Curling in Naseby – Day 185

Alright so today guys we are going to do something that I never expected to do. We’re gonna play curling right here in New Zealand.

Today it is raining and while most people go to the movies or curl up in bed with a good book Laura and I decide to do the most rainy day activity which is obviously indoor curling.

We are heading to the Naseby Indoor Curling Rink or the Manitoto International Curling Company one of those and as soon as we arrive we get a bit of a lesson on how curling works and what the hell is curling before getting geared up and actually some practice on the ice.

Our curling master today is Ewan and he’s gonna be teaching us the three different styles of curling but as soon as he starts showing us some really easy methods with sticks or just pushing the stone we tell him that we want to do the really cool sliding thing that we see in the Olympics. Is it cool? I think it is. Is it? I think it is.

This curling rink right here is New Zealand’s only dedicated indoor curling rink. In fact, it is the Southern Hemisphere’s only dedicated indoor curling rink and what makes it a dedicated curling rink is that the ice here is a lot different to your average ice rink. It has sprayed with fine water droplets making a sort of bubbly texture on the surface.

Ewan is getting us to practice throwing those stones again and again and again seriously we really need all the practice we can get we’re pretty crap at this but then he takes us to the other end of the lane where we learn how to actually start scoring in curling. Because Robin and I we’re pretty competitive and we want to actually do a game against each other rather than working together.

So here we go round 1 of our curling game.

And here we go if you have ever played curling in your life and need some people to join your team look at the style that we’re having while throwing those stones across the rink. It’s pretty awesome, right? So the curling rink are really well designed with a scoring board on each side of the rink making it really easy for us to do games after games we don’t have to move from one side to the other all the time which is quite cool but because we want to spare you from watching actual 11 games of curling cos this is how you do a curling competition you do 11 games and you tally the score at the end, we’re just gonna show you the first one and speed up the next 10 ones then we’re gonna show you the score at the end.

Curling is one of those sports that in the Winter Olympics you don’t really pay much attention to but actually when we get playing we are really having a lot of fun it is a lot like bowling but a lot more advanced and we wish there was a curling rink in every town that we’ve been in.

It’s very hard to find a knack I’m going too fast now I was going to slow and now I’m going to fast.

Do you just think that you’re not cut out for curling? I’m cut out for curling i just need a bit more practice.

Robin compares curling petanque which is a game with several metal balls which you need to throw towards each other and try and hit a target. it’s really popular in the South of France as well as campsites all over the world.

Curling really feels that it’s the kind of sport that takes only a few minutes to understand and start playing but takes ages to actually master and become really good at. It takes a lot of skills.

They just all congregate in the same corner it’s like I’m learning from my mistakes whatsoever.

One of the hardest parts I find in curling is to manage the strength that I give to the stone when I throw it and because there is none of those guys with the little brooms to compensate for the lack or too much speed when throwing the stone it makes it really really challenging to hit the target.

So that basically I have I have a too fast or that distance right here. I don’t have a in between.

If there’s one place in New Zealand that you want to try this sport it has to be in Naseby. Teams from all over the world come here to play curling competitively so it really is the place to be. there’s even an outdoor man made lake which freezes over in winter and is made into ice rinks as well.

So we are almost at the end of our first game I have one point right here but I have one more stone to throw and I’d like to get those two ones on the board. So I can score three points. So we’ll see if I get to do that.

And now for the last stone of the game Robin representing Team France is throwing his stone hoping to score a second point but that doesn’t matter he wins anyway.

So it looks like at the end of the first game I am getting one point because I only have one stone in game. So it’s pretty easy to count. So end of first game. Robin 1 Laura Zero. Let’s see how we do for the second one.

So we’re gonna put that well deserved point on the board and we’re gonna speed up every single other game to come because a curling game is run in 11 different sets and I don’t think you guys want to watch us play that bad 11 times in a row but at the end of the day we have a score. Alright we just finished the game that was tedious and not many points were scored we got better right in the middle but i think we kind of gave up so

So laura you have to place the final score. How good is your math?

Yay. It was close. It was a very close game.

After doing that super unique activity we are now heading back to the Ranfurly Holiday Park for a well deserved rest.

Thank you very much Laura. You rock. Scratching the nose. I think that was funny.