New Zealand's curlers will be aiming to secure qualification for next year's world championships at the Pacific-Asia curling championships which get underway this weekend.
Both the New Zealand men and women teams need a top-two finish at the event to qualify for their respective 2012 world championships.
Ten teams from around the Asia-Pacific region will contest the event at the Olympic Sports Center in Nanjing, China on Saturday, with the finals being staged a week later.
New Zealand under-21 skip Chelsea Farley will skip the New Zealand women for the first time, while the men will be skipped by Peter de Boer, also new to the national team.
They will want to improve on their fourth placings at the 2010 Pacific championships in South Korea, particularly the men, who lost all three semi-final games to the hosts after an extra end.