Think it’s cold? Spare a thought for chilly Ophir
A roaring fire and some doubleglazing are the best ways to keep warm in the dead of winter. Just ask the couple who live in New Zealand’s coldest town.
Sheep farmers Sam and Irene Leask are among the Kiwis who remember July 3, 1995, when temperatures in Central Otago, around Ophir, Tara Hills and Lauder, hit minus 21.6 degrees Celsius, the lowest in living memory.
‘‘It’s hard to believe how cold it can actually get. We were in 18 inches of snow, everything underneath was frozen solid,’’ Sam said. ‘‘You had to be careful not to get your hands wet because you’d stick to door handles and almost rip your skin. We got the washing off the line with a hairdryer.’’
Sam’s family has been farming in Ophir since 1863 and the honorary weatherman notes down the readings for Niwa each morning.
‘‘This morning’s was -2.9C. We’ve got a wind coming through tonight, so we’ll probably get down to -5C, which is quite mild.’’
Wellingtonians in the midst of the current storm might disagree, but should be warmed by the knowledge that they only have their commuter latte to rescue from the elements, rather than a flock of sheep.
‘‘The diesel in the tractor has frozen solid, so we were sitting at -17C trying to thaw it out and using more kerosene to work than we probably should have,’’ Sam said.
On the farm, the sheep were stuck frozen to the snow. Pulling them out meant the landscape was dotted with rings of wool when the ice finally thawed.
The little town of Ophir, named after the Bible story location where King Solomon got his gold, is tucked away in a valley near Alexandra, with a population of about 50. It has the longest-running postal service in the nation. In winter, the Leasks run their fire ‘‘24/7’’. ‘‘You gotta stoke it in the middle of the night, it is never stopped. You get up at three or four in the morning or else the pipes freeze. As we get older we wake up anyway, you get used to it,’’ said 71-year-old Sam.The heat pump (installed in 2009) in the ‘‘new end’’ of their 1920s farmhouse is ‘‘easier’’, said 63-year-old Irene, ‘‘but you can’t beat the fire as far as I’m concerned’’.
The wood burner takes a bit of coal at night and Irene is still using last year’s firewood supply.
Their monthly power bill tallies up to $500 in winter.
‘‘We’ve tried to insulate the old house but nothing squares up,’’ said Irene. ‘‘We have draughts under the kitchen floors and bedroom floors, it’s literally pouring money into cracks. In hindsight, it would’ve been cheaper to bowl the whole house and start again,’’ she joked.
Irene often scrapes a thin film of ice off the inside of the windows and said she has to keep a careful eye on the laundry: ‘‘If you had stuff on the line it’d just about break in half.’’
So, what is their secret to staying warm? Both said: ‘‘You’ve just got to keep yourself moving.’’
‘‘Although it hits you a bit different when you’re older, and you don’t want to do as much,’’ added Irene.