Skaters surveyed

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 484, 4 May 1993, Page 2

Skaters surveyed

Every household in I the Waiouru, Waimarino, National Park area should have received a questionnaire about the proposed Ohakune ice rink in their letter boxes over the weekend. For those who missed out extra copies of the questionnaire can be obtained at the following places in each area. Waiouru: Shell Service Station (SH1), Turners Bookshop, Community Centre Four Square, Waiouru School. Ohakune: Berry's Bookshop, Ohakune New World, Ohakune Primary School, Ruapehu College, Ruapehu Bulletin. Raetihi: McLean's Bookshop, Raetihi Post Office/Service Centre, Raetihi Primary School. National Park: Parklands BP Service Station, National Park Store, National Park School. Whakapapa: Whakapapa Village Store and (for Chateau Tongariro staff) Chateau Souvenir shop. "Over 2,000 of these questionnaires have been distributed and it is important that as many as

possible are retumed as soon as possible so that we can get some idea of how much use an ice skating rink would get from local residents throughout the year," said Ohakune Ice Rink convenor Dennis Beytagh. A similar survey was conducted among visitors to the region over last Labour Day weekend and this indicated strong support for such a facility in Ohakune. "But visitors are here in large numbers for only part of the year and see ice skating as an obvious and natural partner to skiing during the winter months, particularly when we can provide them with a guaranteed alternative recreational activity in a covered arena when the weather rules out other outdoor activities", said Mr Beytagh. "The high volume usage (as indicated by last year's visitor survey) would assure the viability of an ice rink during the 5-month ski season but what is needed now is to find out the amount of local day-to-day support there would be for the

remainder of the year though, of course, such a unique facility in the middle of the North Island would also attract visitors from other places at all times". "At present there is no such facility in the lower half of the North Island ... indeed there is nothing between Hamilton and Dunedin. Auckland has two ice rinks, Hamilton has one, the Christchurch rink is closed for major repairs, Dunedin and Gore both have a covered rink while Queenstown has an open air rink during their ski season." "If we had an ice rink here in Ohakune we could host visiting skaters from other centres, stage competitive events such as inter-club and interschool ice hockey games (similar to the inter-sec-ondary school skiing championships on Ruapehu every year and probably held at the same time), and provide a variety of ice-related entertainment in an attractive guaranteed weather protected environment throughout the year", said Mr Beytagh. "This will not only Turn to page 5

Skater survey

From page 2 benefit the entire business community but will also provide the local population with a great spectator venue ... up to one thousand seats will be available from which to watch a variety of sports in comfortable surroundings whatever the time of year." "So it is important to get those completed questionnaires back in as soon as possible ... they can be returned to any one of the places listed above from which additional questionnaires are available."

Even those residents of the Waimarino, Waiouru and National Park who have no intention of taking up ice skating should return their completed questionnaires because the proposed rink will have the ability to transform itself from an ice rink to an indoor sport arena and back again within a matter of a few hours and the questionnaire will indicate the degree of support for this altemative under the heading 'Comments/Suggestions'.