A full green for this year’s big April tournament
It’s probably easier to guess the 723rd place of Pi than it is to guess where the small hamlet of Orepuki is in New Zealand.
For the mostly uninitiated, Orepuki is right down the bottom of New Zealand … about as far as you can go without falling into Foveaux Strait.
There’s just a handful of buildings in Orepuki (literally) … which includes the Orepuki Beach Café …designed to provide excellent farm to table fare which would cause even the most pickiest of Aucklanders to purr with unexpected delight on Tripadvisor.
One of those buildings is also the local bowling club pavilion … making the Orepuki Bowling club the most southwesterly bowling club in New Zealand. Not the most southerly (Bluff) and not the most westerly (Tuatapare), but located on Southland’s sweeping Te Waewae Bay, along from Riverton, it probably deserves the title of the most ‘southwesterly’.
But with a ‘ghost townly’ populous (Wikipedia’s description), you would have to wonder how the heck a bowling club came to be here.
The answer’s simple.
Orepuki was one of the many places in New Zealand where gold was discovered in the 1800’s. And by the time the railway came to town in 1885 there were upwards of 3,000 people living here.
Eventually, in 1909, the fledgling Orepuki Bowling Club put down a green on the local domain to give the miners some relief from their daily toil.
“They had a great ace up their sleeve locating here,” says club member and historian Lex Dudfield. ‘The preferred surface of the day, grasslands Pahia cotula, was available from just down the coast. In fact so popular was this surface, that sackfuls of the sod left the Pahia Railway Station in the early days for bowling greens all around the country.”
“The club first began playing competition bowls in October 1910, when the members trained to the neighboring club in Riverton. But it wasn’t until 1916, that a newly-built clubhouse was opened at Orepuki.”
The original clubhouse has gone (and been replaced), but the same strong desire to have an outdoor bowling facility still exists today … despite the dearth of people in Orepuki … and despite the fact that the club has just 25 or so members.
“We’re a strong club,” says Club President, Lloyd Wilson, “There’s a great group of us who pitch in and get things done They come from all around the area … attracted by a reputation we have for having a very special club here.”
“As a result, the club housekeeping takes care of itself … the admin …. The finances and fundraising … the maintenance .. the greenkeeping … everything.”
The club has a unique fundraiser …. A couple of members go to the Carrier Arms Hotel in nearby Riverton every Friday evening and sell raffle tickets (thanks to the goodwill of the local publican). “We share the spot with other local sporting clubs,” says Lloyd. “We do it during the bowls season and they do it the rest of the year"
(The blue cod, chips and salad at the Carrier Arms is fabulous, by the way).
“We also run meat raffles at the Orepuki Tavern on Friday nights which draws the locals to the pub. It’s a win-win for both our bowling club and the tavern.”
With all the ‘clubkeeping’ running as smoothly as it does, the members of Orepuki are able to enjoy both their social and competitive bowls. As well as looking forward to the two big tournaments the club holds each year.
“On the first Sunday in December, we hold our Christmas Optional Fours,” says Club Secretary and Treasurer, Ian Robb. “We play two games in the morning, and two in the afternoon .. with prizes for the top four based on ends won … then differential.”
“We put on fish’n chips for lunch, and sandwiches and cakes for afternoon tea,”
“In mid-April, we have our big two-dayer on a Saturday and Sunday,” adds Ian. “We get a full green from a wide area …Roxburgh, Arrowtown, Te Anau, Edendale and Invercargill …We even have a waiting list.”
“Out-of-towners stay in nearby Colac Bay or Riverton. Or come in their motorhomes and caravans on the Friday, and stay in the domain next to the club. There’s obviously a lot of ‘fellowship’ over the weekend!”
They’re probably not just coming for the bowls either. Or the beers for that matter,
The raffle prizes are legendary. Sure, there’s the usual meat packs. But there’s also prizes of locally-caught blue cod, crayfish, whitebait, flounder and venison.
That’s gotta beat the heck out of winning a cap … or a can of fruit salad!
L>R: Ian Robb (front); Murray Anderson; Allen Eastwood; Lloyd Wilson; Alan McKay; George Watkinson
Club President Lloyd Wilson shows off the new Orepuki Orcas club strip