The main appeal of Timaru for us was the possibility of catching up with our best man, Bob Woods, but first we had to find him! That turned out to be surprisingly easy. We called in to the National Party Office because we seemed to remember that Bob’s wife had worked there (it turned out that it was actually the Labour Party). From there we were pointed in the direction of Viv’s new workplace along with the worried question “you are not going to make trouble are you?” We gave our assurances that we were really nice people and then called in to see Vivienne. She was in a meeting but excitedly called us back a little later and we were scheduled in for a dinner date with her and Bob.
In the meantime we made our way to their dog park to give the boys some exercise. The park also had an agility course so Bruce enjoyed teaching Oscar to climb up ramps. We followed that with a little exploration of Patiti Point with its views along the coast and over the port. We could see a lighthouse in the distance and decided to take a look at that tomorrow.
We did a little shopping for some gifts to take with us to dinner and we headed off to meet up with Bob for the first time in about 15 years. He hasn’t changed a lot and seems to have found a nice life in Timaru, with lots of friends. Vivienne is a delight and they make a good pair.
We were surprised to learn that they had been trying to find us as well with an invitation to Bob’s 70th birthday in December of this year – in Rarotonga.
That is something we will have to consider.
We parked on the street overnight and were woken up bright and early by the rubbish trucks. Never mind – it is now Bruce’s birthday so I got up and made him scrambled eggs with ciabatta toast for breakfast. After a coffee with Bob, we meandered around Timaru having a look at the place.
Timaru is quite a big place with all the shops you could want, but we were struck by several things:
- There seems to be a lack of people in the city
- There are some really grand old houses but most of them need a lot of love
- There are a lot of grand churches
- The prices seem pretty reasonable.
Caroline Bay is reputed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world so we had to go and have a look. We were completely underwhelmed. The facilities around the bay were great such as the children’s playground etc. but the beach itself did not appear to us as nice as a lot of beaches on the Coromandel.
Apparently the penguins come up the beach to their nests at night and we hope to see that in Oamaru. You are not allowed to take pictures though.
The temperature has suddenly changed down here and today we had the first wet day of our trip. It had rained all night. I had to buy a few warmer clothes as I was taken by surprise at the cool change. We also managed to get a new wheel for my bike from the “Cyclery”. They were super helpful and super efficient. We highly recommend them.
Having accomplished all we set out to do, we headed out of town towards Oamaru. The plan had been for Bruce to have a special birthday dinner at Fleur’s Place in Moeraki. We are not going to make it tonight, but plan to be there tomorrow night.
Away From Home NZ 