Jack Frost is freezing the skating pond at St Arnaud and this winter there will be seating and metal bars to help children venture onto the ice after the community raised $7,700.
Anna King has a long history with the frozen pond by the Teetotal campsite and has seen plenty of children sitting on the edge to put on their skates before edging gingerly onto the ice. She decided seating would make it easier for youngsters and the adults watching, along with bars for children to hold until they found their balance.
She worked with the Department of Conservation to see how it could be done and when she approached the local community about fundraising, it responded enthusiastically with donations as well as their time.
“A lot of the people who donated have historic connections to the pond and the ice skating. People had really great memories, so that was really neat,” she says. “It’s such a fun and unique thing for the little village. The kids just love it.”
As a child, her family travelled down from the North Island each year for holidays at the family bach, and when the pond froze, they skated. Her treasured memories are recorded in a primary school journal she has kept, containing stories and a photo of her skating in a bright yellow parka.
Thirty years ago she moved to the village and her son has since grown up skating on the pond each winter, adding another generation of family memories.
“People would be keeping an eye on the pond and as soon as it froze, the school would pull the kids out and off they would go,” she says. “There’s been days with music playing and we’ve tried to make up our own ice hockey games with weird sticks and whatever we could find. When my springer spaniel was a certain age, we tied a rope to her and she pulled a couple of kids around like she was a husky.
“There’s been a lot of fun and it seems to get adults and kids all involved really fantastically.”
A frozen pond depends on a run of cold, frosty nights and Anna says that often occurs through June and July, while cloud and rain thaw it again. Fingers were crossed the pond would freeze for skaters this week.
She says the ability to hire skates through Ski Sisters on Facebook makes it easier for children to get out on the ice.
