Support for NZ Winter Games grows

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 401, 27 August 1991, Page 19

Support for NZ Winter Games grows

Plans for the New Zealand Games and Winter Festival are "up to expectations and on schedule for a start-up on 15 September", said Games director Andreas Hefli last week. The Winter Games and Winter Festival have attracted several national and local sponsors in this first year. These include the Manawatu-Wanganui Area Health Board's "Drink Safe campaign(due to be launched to coincide with the New Zealand Winter Games and Winter Festival), Capital Dairy Products"Ski Yoghurt", Corbans Wines, Diamond Products(manufacturers of spaghetti and pasta products), Enterprise Cars, Australian Consolidated Press and Auckland's Pearson Davis. Local sponsors include Ohakune's Powderkeg Restaurant and Powderhorn retail outlet, the Junction Ski Shop, Moore Construction, Rivendell Computing, Pincx Timber (Tangiwai) and the Ruapehu Visitor Centre. "Other small local sponsors offering services and facilities are still coming in and we expect more as the Games and Festival get nearer," said Mr Hefti. "The breweries were approached to see if they wanted to sponsor the Festival's beer fests and spaghetti parties, but what they were offering wasn't quite what we expccted", said Mr Hefti. Asked who the New Zealand Winter Games and Mt Ruapehu Winter Festival were aimed at, Mr Hefti said the Games programme has been devised to cater for everyone between the ages of 6 and 90-plus who had any sporting ability at all"they were not only for champions because all levels of skill

in each age group will be recognised". Family fun "Some events have been specifically designed to involve family and friends in the spirit of fun as well as competition," he said. 'The Mt Ruapehu Winter Festival should appeal mostly to groups ranging from the very young to those aged between 3540 who wish to share in the fun either as active participants or as spectators." The response has been good with many enquiries and more entries coming in every day according to Mr Hefti. "They could be faster but we expect to speed up as the radio stations build up their air-time coveragc as the Games get closer," he said."Of course it is to be expected that some events will be better supported than other in this, ihe first time ever that such a wide ranging scries of events have been staged in New Zealand it takes time for word to get around and for potential to be realised," said Mr Hefti. Easier next year "Next year and thereafter it will be much easier because people throughout the country will have seen all the fun and excitement on their television screens and read about all the events in their newspapers....It's always difficult to launch a new concept in the first year." Despite the difficulty of promoting the games, entries are coming from Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Wanganui and several requests for copies of the programme have been receivcd from the South Island. As far as the various Central North Island venues where the

Games and Festival events are to be staged, the response has been good. "The whole area is interested to become part of this concept. Taumarunui has been fantastic with so many sporting clubs wanting to participate. Turangi too has been enthusiastic and more support from Ohakune is expected as the benefits of such a promotion becomes more clear,"said Mr Hefti. "We still hope to achieve our target of 3000 entries for the New Zealand Winter Games and between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors over the 3- week period from 15 September to 5 October." Accommodation for visitors during this time could be something of a problem if left and intending visitors to the region are advised to contact the information centres in each of the main towns - Ohakune Taumarunui and Turangi. No Government support Mr Hefti regrets that no support or encouragement for these Winter Games has been forthcoming from the government or its agencies such as the New Zealand Tourist Department or the Department of Sport and Recreation, nor was any received from the Hillary Commission. "So this has been entirely a local community effort despite the opportunity to promote tourism, sport and recreation throughout New Zealand and overseas," he said. Local government, the Ruapehu District Council and its Community Boards, have been very encouraging and helpful by providing manpower support and preparing some of the venues to be used during the Games and Festival.