Well, it worked!

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 11, 16 August 1983, Page 1

Well, it worked!

Ohakune residents and winter visitors alike shook their heads in wonderment and disbelief (tinged perhaps with a touch of awe!) at the sight that greeted them on Saturday morning following the New-Zealand-Indian-Snow-Dance' teams performance outside the Ohakune Hotel the night before. It was real snow! And what's more it continued to snow all Saturday and well into the following night. A totalof about 3 inches (8cm) fell in Ohakune itself and on Sunday morning the entire Waimarino area from Kakatahi to Waiouru and Raurimu was covered with a white mantle of snow. The 'Snow-Dance' was performed on a clear, fros-

ty, starlit night in Ohakune's Clyde Street before a huge crowd of spectators who all joined in the spirit of fun and winter revelry, little believing that their incantations would have any effect on the snow-gods. Even the official 'weatherman' at the Met Office had failed to predict snow that night. Some sceptical locals covered their fruit trees and other frost-tender plants in anticipation of frost rather than snow. One local even claimed on Ruapehu Radio on Friday evening that he would 'eat his hat' if snow fell. And it is known that Turoa staff were actually making artificial snow on the skifield on Friday night instead of leaving it to the Snow Dance team in town! If any cynic has the slightest doubt about the effectiveness of the 'Snow Dance,' — putting it down instead to a long-range forecast or a naturai phenomenon, — let them be assured that the convenor of the team, Mark Dinsdale of Ohakune, came into the Bulletin office as early as Monday of last week and claimed that his performers "guaranteed resuits within 2 hours". When asked later why it took 6 instead of 2 hours for the snow to arrive he explained that the delay was caused by the sceptics who had created such a barrier of disbelief that this had to be penetrated by positive thoughts first, before the snow could get through. It is understood one of these local sceptics will be eating his hat — either in the pub or on Ruapehu Radio — one day this week.