Timaru Things to Do

Down in the park area, adjacent to the botanical gardens is the Timaru Aviary.

It is a small domed enclosure with many exotic birds. There may be some local New Zealand birds, but most are imported. There are parrots, wood birds, ducks, egrets, etc.

The fenced enclosure has some segregated cages to isolate some birds, yet many are free flying in the larger open area. All that is asked is required when you enter is that you only open one door at a time to prevent any escapees.

The cost is free to enter and only requires a few minutes of your time.

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This is Timaru’s biggest pride, located at the foot of the Timaru Piazza, just a stonethrow from the shores of Caroline Bay. From the Piazza on Bay Hill you have a great aerial view of the garden which has been architecturally designed by Sir Miles Warren, and has strictly geometrical shapes. It features nearly 1200 roses, arbors, a lych gate, gazebo, a central pergola, a pool, and a fountain. You find a representative plant from every main rose family in the world. The old Roses are planted in a sequence of colours: soft, mid and deep pink, burgundy, crimson, cream, white, peach, apricot, yellow, golden yellow.

The name-sake Trevor Griffiths was a renowned South Canterbury rosarian and author whose collection of genuine old roses once was the third largest in the world. It comprised about 600 roses. Another 600 modern roses from English breeder David Austin were added to the garden which was opened on 10 December 2001.

Trevor Griffiths, born in 1928, was already fascinated by roses as a young boy. From the age of eight years when his mother took him to a florist shop he spent more than 50 years creating his fantastic collection of old roses in his nursery near the neighbouring township of Temuka. He wrote several books about roses. The National Rose Society of New Zealand says without Trevor Griffiths many old roses would be extinct. David Austin honoured him by naming a dusky pink bloom after him.

Free entry.

Update 2 March 2010

Trevor Griffiths died last week, aged 82. (In our paper they wrote he was 83 - but I wonder how this should be if he was born in 1928.)

Photo 2 gives an unobstructed aerial view of the Rose Garden.

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The Old Customs House is quite a spectacular building, some steps from the main road where you would not necessarily walk to. Its Corinthian style architecture and its striking white colour with light blue pillars and columns make it a standout landmark.

From the Visitor Centre (i-site) in the former Landing Service Building you would just walk down Station Street, along the railway line, and would soon spot it on the left side of the street, at the corner with Strahallan Street.

It was built in 1902, and today is used as a restaurant (Steak @ Customs House).

It is quite a fine dining restaurant.

Contact details of Steak @ Customs House:

2 Strathallan Street, Timaru 7910
Ph +64 3 684 5528
Fax +64 3 688 7103
Email steak@customshouse.co.nz
Website: http://www.customshouse.co.nz/

Photo 2 shows the front of the building and the entrance of the restaurant.

On 25 and 26 November 2009 Timaru celebrated a Phar Lap Festival, honouring New Zealand’s (and Australia’s) most famous racehorse ever. The highlight was the unveiling of a life-sized bronze statue at Phar Lap Raceway north of the township.

The statue was created by Auckland based sculptor Joanne Sullivan-Gessler.

The life-sized bronze sculpture shows the horse in full gallop, ridden by jockey Jim Pike and demonstrating his famous 22-foot gallop stride. The horse gallops over a map of New Zealand with his front hoof placed squarely over Timaru, reminding the world once and forever that he was born and bred in South Canterbury (in 1926). The base of the statue is a water fountain which – so the words of the sculptor – brings the statue to life with the sound of water designed to emulate galloping hoof beats.

Phar Lap was considered a wonder horse that dominated Australia’s racing scene in the late 1920’s/early 1930’s with 36 wins from his last 41 starts. After winning North America’s richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap in 1932, he died under suspicious circumstances just two weeks later.

A white statue of Phar Lap has been standing at the corner of the property where he was born for many years. This memorial is 5 km from SH 1. You find Phar Lap’s full story in my tip about the white sculpture in the rural suburb of Seadown I had written earlier. Lately I have posted a story about the road that leads to/from this more or less hidden memorial – it is a brilliant example of hilarious Kiwi humour.

As usual, we found the Information centre before heading out and having a look at Timaru.
The Tourist Information Centre is the restored stone Service Landing Building, which has a small maritime museum inside. The staff helped us out, sold us some souvenirs, and then we had a look at the beautifully done sculpture of Captain Henry Cain, an important figure in local history who settled in Timaru in 1857.

There is quite a story to this man. He went to sea at the very young age of 13, became a wealthy trader with interests and property in California and Melbourne. In 1851, he arrived in New Zealand aboard the schooner Pauline, which he owned, and settled in Timaru in 1857, opening the first landing service in1859. He owned stores in Cain's Terrace, became the Town Mayor and harbour pilot.
In 1886 he was murdered by poison and was buried in the Timaru Cemetery.
Quite a life!

Cain's son-in-law Thomas Hall was convicted of Cain’s murder by poisoning in 1887, and also of the attempted murder of his wife, Cain’s daughter Kate. At the time of his conviction the judge described Hall as being "The vilest criminal every tried in New Zealand".

I love gardening, and I love my Roses, and here at Timaru, there is the beautiful Trevor Griffiths Rose Garden on Caroline Bay.
Located by Timaru Piazza, this Rose garden has 1,200 roses set out in a well designed garden. The gardens are said to have a representative plant from every main rose family in the world!
A big walkway of many steps leads down to this garden, which has pools and fountains, and Rose Arbours, they seem to grow so well here!
Timaru has had a long history with the rose with its temperate climate, soil conditions and sheltered aspect making it the perfect environment for growing the Roses. The Timaru Botanic Gardens also house a large rose collection, and anywhere in Timaru, they seem to be found.
You do not have to walk the steps, you can drive your car down to the bottom to where the rose garden is located.

In November of each year, the Rose Festival is held.

I felt a bit like in Little Christchurch when walking through Timaru’s Botanic Gardens. Little Christchurch, because so many features reminded me of the Gardens of the big city, the nice lawns to stroll around, duck ponds, a beautiful rose garden, large mature trees, a herb and native garden. And still, Timaru’s Botanical Gardens are different, and unique, despite being much smaller than the Gardens in Christchurch.

A very nice feature is the hilly area where it is located at the southern end of Timaru on SH 1. If you enter from the southern end at the corner of SH 1 (Craigie Ave), King Street and Domain Avenue, and walk just some steps through a formal garden with a simple reddish stone monument (dedicated to the former Governor W.F.D. Jervois), you get a fantastic view of the Southern Alps. This was the more spectacular on my last visit when the mountains were snow-capped and looked incredibly close. (Well, they are very close!)

Just some steps away you find an aviary which features exotic birds rather than natives, budgies, canaries, and quite a lot of Aussie parrots, parakeets and cockatoos, including a sulphur-crested cockatoo who talked to me. (And I talked back, of course ;-)

The Anderson Rose Garden (named after the former Curator of Reserves, Walter Anderson) has a geometrical design. It is circular, the rose beds also circular, and enclosed by low buxus hedges, and circular paths between the enclosed rose beds. So it looks a bit like a maize – just you do not get lost in it, and all circles are regular, some paths cutting through the circle lines, radiating from the centre to the outer buxus border. So you can walk around in circles and admire the roses, some of which were still blooming after the first winter storms.

In the centre of the Rose Garden you find a fountain which looks like a small and less colourful copy of Christchurch’s Peacock Fountain (which there you find near the main entrance of the Gardens, beside Canterbury Museum).

Walk out of the Rose Garden, you get into a tiny kind of secret garden, very lovely, and right next to that a statue of the Scottish poet Robert Burns who is even honoured here in South Canterbury. You find a bigger and more prominent Burns statue at the Octagon in Dunedin, the centre of Scottish heritage in New Zealand.

Adjacent to the other side of the Rose Garden is the Graeme Paterson Conservatory and Fernery. Just some steps from there, along Queen Street, is Timaru’s Cenotaph War Memorial and a War Memorial Wall which lists all the fallen from the wars. Queen Street would lead straight to Timaru’s Hospital which sits at the north-east corner of the Botanic Gardens.

I walked along a path past the beautiful Education Centre. It is a small hexagonal heritage building which looks rather romantic under the high trees.

Then I just crossed the lawns to the native plants and trees, and down to the two Duck Ponds. Do not forget to take some bread if you want to feed them. You can cross the Lower Duck Pond on a small Japanese-inspired wooden bridge, reflected in the still waters of the pond, as well as a band rotunda.

I especially liked the many signs on and under the trees, giving me the opportunity to finally identify a Mediterranean tree named Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo) which you find quite a lot in New Zealand. If you see their fruit you understand their name.

Further featured areas in the Gardens are azaleas, rhododendrons, a species rose garden, the so-called Queen Victoria Sunken Garden, a bowling green, and a small children’s playground. You can walk on several named trails.

Entry free.



Limited opening hours of the conservatory and the Education Centre.

Graeme Paterson Conservatory and Fernery:

Open Monday – Friday, 10am - 4pm

Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 2pm - 4pm

Botanic Gardens Education Centre

Open Wednesday and Sunday 2pm - 4pm

The main entrance is on Queen Street. This is accessible by car.
There is also an entrance on Domain Avenue, but there is no vehicular access. But there is plenty of parking space along the very wide Domain Avenue.
However, you do not have to bother about entrances, as you can walk into the Gardens from just everywhere.

Directions:

If you come to Timaru from the south, just take a right turn towards the city centre (sign-posted), instead of keeping left on SH 1.

If you come from the north, stay on SH 1. Near the end of the township you see the Gardens to your left.

From the town centre of Timaru it is quite a long way to the Gardens, if you consider walking. From Bay Hill (Piazza) it easily takes you half an hour. The distance is about 2.5 kilometres.



More information at the i-site in George Street (Landing Building), phone (03) 688 6163. Nice map and info text on the South Island website, see below.

See travelogues for more photos of the Botanic Gardens.

This rather new scultpure stands in a small grassy patch at the corner of Stafford Street & The Terrace/Port Loop Road, just off the Piazza.

It was unveiled on 26 November 2008.

The artist was Debbie Templeton Page, a Tasmanian-born artist who has been living in Timaru for quite some years now. She works from her studio in York Street.

The sculpture was donated to the City of Timaru by a law firm, in celebration of the 125th anniversary of Raymond Sullivan McGlashan (RSMLaw) that was established in 1883.