Don't tempt fate, Central Otago curlers say, but the signs are promising for a national bonspiel.
Curlers were smiling earlier in the week when the temperature dropped to -16degC overnight on Monday at Oturehua, the home of the Idaburn Dam which hosts the national outdoors curling tournament.
A series of hard frosts has kept the smiles on their faces and raised hopes a bonspiel might be called.
''It's in the lap of the gods, but we can hope,'' Oturehua farmer and keen curler Ken Gillespie said this week.
Murray McKnight, of Oturehua, one of three ice masters for the Idaburn, measured the dam ice depth yesterday at 85mm-90mm.
''Three or four good frosts will build that up to the level we need for a bonspiel,'' he said.
The ice would be measured every few days and once it got to the right level, weather permitting, the ice masters could call a bonspiel.
He did not want to ''tempt fate'' by saying when that might happen, as it was dependent on the weather remaining cold.
Snow forecast for Saturday would be a setback but he conceded that the ''signs were positive'' for a bonspiel.
The last one was held in 2012, which was the fourth bonspiel in 11 years.
The national curling event on natural ice is viewed as the ''ultimate'' by keen curlers.
