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As many as 3000 people, mostly children, turned out to enjoy the early spring sunshine on September 21, with 20 tonnes of snow shovelled in to add a festive touch.
Hellen Wilkins, business association manager for Destination Ōrewa Beach, said that since the ground was too wet to accommodate the trucks ferrying the snow from Snowplanet, it had to offloaded onto the footpath and verge. Members of the Hibiscus Coast Cricket Club and others brought spades and a wheelbarrow and moved it to where it needed to be.
The task took hours, as increasingly impatient, excited children waited to be allowed to climb in. Then the fun began.
“The only complaints we received were re the colour of the snow,” said Hellen.
“I think they would be from folk who have never lived around snow – to know it is pretty and white when it’s first laid or when it sits on a mountain top, but quickly picks up airborne particles, road dust, fuel pollution, sand etc and so discolours very quickly.”
The event was funded through a partnership with Harcourts Cooper & Co Millwater & Silverdale, partnership funding from the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board and funds allocated in the Destination Ōrewa Beach annual budget, she said.
