The first luge track in the southern hemisphere has its peak season during the winter months in New Zealand which are coming to an end now with the weather starting to warm up again. The third out of a series of three Naseby Cups will be held next week and the New Zealand Winter Games are scheduled for end of August. National Championships have been held already.

To make this all possible the New Zealand organizers brought in Greg Jones (CAN) who has experience as a racer in the FIL World Cup as well as from preparing the track for the 2007 World Championships in Grande Prairie in Canada. “When I arrived in Naseby the track was not even ready to be made”, Greg Jones reports, “I had to fill it with gravel overtop the pipes, finish setting up the cooling system which took 20 days to complete. I then had to wait for a good frost in order to make snow which took four nights as the days were too warm. The time spent on making snow was 62 hours.”

As soon as the track which is 360 meters long with a total altitude drop of 22 meters and has eight main corners and two slight bends was ready it enjoyed great popularity. “These days I am working anywhere from 6 to 14 hours a day on track maintenance, training the public and preparing the sleds for the public. I have put about 700 people down the track and I have trained several people to instruct when I leave”, says Greg Jones. And further, to ensure that this is not going to be a one-time-event: “I have been scouting out possible candidates for joining the FIL team and I have several kids that I look forward to seeing what they can do in the future.”