Scorchio

Sunday 26th April: Today was 'scorchio', well for late April. In our back garden it was 22 degrees at lunchtime, but it was nearer 27 degrees in Timaru where we went for the afternoon. Timaru is 47kms north from Waimate up the SH1, passing very little on the way. Timaru is a town of about 26000 people. Early in the days of English settlers arriving in this area, ships started to come directly to Timaru rather than Christchurch. The first, the Strathallan, arrived in January 1859. Our neighbour Jeanette's great-grandfather from Oxfordshire was on board. Timaru knew the ship was on its way (it took over 3 months to get here) but they didn't get the accommodation ready in time. The drainage trenches weren't dug and the tents hadn't been put up. Timaru only had five houses at the time so all these passengers must have been a big drain on the resources. The weather was so foul it was anchored off shore for 3 days before the passengers could land. Some of the passengers decided they wouldn't stay at Timaru and so stayed aboard for another 4 days to Christchurch.
The east coast of NZ is mostly rocky shoreline, but there are some nice sandy beaches. Caroline Bay in Timaru is one. There's an enormous public park immediately behind the beach, with free parking, a large children's playground, paddling pool, mini golf, train rides, aviary, rose garden etc, all very well maintained. Today there was also a rod and custom car club gathering there so we had lots to see and do in the couple of hours we were there. There was a strong nor'wester blowing, hence the high temperatures.
After tea we had "movie night " - tonight we enjoyed 'Racing Stripes' together.
The photos are looking down on Caroline Bay from the fountain at the top of the high street of shops; the sandy beach north; the sandy beach south with the container ships docking and unloading; Steve and a car he dreams of; and a car the boys would like with flames down the side.