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Dave's tennis club
Soon after we arrived in Dunedin, Dave began exploring venues to play tennis. He discovered that Dunedin has several tennis clubs, and he began visiting the clubs, and playing with them, to decide where to join. He settled on a club called Cosy Dell, a ten to fifteen minute bike ride from our house (about halfway between our rental house and the house we live in now). The club has four courts and a small clubhouse. Dave plays there in tournaments and informal games with other members. Almost all play is doubles, both mixed doubles and men's or women's doubles. After the games, people gather in the clubhouse for tea or beer and talk for a while. The first photo shows the clubhouse a couple weeks ago.
The next three photos were taken only about two weeks earlier than the one above, but the courts were greener because they had just been refurbished. They are made of sand covered by a kind of astroturf that dries very quickly. So when it rains, people just go in the clubhouse and wait for the rain to stop. They play on the courts right after the rain stops, using special balls that can survive being wet.
The man on the right in the photo below is Dave's closest friend at the club. He's a couple years older than Dave, incredibly fit, and a vicious competitor and excellent tennis player. Many of the people in the club are in their seventies or eighties and are very fit.
The finances of the club are very interesting to me, a sort of public-private blend that I've never seen before. The Dunedin City Council owns the land. Major expenses are handled through grants, which don't seem to be that hard to come by. Members pay $100 per year (US$80), which I would guess only covers only basic maintenance. The recent refurbishing of three of the courts, and the building of the fourth, was all paid for by grants. It appears that commitment to sports and support of sports is a significant New Zealand value. In our neighborhood there are similar clubs for lawn bowling, archery, and rugby. I talked with someone who is in a lawn bowling club, and he said his club words the same way, in his case with a membership fee of $125, small fees for tournaments, and a lot of support coming from elsewhere.
The next three photos were taken only about two weeks earlier than the one above, but the courts were greener because they had just been refurbished. They are made of sand covered by a kind of astroturf that dries very quickly. So when it rains, people just go in the clubhouse and wait for the rain to stop. They play on the courts right after the rain stops, using special balls that can survive being wet. 
The man on the right in the photo below is Dave's closest friend at the club. He's a couple years older than Dave, incredibly fit, and a vicious competitor and excellent tennis player. Many of the people in the club are in their seventies or eighties and are very fit.
The finances of the club are very interesting to me, a sort of public-private blend that I've never seen before. The Dunedin City Council owns the land. Major expenses are handled through grants, which don't seem to be that hard to come by. Members pay $100 per year (US$80), which I would guess only covers only basic maintenance. The recent refurbishing of three of the courts, and the building of the fourth, was all paid for by grants. It appears that commitment to sports and support of sports is a significant New Zealand value. In our neighborhood there are similar clubs for lawn bowling, archery, and rugby. I talked with someone who is in a lawn bowling club, and he said his club words the same way, in his case with a membership fee of $125, small fees for tournaments, and a lot of support coming from elsewhere.
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