From left : Richard Uitendaal, Kaylene Haines, Tina Steele, David Conroy

Hanmer Springs may be New Zealand’s best-kept alpine secret.

Whilst Kiwis (and overseas visitors) tend to be drawn to the flashier resorts of Queenstown and Wanaka, those in the know have discovered this quiet mountain village and all the attractions it has to offer … the wooded walk up Conical Hill, the highly-browsable village shops, the boutique Amuri Skifield, the Forest Amble Sculpture Trail, and jet-boating and bungy-jumping at the Waiau Bridge.  Not to forget New Zealand’s best-by-far thermal pools.

It's a village which still offers grand lodgings from Somerset Maugham’s yesteryear : The Hanmer Springs Hotel.

And for bowlers, the settlement now offers a newly-opened (2023) facility at the Hanmer Springs Bowling Club, located right next to the golf club.

“There had been an old bowling green here, but it closed in 2003,” says Club President Randall Uitendaal, And the green was now effectively unusable.  When a couple of Hanmer locals, Tina Steele and Janet Messervy, saw it in 2019, they didn’t see an old green … but an opportunity to start bowls again in Hanmer with a new green.”

It was a big ask.  Driven by never-say-die enthusiasts Tina and Jane, they began looking to raise $375,000 for a new artificial.

“We found an old bank account that had $400 in it,” says Tina, “And that became the start of our fund-raising effort.”

Tina (then newly-elected President of the club) and Jane (then newly-elected Secretary/Treasurer) went about scraping up the money from wherever they could find it … twisting the arms of grant providers like the Mainland Foundation, the Rata Foundation and, the TAB.

“While grants provided anchor funding, we still needed a lot more,” explains Tina. “So between us, we came up with a lot of great fundraising ideas.  A biggie was asking people to sponsor a square metre of the new turf, and we would acknowledge their gold, silver or bronze sponsorship.  We raised $28,000 there,”

“We sold bags of pine cones … as you probably appreciate, they’re pretty easy to find around here. And we had a big second-hand book sale.”

“And something a little more unusual … we ran a ‘Spud-in-a-Bucket’ competition where we sold a plastic bucket and a seed potato for $10, and asked people to grow the best potato,  We sold hundreds.  And gave out prizes for the heaviest weight of spuds grown, the biggest individual spud, the greatest number of spuds, as well as prizes for novelty-shaped spuds.  Hanmer Hammer Hardware donated all the seed potatoes.  And Hanmer Holiday Homes paid for all the buckets.”

But Tina and Jane and the team weren’t finished.  “We auctioned the spuds that were grown … we got up to $500 for 6kg!  We even auctioned the plastic buckets.  And believe it or not, we even auctioned the soil they were grown in!”

When it came time to sign the order with TigerTurf, they were still short $45,000.  “We’d had to get extensions from our grant providers,” says Tina.  “But we found ourselves also having to hit up the local Hurunui District Council.  They came to the party and gave us a $70,000 line of credit for 10 years (which the club’s now nearly paid back).”

However, the drama wasn’t over.

“When TigerTurf started the job in 2022,” explains Randall.  “It was all going well, and nearly finished.  Then a gale came up overnight, and blew the new carpet away before it had been glued.”

“It was a big setback,  But Ross Galloway was very good about it.  He fixed everything … and more.  We ended up with the old carpet on all the green surrounds.  And another sponsor tipped in $15,000 to get the whole lot fenced.”

The club officially opened in May last year, with Hurunui District Council Mayor Marie Black, Bowls New Zealand President Ann Wright, and Bowls Canterbury President Na Katae making up some of the glitterati.    .

“We’ve got 80 members now,” says Club Secretary Kaylene Haines, “And any advice we need about maintaining the artificial we get from the Greenkeeper at the golf course next door, Steve Hill.”

“As you can see, we’ve also sold a lot of sponsor signage around the fence … it’s $500 a year for a small sign, and $800 for a big sign.   Local businesses are happy to help … they want to see their twilight bowls venue stay open!”

With a permanent population of just over a thousand, that probably sums up the spirit of Hanmer Springs.

“The people of Hanmer have been wonderful in their support of the club.” observes Randall. “It confirms what we all know … when people are helping and supporting each other, the community is in fine heart.”

Richard Uitendaal and Tina Steele are grateful for the numerous sponsors of the club