Team skip Anton Hood, of Naseby, said the team hoped to participate in two last chance qualifying events in October and December.
Hopefully Olympic qualification would bring curling into the high-performance sports funding network, which would allow the sport to continue to develop and grow, Hood said.
"The game is growing in New Zealand — slowly, but it’s growing."
High performance sport support and getting a curling rink in Auckland would provide New Zealand with the ingredients to become one of the dominant curling nations in the world, he said
"If that happens we would be away and laughing."
Money is an issue the team faces.
There were a lot talented athletes and teams in New Zealand, which meant there was not a lot of money to go around as a whole, Hood said.
"We do what we can with the limited resources we’ve got."
It was lack of funds that led the team to stay in a Calgary retirement home during their six-month stint in Canada.
The team had sponsors, but they had also been hard at work fundraising by selling firewood in Naseby and the Maniototo as well as preparing to host the Swifty Cup golf fundraiser in Naseby next month.
Taking the team of five to events was an expensive undertaking.
"We have to rely on our amazing community to fundraise to help us get there, and the incredible sponsors we have on board," Hood said.
