Pub Crawl At Blackball.
What does the term “pub-crawl” mean to you? To most people it conjures up pictures of a group of revellers calling at a series of pubs and having a drink in each, often after a sports match or in the capping festivities at a University. While sober they walk from one drinking hole to the next.
In Blackball on the West Coast once a year the term ‘crawl’ is taken literally and people actually crawl on their hands and knees in teams of three from the Club Hotel to Formerly the Blackball Hilton, then on to the Blackball Workingmens Club and back to the Club. The first two stints are on sealed road which the co-organiser Jane Wells describes as incredibly hard work. The third section is across a muddy paddock, and with the West Coast’s usual rainfall a muddy paddock can be extremely sloshy and provides a tough assignment for the crawlers.
All this is part of the Blackballzup – a festival which includes all sorts of crazy games for grown-ups and children and races and a champagne breakfast. Coal miners will be returning to this former coal mining town to take part in a coal-shovelling contest. The record for individual shovelling is shifting half a tonne in 39.8 seconds.
The organisation of this festival of fun in the middle of winter is typical of the resilient people of Blackball. When the mine was closed the town did not die and welcomes visitors with true Coast hospitality. Sixty people are expected to take part in the pub-crawl and some are coming from as far away as Nelson and Christchurch.
Dorothy.