The men's four notched up a win from its first match in the opening round of the Winter Games yesterday, beating China 9-5.
Six men's teams - two from New Zealand and one each from Korea, Japan, Australia and China are vying for top honours in the games and using the event as a build-up to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Competition in the men's four and mixed doubles events began yesterday at the Maniototo Curling International rink at Naseby. The mixed doubles event has attracted seven teams, including two from New Zealand.
Competition continues throughout this week and all semifinals and finals will be held on Friday. New Zealand skip Peter de Boer, of Auckland, was delighted with his team's performance.
''We played pretty well, so long may it continue,'' he said.
His team included Sean and Scott Becker, both of Ranfurly, and Kenny Thompson, of Auckland, and it will compete in an Olympic qualifying tournament in Germany in December.
The other New Zealand team, New Zealand A, made up of Hans Frauenlob, Iain Craig, Warren Dobson and Brett Sargon, lost its opening-round match against Korea 10-7.
The Korean team is the country's No1 team and it, too, will contest the Olympic qualifier in December.
The Japanese team that won silver at last year's Pacific-Asia championships beat Australia 9-3 in the other first-round match.
Between 40 and 50 volunteers are working behind the scenes at the Naseby rink for the week.
The volunteer crew includes school pupils, self-employed locals and retired folk, who were vital to ensure the smooth running of the event, past president of New Zealand Curling James Hazlett said.
''Without this team of volunteers, we couldn't even think of hosting the Winter Games,'' he said. Chief ice-maker Doug Wright, of Canada, said it took the ice-making team of six people about four or five days' preparation to get the ice perfect for the international competition.
