Construction began on the turf, at the Queenstown Events Centre, in February this year and was expected to be completed by July, but was stalled several times by Covid-19, material delays and bad weather.
Queenstown Lakes District Council sport and recreation manager Simon Battrick was ‘‘absolutely ecstatic’’ to be officially opening the turf this morning in a ‘‘reasonably low-key’’ affair.
‘‘We’re basically just having a quick cutting of the ribbon with Mayor Jim Boult and some other dignitaries and supporters of the turf,’’ he said.
‘‘We've got the Wakatipu Hockey Club and football [who are] also going to be there, and they're going to be doing a little demonstration game at the end ... sort of a bit of a ‘have-a-go’ day.’’
Key features of the new turf include a shock pad made from recycled rubber, floodlights for use up until 10pm, and heaters in the dugouts for winter.
Mr Battrick said the turf was an ‘‘asset’’ to Queenstown and that feedback from the community was ‘‘they were really looking forward to using it’’.
‘‘We've gotten quite a lot of bookings already over the summer period and obviously as we go into winter it will be probably a lot more heavy-use as well.’’
The first booking was for summer league hockey starting on November 2.
Mr Battrick was unable to say what the total cost was, but said the final estimates came in ‘‘under budget’’.
‘‘We've been able to use a bit of surplus money for other community projects.’’
