Winter Games on local businesses, so chamber president Leigh Stock does not have a lot of information to hand at the moment.
He, too, suggests Queenstown has been targeted as the main hub for the Winter Games, with sponsors getting a healthy slice of ancillary business.
Stock believes the event is here to stay and is pleased Tourism New Zealand is backing it, but after reading ODT reports about lovestruck Venezuelan cross-country skier Cesar Baena's no-show to races, he questions how seriously athletes are taking it.
Oakridge Grand Mecure Resort general manager Fraser McKenzie was in Auckland yesterday and happy to report his Auckland colleagues and friends knew all about the Winter Games and were watching the hour set aside for it every evening on Sky Television.
Oakridge is a Games sponsor so has enjoyed the patronage of several national teams, including the Swedish alpine ski team, which has since moved on to Queenstown.
"I think it has a tremendously positive impact, not only for accommodation and services providers but also from a community perspective, as it highlights Wanaka on a global scale," McKenzie said.
He also thinks the Winter Games will become a regular fixture.
More than 300 volunteers have signed on to help at the Winter Games and 50 of these hardy souls were rostered to help out at the Snow Farm for three days of cross-country skiing.
Forthy-nine volunteers were already converted to the cause of cross-country skiing, either because they were personal friends of the Lee family, skiers, or mums and dads of skiers.
One was there for no other reason than the opportunity to watch speeding skiers in lycra.
