To get there from Methven, drive in the pitch-black country dark, headlights illuminating the tall green walls of hedge rows, to the feet of the Black Hill ranges where the beech forest starts. As you approach the mountain foothills the lights of the ice rink are the only light around, making the experience like something out of Close Encounters. Park and follow strings of lights down a path through the trees, take the wooden bridge across a fast-flowing river until you can hear the music.
Honestly, it sounds like I’ve just given you directions to a secret meeting of the little people, and while there might not be fairies, the magic part is true.
Creating memories on the ice since 1951, Staveley ice and curling rink was one of the few natural ice-skating rinks in New Zealand until 2023 when the effects of climate change led to an ambitious $1 million fundraising initiative to develop the rink’s refrigeration infrastructure.
The idea for a local ice-skating rink in Staveley was raised in 1949, and the site chosen just happened to be a picturesque mid-winter night’s dream setting. Paradise in the foothills.
By 1976, a diesel generator was powering the lighting, floodlights were borrowed from the Springburn rugby club practice grounds, and a gramophone was playing The Skater’s Waltz.
A community resource run by volunteers, today the rink’s music is an eclectic playlist of rock, funk and country, and while they don’t have the smoothest ice or the sharpest skates, the locals have created an amazing winter activity that now offers guaranteed ice throughout June to August, this year the second with its new refrigeration system.
It struck me that this kind of thing could only happen in New Zealand and manage to retain its sweetness and charm for 70 years.
The aim is to provide an affordable family experience. And it is super affordable. Forget the monstrous skifield $30 burger, the pretention of the ‘‘all the flashiest gear’’ folk, people are encouraged to bring picnics to the rink and toast marshmallows over the fire and skate hire is just $5. Bush shirts predominate, blue and green checks on white.
He and fellow members of the Ashburton Menz Shed used their skills to make the five tables. What I loved the most was the old-fashioned organised chaos of it all. Ice hockey was being practised in the middle of the rink (ice hockey in New Zealand began right here in Mid Canterbury, with farmers skating on ponds - as far as contact sports go, it makes rugby look like competitive knitting), while children pushed ice chairs ahead of themselves around the outside; pucks and children and hands-in-pockets skaters weaving in and out of each other in seamless co-ordination.
It was only my second time on ice skates and my instructor, the Bull Tahr, had to rearrange my hand so that my fierce clutching didn’t break his fingers if I went down.
This time round my ankles were not as splayed, arms pinwheeling a little less, but hands in pockets while skating backwards is a level of cool that’s still a long, looong way off.
Skating under the stars, surrounded by trees, in the lap of the mountains - it doesn’t get much better than this.
If you’re looking for an experience to warm the cockles of your heart, then put on your best woollen hat and take in the wonderful every Wednesday, Saturday or Sunday from now until the end of August.
